Deja Experience by Dreams

Some individuals report that their deja vu experiences appear to duplicate a prior dream, and it is possible that dreams provide the fragmentary memories later duplicated during the deja vu (cf. Baldwin, 1889).

When Zuger (1966) asked his respondents whether they (a) experienced deja vu and (b) remembered their dreams, a striking relationship emerged: All 10 respondents who reported no dream memory also reported no deja vu experiences, and all 36 respondents who reported deja vu also reported remembering their dreams (9 reported dream recall but no deja vu). Thus, there appears to be a strong relationship between remembering dreams and experiencing deja vu. Palmer (1979) discovered a significant correlation between deja vu and dream frequency among older adults but not among college students.

However, the lack of correlation among students may be due to restriction of range because the college group reported a high number of both experiences. Hence, although Zuger speculated that the déjà vu experience is actually a dream state intruding into waking consciousness, it is also likely that dream memory fragments may trigger a deja vu when similar situations are reencountered while awake.