Dream Formation Research Articles

The ability to self-tickle following Rapid Eye Movement sleep dreaming

Self-produced tactile stimulation usually feels less tickly—is perceptually attenuated—relative to the same stimulation produced externally. This is not true, however, for individuals with schizophrenia. Here, we investigate whether the lack of attenuation to self-produced stimuli seen in schizophrenia also occurs for normal participants following REM dreams. Fourteen participants were stimulated on their left palm with a tactile stimulation device which allowed the same stimulus to be generated by the participant or by the experimenter. The level of self-tickling attenuation did not differ between REM and non-REM sleep awakening conditions, where presence or absence of an accompanying dream was not controlled for. However, for the female participants, when awakening occurred from an REM sleep dream, self-stimulation ratings were higher than for external stimulation, whereas ratings after NREM sleep unaccompanied by a dream were lower for self-stimulation than for external stimulation. These results indicate deficits in self-monitoring and a confusion between self- and externally generated stimulation accompany REM dream formation.

The fate of the dream in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Freud's metapsychology of dream formation has implicitly been discarded, as indicated in a brief review of trends in psychoanalytic thinking about dreams, with a focus on the relationship of the dream process to ego capacities. The current bias toward exclusive emphasis on the exploration of the analytic relationship and the transference has evolved at the expense of classical, in-depth dream interpretation, and, by extension, at the expense of strengthening the patient's capacity for self-inquiry. This trend is shown to be especially evident in the treatment of borderline patients, who today are believed by many analysts to misuse the dream in the analytic situation. An extended clinical example of a borderline patient with whom an unmodified Freudian associative technique of dream interpretation is used with good outcome illustrates the author's contrary conviction. In clinical practice, we should neglect neither the uniqueness of the dream as a central intrapsychic event nor the Freudian art of total dream analysis.

Sleep, learning, and dreams: off-line memory reprocessing.

Converging evidence and new research methodologies from across the neurosciences permit the neuroscientific study of the role of sleep in off-line memory reprocessing, as well as the nature and function of dreaming. Evidence supports a role for sleep in the consolidation of an array of learning and memory tasks. In addition, new methodologies allow the experimental manipulation of dream content at sleep onset, permitting an objective and scientific study of this dream formation and a renewed search for the possible functions of dreaming and the biological processes subserving it.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Facilitates Attentional Orienting

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is a controversial treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder that requires clients to make rapid eye movements while revisualizing a traumatic event. Although seemingly effective, the process by which EMDR exerts its effects is poorly understood. We propose that EMDR's eye movements facilitate the orienting response, i.e., the attentional adjustment to unexpected stimuli. Since the orienting response has been implicated in spontaneous transformations of dream content during REM sleep, we reasoned that, similarly, activation of the orienting response during EMDR may facilitate content transformations in traumatic memories. To examine this hypothesis, 25 undergraduates completed 20 seconds of eye movements or 20 seconds of visual fixation before each of two tasks: 1) a covert visual attention task, in which a cue indicated the likely position of a subsequent target, and 2) a sentence rating task, in which sentences with either metaphoric or non-metaphoric endings were rated for strikingness. Repeated measures ANOVAs indicated that the eye movement manipulation facilitated attentional adjustments to targets presented in invalidly cued locations and increased the extent to which metaphoric sentence endings were found striking. Together these results suggest that the eye movements in EMDR induce attentional and semantic flexibility, thereby facilitating transformations in the client's narrative representation of the traumatic event. The implications of these findings for theories of dream formation and metaphor comprehension are also considered.

Verbal aspects of dreaming: A preliminary classification.

Despite the fact that a handful of modern dream researchers have called attention to a link between language and dreaming, beginning with Freud (1900) and Kraepelin (1906), and continuing to the present (e.g. Heynick 1993), much remains to be understood about the role of language in dreaming. Certain commonly reported phenomena may be taken as evidence that the linguistic system is active during dreaming. Four categories of dream phenomena are described and illustrated to support the claim that verbal thought is an important component of dream formation and content.

