The words of our inner worlds: emotional language use in mind-wandering and dream reports reflects mental ill-being

Abstract

Do the words we use reveal how we feel? While much research has explored language use in social media, little is known about how the content of spontaneous thoughts and experiences, such as daytime mind-wandering and nighttime dreaming, reflects well-being, and ill-being. We analyzed 1 496 mind-wandering reports (N = 152) and 1781 dream reports (N = 172) using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. Participants also self-reported their well-being and ill-being. Linear mixed-effects models showed that ill-being (negative affect, anxiety, and depression symptoms) was associated with the use of negative tone and negative emotion words (including anxiety, anger, sadness words) in mind-wandering reports. Ill-being (specifically, negative affect) was also associated with greater use of anxiety words in dream reports. Well-being (eudaimonic well-being and peace of mind) was associated with the use of positive tone words in mind-wandering reports, but this association was not robust in sensitivity analyses. These findings indicate that the way people describe their feelings in reports of different conscious states reflects aspects of their mental health and may contribute to future diagnostic tools in psychology and psychiatry.