Negative Dream Research Articles

Dreaming and health promotion: A theoretical proposal and some epidemiological establishments

Both neurobiological and cognitive psychological evidence suggests that dreams reflect the affective concerns and emotional balance of the dreamer. Moreover, there is increasing evidence for the thesis that dreams take part in the process of emotional regulation by creating narrative structures and new associations for memories with emotional and personal relevance and giving birth to a reduced emotional arousal or balanced mood state during post-dreaming wakefulness. As health means a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, it is reasonable to assume that it is reflected in the quality of dream experiences. These theoretical considerations are exemplified by significant associations between dream emotions and health indexes emerging after the preliminary analysis of the Hungarostudy epidemiological database. Results suggest that items of the Dream Quality Questionnaire correlate with self-rated health, days spent on sick leave and most prominently with well-being. Negative dream emotions are negative predictors of health, while the opposite is true for positive ones. This effect is only partially explained by the illness intrusiveness index, the effect of dreams on daytime mood or well-being as measured by the well-being scale of the World Health Organization (WHO). Our results indicate that simple practical questions regarding habitual dream-affect, nightmares and nightterror-like symptoms convey information on the general mental and physical health of the subjects, which could be useful in medical practice.

Dreams are more negative than real life: Implications for the function of dreaming

Dream content studies have revealed that dream experiences are negatively biased; negative dream contents are more frequent than corresponding positive dream contents. It is unclear, however, whether the bias is real or due to biased sampling, i.e., selective memory for intense negative emotions. The threat simulation theory (TST) claims that the negativity bias is real and reflects the evolved biological function of dreaming. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis of the TST that threatening events are overrepresented in dreams, i.e., more frequent and more severe in dreams than in real life. To control for biased sampling, we used as a baseline the corresponding negative events in real life rather than the corresponding positive events in dreams. We collected dream reports (N=419) and daily event logs (N=490) from 39 university students during a two-week period, and interviewed them about real threat experiences retrievable from autobiographical memory (N=714). Threat experiences proved to be much more frequent and severe in dreams than in real life, and Current Dream Threats more closely resembled Past than Current Real Threats. We conclude that the TST's predictions hold, and that the negativity bias is real.

Dreams, emotions, and social sharing of dreams

Current life emotional experiences have been demonstrated to elicit a process called social sharing of emotion, consisting of repetitive talking about these experiences in conversations with relevant others. Like many diurnal experiences, dreams are generally loaded with emotional elements, and empirical evidence has suggested that individuals share their dreams with others mainly belonging to the circle of intimates. The present study examined whether the intensity of the emotion experienced in a dream predicts the extent to which this dream is socially shared. The prediction was tested independently for positively valenced and negatively valenced dreams, on two samples of respondents, i.e., Belgians and Italians. Other potential predictors of sharing were considered, including a number of cognitive appraisals and cognitive consequences of emotion. Results confirmed that emotion intensity is the main predictor of social sharing for both negative and positive dreams. In addition, the analysis of dream contents accounted for a high level of emotional intensity associated with respondents’ dreaming. Implications for theory and functions fulfilled by emotion with regard to social interactions are discussed.

Interpersonal content of dreams in relation to the process and outcome of single sessions using the Hill Dream Model.

The authors coded 67 dreams into 5 categories for interpersonal content (7 positive, 20 negative, 9 agency, 16 nightmares, and 15 noninterpersonal); an additional 90 dreams were excluded because they had multiple or ambiguous interpersonal themes. The authors then compared the process (client involvement and therapist competence) and outcome (insight gains, action gains, session evaluation, and change in target problems) of dream sessions in which therapists used the Hill model for the 5 different types of dreams. Process and outcome were better for clients who presented positive, agency, and noninterpersonal dreams than for clients who presented negative dreams and nightmares. Implications for practice and research are presented.

Epidemiological studies on dreams, sleep habits and mental symptoms in students aged 18?25�years and the 24 hour a day commercialization of Japanese society (1)

The relationship of dream frequency and dream contents during night sleep and dream memory to sleep habits, circadian typologies and mental symptoms and also to the 24-h society was studied in Japanese students. A morningness-eveningness questionnaire by Torsvall and Akerstedt and another questionnaire to elicit the relationship between sleep habits, mental symptoms (depression, irritability and anger), dreaming (frequency, contents, duration and tendency to remember dreams) and the 24 h a day commercialization of Japanese society (using convenience stores open for 24 h a day and mobile phones, and watching midnight TV) were administered to 461 students attending university or medical training schools (senior students, nurses and physical and occupational therapists aged 18–25) in the Kochi Prefecture, 33°N. Students who dreamt frequently had more difficulty in waking up and felt irritation and depression more frequently than those who did not. Students who had negative dreams (in which they were frightened, sad, lonely and angry) felt depressed or were easily and unreasonably angered more frequently than those who had positive (happy) dreams. The frequent use of convenience stores and personal computers was positively correlated to frequent dreaming. Students who watched midnight TV suffered sleep paralysis more frequently than those who did not. Frequent negative dreams and the frequent occurrence of sleep paralysis, both of which might be triggered by the 24 h a day commercialization of Japanese society may be linked to the worse mental health of older Japanese students.

Epidemiological studies on dreams, sleep habits and mental symptoms in Japanese junior high students aged 12?15 years (2)

Questionnaires on morningness-eveningness by Torsvall and Akerstedt, sleep habits, psychiatric aspects and dreaming were administered to 870 students aged 12–15 years attending one of two junior high schools located in urban area in Kochi city (33°N) and suburban and neighboring area. Students who had negative dreams that were frightening, sad and so on tended to have later bedtimes and a shorter sleep duration and more frequently felt depressed or were unreasonably easily angered than those who had happy dreaming. A later bedtime may be related to a higher frequency of negative dreaming, which seems to trigger mental symptoms such as a depressed mood and irritation in Japanese adolescents.