Dreaming "My Death"

Dreaming "My Death"

Dream content of patients with sleep apnea

Previous research has shown that external stimuli were often incorporated into the dream to some extend. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the internal stimulus sleep apnea is also incorporated into dreams. Findings showed, however, that direct incorporation occurs very seldom. On the other hand, arousals accompanying sleep apneas seem to interfere with dream formation since a marked reduction of dream bizarreness is related to high RDI (respiratory disturbance index). Additionally, small indirect effects on dream content by day-time stressors such as cognitive deficits and sleepiness are suggested by the data. A heightened dream recall frequency in patients with sleep apnea was found. Future dream research should focus on studies including sophisticated EEG analysis methods and detailed measures of day-time symptoms present in patients with sleep apnea.

The Organizing Functions of Dream Mentation

HEN FREUD VIEWED DREAMS a.s royal road to the unconsciou.s, he inestimably prized dreams as the primary avenue to the unconscious. He envisioned the unconscious to be a wellspring of instinctual energies pressing for discharge and a container of fantasies and memories banned from consciousness. The dynamic unconscious provided an explanation for the pervasive irrationality in human beings and was considered by Freud to be one of the three great scientific dis­ coveries (the others by Copernicus and Darwin) that dethroned human beings from their exalted status. It has been clo.se to a century since Freud published his monumental work on dreams, a work about which Freud stated, Insight such as this falls to one 's lot but once in a lifetime Oones, 1953, p. 350). Remarka­ bly, the classical model of dream formation and interpretation has re­ mained relatively unchanged (Curtis & Sachs, 1976). The further applica­ tion of the .structural model (Freud, 1923; Arlow & Brenner, 1964) has emphasized the participation of all three psychic agencies, that is, the id, ego, and superego, in dream formation; yet, the primary impetus for the dream remains the wish that represents an instinctual drive, infantile in origin and seeking gratification throughout one's life (Altman, 1969). Ad­ ditional distinguishing features of the classical model are that defenses (or disguises) are ubiquitous in the formation of dreams, resuking in a manifest-latent content distinction, and that dreams are intrinsically re­ gressed products (Adow & Brenner, 1964; Blanck & Blanck, 1974), that is, they involve primitive modes of functioning and exclude, by and

Dreams: their function in health and illness.

Despite centuries of published theory and research, general agreement on the nature and function of dreaming continues to elude the scientific community. As theory and evidence accumulate and collide, the recounting and analysis of dreams continue as powerful clinical tools for healing self and patients. The article reviews major theories of dreaming, including a description of the basic structure of dreams and mental processes in dream formation; explores the usefulness of dreams in promoting health and dealing with illness through the analyses of three dreams; and identifies basic principles of dream exploration for use in clinical nursing practice.

Symposium: Dream research methodology: Methodological issues affecting the collection of dreams.

This article focuses attention on the perennial issue of home versus laboratory recording situations for the garnering of dream reports. Studies into the experimental control over procedures for both waking and interviewing are reviewed. Against this background, an experiment into the relationship between REM/NREM sleep and visual imagery is reported. We found that, having corrected for total word count, visual imagery still made an independent contribution to REM reports. This finding is evaluated in the light of differential cognitive mechanisms underlying dream formation during sleep.

The day-residue and dream-lag effects: A literature review and limited replication of two temporal effects in dream formation.

The day-residue and dream-lag effects: A literature review and limited replication of two temporal effects in dream formation.

The Evolution of Freud’s Theory about Dreaming

Freud revised his theory of dreams significantly. First, he discovered the role of the id in dreaming. He hypothesized that the function of dreaming is to gratify an infantile sexual wish, in accordance with the pleasure principle, and thereby to preserve sleep. However, he learned later that anxiety generated by recent events plays a greater role in stimulating dream formation than he had thought and that some dreams actually generate anxiety. These clinical observations caused him, in large part, to revise his theories of dreaming, of anxiety, and of the mental apparatus.

Emotions in dream and waking event reports.

Emotions in dream and waking event reports.

The multiplicity of dreams: memory, imagination, and consciousness

Part 1: chapters 1-3. Part 2: chapters 4-10. Part 3: cognitive bases of dream formation in the continuous interaction of image and narrative - Chapters 11-12. Part 4: Conclusions. Appendix: variations across multiple groups in froms of dreaming.

