Professor Brad Bushman recently co-authored a study on the effect violent and sexual media on dreams.

The study found individuals who reported consuming violent media within 90 minutes of bedtime were 13 times more likely to have a violent dream. Similarly, those viewing sexual media were six times more likely to have a sex-related dream. 

The study of more than 1,000 Turkish residents also found that the more violent media content they reported consuming on a regular basis, the more often they said they had violent dreams. The same link was found between sexual media content and sexual dreams, but the connection was not as strong. 

"We knew our violent and sexual media consumption had an impact on our waking lives," Bushman said. "Now we have evidence of how it may influence our dreams."

The study also aimed to examine how overall media use was linked to dream content. Participants were asked the number of hours they spent consuming media on any devices on weekdays and weekends. They were then asked whether they dreamed and whether their dreams included violent content and sexual content. Overall, 67 percent said they dreamed at least sometimes. 

More than 80 percent of participants said they were exposed to violent media content at least sometimes, whereas about half said they were exposed to sexual media content at least sometimes. Similarly, about 80 percent of those surveyed said they had violent dreams sometimes and slightly less than half said they had sexual dreams sometimes. 

The researchers found that overall media use was a significant predictor of more frequent dreaming, as well as the frequency of exposure to violent media. 

Bushman conducted this study with Jan Van den Bulck of the University of Michigan, as well as Yakup Çetin of Faith University and Ömer Terzi of Yildiz Technical University, both in Turkey. The study is published online in the journal Dreaming.