Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, Vol 12(2), Jun 2025, 151-168; doi:10.1037/cns0000359
The study explored relationships between fantasy proneness, dissociation, mindfulness, and anomalous sleep experiences in a sample (N = 306) of comic book convention attendees. Women (N = 60) reported significantly higher fantasy proneness, measured by the Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings, compared to men (N = 246). Fantasizers (N = 35) reported lower mindfulness, measured by the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and higher dissociation, measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale, compared to both medium (N = 33) and low (N = 36) fantasy prone groups. Fantasizers reported a higher frequency of anomalous sleep experiences, measured by the Iowa Sleep Experiences Survey (ISES), compared to the low group. Fantasy proneness was not correlated to mindfulness when controlling for shared variance with dissociation and absorption. A high fantasy proneness high mindfulness group reported approximately half the percentage of dissociative experiences compared to a high fantasy proneness low mindfulness group. Dissociation strongly correlated with fantasy proneness (r = .55) and inversely with mindfulness (r = −.55). Fantasy proneness and mindfulness combined accounted for 44% of variance in dissociation. When shared variance was removed, both variables contributed equivalent unique variance. Fantasy proneness, dissociation, and mindfulness combined accounted for 46% of variance in general sleep experiences and 9% of variance in lucid dreaming. When shared variance was removed, fantasy proneness was the strongest predictor of anomalous sleep experiences. Regressions on each ISES item found that fantasy proneness was the strongest contributor of unique variance for most items, followed by dissociation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)