Etiology and therapy of nightmares

Theories and evidence on the aetiology of the 3 distinct forms of nightmares (REM nightmares, NREM night terrors, posttraumatic nightmares) are exposed. Depth psychological theories try an aetiological integration of the nightmare into their respective theories of dream formation, whereas empirical work stresses the personality-typical traits of nightmare sufferers. Clinical casework reports relate anxiety dreams to existing psychological and somatic pathology. Posttraumatic nightmares are repetitive mental reactions to heavy traumatic or life-threatening events. Nightmare therapy, insofar as it has become an independent variety of psychological intervention, uses drug medication, which is able to suppress the symptom of the sufferer when on the drug, whereas behavioural and insight treatment not only eliminate the dreams, but can have an enduring healing effect.

Dreams as Problem Solving: A Method of Study — Part I: Background and Theory

Looking first at the nature of dreams as studied in the laboratory during the last thirty years, this article (Part I) considers methods of knowing dreams and what is meant by dream interpretation. Within the context of current research in cognitive science, it is proposed that at least some dreams are generated by a regulatory system seeking to establish organismic balance, and in this sense fulfill a problem-solving function. A five-step method designed to facilitate dream understanding is sketched: it is a programmatic procedure that helps users recover aspects of their own dream formation process and probes the regulatory system by helping users discern the problem(s) a dream may be attacking. In Part II, the method will be illustrated and evaluated through the analysis of one dream in extenso.

Seeing Me, Being Me, Becoming the Me I Want to Be

This article summarizes pertinent research on women's adult development and Dream formation, then examines the Dreams of six female psychotherapists in their thirties. Evidence of how these women's Dreams guided their adult professional and personal development is discussed and compared. Finally, recommendations are made for educational and counseling institutions in order that they may more effectively facilitate the articulation and constructive use of women's adult Dreams in their professional and personal lives.

A cognitive-psychological model of REM dream production.

Based on the methodological assumption that cognitive-psychological study of dream processes (psychoneirics) can be pursued in like manner as in cognitive-psychological study of speech processes (psycholinguistics) and on the substantive assumption that speech and dreaming may share some common production routines, a cognitive-psychological model of dream formation is proposed. A generalized psycholinguistic model of speech production is presented, and then each sequential stage of that model is examined for its aptness to the process of dream production. It is concluded that there are major differences between speech and dream production at both the input and the output levels (message formulation in the linguistic sense is absent in the instigation of the dream; the dream itself is a multimodal perceptual simulation), but it is proposed that midrange stages of speech and dream production may be largely identical. This model is shown to be consistent with various formal properties of the dream, including its central paradox of controlled formal organization in the face of contents that may be "senseless," trivial, or obscure. The model also is shown to suggest several new research paradigms that might be employed both to test its own utility and to generate data more generally relevant to the question of how mental functions are organized during rapid eye movement sleep.

Self-representation in dream experiences during sleep onset and REM sleep.

The Scoring System for Latent Structure (SSLS) was used to test three hypotheses regarding the degree of self-participation in dreams reported during sleep onset (SO) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. These hypotheses were that (a) the ratio of interactive to associative sentences would be significantly greater in REM than in SO; (b) the level of Ego activity would be significantly greater in REM than in SO; and (c) the ratio between interactive sentences with Ego not present and interactive sentences with Ego present would be significantly different in REM and in SO. None of these hypotheses was confirmed. However, the following significant differences were found: (a) the ratio between sentences with Ego substituted and the total number of interactive sentences was greater in REM than in SO (p less than 0.05); (b) the ratio between sentences with Ego substituted and sentences with Ego present was greater (p less than 0.05) in REM than in SO; (c) the ratio between sentences with Ego inserted and sentences with Ego substituted was greater in SO than in REM (p less than 0.01); and (d) the relative incidence of defective Ego was greater (p less than 0.01) in SO than in REM. These data were interpreted in terms of psychodynamic models of dream formation.

Dream Formation During an Epileptic Seizure: Implications for the Study of the “Unconscious”

Dream Formation During an Epileptic Seizure: Implications for the Study of the “Unconscious”