Abstract
Sleep significantly changes across the lifespan, and several studies underline its crucial role in cognitive functioning. Similarly, mental activity during sleep tends to covary with age. This review aims to analyze the characteristics of dreaming and disturbing dreams at different age brackets. On the one hand, dreams may be considered an expression of brain maturation and cognitive development, showing relations with memory and visuo-spatial abilities. Some investigations reveal that specific electrophysiological patterns, such as frontal theta oscillations, underlie dreams during sleep, as well as episodic memories in the waking state, both in young and older adults. On the other hand, considering the role of dreaming in emotional processing and regulation, the available literature suggests that mental sleep activity could have a beneficial role when stressful events occur at different age ranges. We highlight that nightmares and bad dreams might represent an attempt to cope the adverse events, and the degrees of cognitive-brain maturation could impact on these mechanisms across the lifespan. Future investigations are necessary to clarify these relations. Clinical protocols could be designed to improve cognitive functioning and emotional regulation by modifying the dream contents or the ability to recall/non-recall them.
Highlights
In the last decade, studies on mental sleep activity have shown remarkable advances
We have summarized the available literature concerning changes in sleep and dream experiences across the lifespan and the relation between the oneiric activity and stressful or traumatic events, focusing on nightmares and disturbing dreams (PTSD-related)
Findings converge in showing that dream features mirror the cognitive functioning of subjects across the lifespan [74,78,80]
Summary
Studies on mental sleep activity have shown remarkable advances. Dream experience has been considered an expression of consciousness during sleep [1], the detection of the specific instant in which mental activity is produced could be challenging. Subjects with high dream recall frequency showed greater regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) than low recallers in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) during REM sleep, stage 3 NREM sleep, and wakefulness, and in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during REM sleep [19] Both TPJ and mPFC have a crucial role in emotional and cognitive processing during wakefulness (for a review, see [20]). Findings addressing how these mechanisms change across the lifespan are still lacking Another issue concerns the role of dreaming in specific disorder, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and idiopathic nightmares, where dreams are abundant and contents are frequently emotional and/or bizarre (for a review, see [11]). We considered the following age ranges: (a) children and early adolescence (29 months to 16 years); (b) young adults (18–47 years, but individuals up to 60 years were part of the clinical sample in some studies (e.g., [21]); (c) older adults (50–94 years)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
