Doing Research Projects on Dream Content

It is very difficult to do experimental studies relating to dream content and the

meaning of dreams for a variety of reasons, all of which are in complete contrast
with what is possible in the waking state. It is not possible to make dreams
happen, and it is very difficult to influence them with presleep or concurrent
stimuli, so there is no independent variable to manipulate. What past experimental
studies show most of all is that the results are trivial and that experiments are
hard to do (Arkin & Antrobus, 1991; Foulkes, 1996).

In addition, and rather obviously, you can't watch dreams while they are happening,
and the dreamer can't report them while they are happening, so there is no way to
have any objective evidence concerning the dependent variable (i.e., the dream).
(The study of sleep, we should add, is a completely different story; experimental
studies are the method of choice in sleep research.)