Research has defined the various adaptive, compensatory and complementary functions of dreams. To investigate the evidence of adaptive functioning in the dream state, 30 medical students (21 males, 9 females) from St. George's University, Grenada, completed personal surveys, a waking psychological profile, and a dreaming psychological profile using the Adjective Check List (ACL), which identifies needs according to 15 scales. Subjects were instructed in dream retention techniques and subsequently completed an ACL for each dream recorded weekly during a 3-month period. An analysis of the results showed no significant correlations between the subjects' self-waking psychological profiles and the subjects' dreaming profiles on 15 adjective need scales. Nor were significant correlations found between the profiles generated by the subjects' significant others and the subjects' dreaming or waking profiles on 15 need scales created from the ACL. However, significant intercorrelations were found in the dream profiles between dominance/endurance; nurturance/heterosexuality; achievement/change; exhibition/change; endurance/abasement; and nurturance/deference. (An extensive bibliography and data tables presenting the research are included. The appendices also contain the registration and personal history form, the dream survey and the recall manual, the computer program, and the dream profiles.) (BL)