Nightmares and terminal insomnia in depressed patients with and without melancholic features

To investigate the relationship between nightmares and melancholic features (MF) in depression, we compared depressed patients with and without MF ( n=82 and n=75, respectively) regarding the presence of nightmares. Nightmares were significantly more frequent in patients with MF. Depressed mood in the morning may be related to negative dream content.

The Efficacy of the Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Form C

This study explored whether the Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility Form: C (WSGC) approximates the predictive power of the individually administered Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS: C). Seventy-one undergraduates were administered the WSGC in a group setting and then tested individually on the SHSS:C. The participants were then hypnotized and tested on four types of targeted hypnotic behaviors sampled from the Revised Stanford Profile Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: I & II (RSPSHS:I & II). The following four factors were chosen: (a) cognitive distortion; (b) positive hallucination; (c) negative hallucination, and (d) dreams and regression. The items from these factors were matched on difficulty level. A series of multiple regression and logistic regression analyses were performed. The Waterloo: C was found to match the SHSS: C on predictive power for only one of the four hypnotic factors: “dreams and regression.” On the other three factors, the SHSS: C was clearly superior in predictive efficacy. These results mirror previous research (Kurtz & Strube, 1996) that examined other group scales of hypnotic susceptibility in relation to the individually administered SHSS: C. In general, group scales such as the WSGC are poor substitutes for the SHSS: C.

Dream research: Integration of physiological and psychological models

All five target articles are of high quality and very stimulating for the field. Several factors such as dream report length and NREM/REM differences, may be affected by the waking process (transition from sleep to wakefulness) and the recall process. It is helpful to distinguish between a model for REM sleep regulation and a physiological model for dreaming. A third model accounting for cognitive activity (thought-like dreaming) can also be of value. The postulated adaptive function of dreaming in avoidance learning does not seem very plausible because the two major basic assumptions (specificity of dream content and benefit of negative dreams) are not clearly supported by modern dream research: The critique of studies investigating memory consolidation in REM sleep is justified. Future studies integrating the knowledge of memory processes and sleep research will shed more light on the role of sleep, especially REM sleep in memory consolidation.[Hobson et al.; Nielsen; Revonsuo; Solms; Vertes & Eastman]

The pharmacology of threatening dreams

The pharmacological literature on negative dream experiences is reviewed with respect to Revonsuo's threat rehearsal theory of dreaming. Moderate support for the theory is found, although much more work is needed. Significant questions that remain include the precise role of acetylcholine in the generation of negative dream experiences and dissociations between the pharmacology of waking fear and anxiety and threatening dreams.[Revonsuo]

Masochistic dreams: A gender-related diathesis for depression revisited.

Masochistic dreams, as defined by Beck (1967), are reportedly more prevalent among women and individuals with past or present depression. However, it is unclear whether these prevalence differences are a function of depressogenic personality traits or fluctuating mood symptoms. In the present study, 30 men and 30 women without histories of major depression slept two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory and reported their dreams from each REM period on the second night. Dream content from this sample was compared to that of 60 depressed participants who were studied previously under the same protocol. Analyses did not support a heightened prevalence of masochistic dreams among women or depressed individuals. Interestingly, the masochistic dreams of the non-depressed sample were equally distributed across the night, whereas depressed individuals tend to report masochistic dreams closer to morning. This hypothesized pattern suggests that masochistic dreams may be pathognomic of depression in that their occurrence near the end of the night affects morning mood with negative dream residue.

Role of REM sleep and dream variables in the prediction of remission from depression

To test the hypothesis that REM sleep and/or dreams contribute to overnight mood regulation, 61 subjects were tested on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and for 3 nights of monitored sleep on two occasions, once close to, and 1 year after, a marital separation. Forty-nine percent of the variance in the follow-up BDI could be accounted for by the initial BDI score, and three sleep and dream variables associated with the mood regulatory hypothesis: eye movement density in the first REM, strength of the affect in the first dream and total number of negative dreams recalled from REM awakenings. Among the 39 who met BDI depression criteria initially, 71.8% could be classified correctly as remitted or not remitted at follow-up by discriminant function analysis based on the presence of negative dreams the first vs. second half of the night. Subjects reporting more negative dreams at the beginning and fewer at the night's end were more likely to be in remission 1 year later than were those with fewer negative dreams at the beginning and more at the end of the night. Early negative dreams may reflect a within-sleep mood regulation process taking place, while those that occur later may indicate a failure in the completion of this process.

Dream Content, Dream Recurrence and Well-Being: A Replication with a Younger Sample

A multivariate comparison was made among fifty-two recurrent, past-recurrent, and nonrecurrent dreamers aged eighteen to twenty-one. The participants completed measures of well-being and collected a fourteen-day sample of their own remembered dreams. Multivariate analysis showed that recurrent dreamers scored low on psychological well-being and reported more negative dream content. As was true in an earlier study, a single psychometric dimension, which we call psychological well-being, discriminated between the recurrent dream group and the other two groups over the entire set of well-being and dream content variables. As was true in two previous studies, dream archetypality was negatively correlated with a measure of neuroticism. We conclude that in both late teenagers and older adults, recurrent dreams occur in times of stress, are accompanied by negative dream content, and are associated with a deficit in psychological well-being.

Austrian dream behavior: Results of a representative population survey.

This study was based on a survey of a representative sample of 1000 Austrians who were questioned about their sleep and dream behavior. About two-thirds of the respondents reported that they generally recalled at least one dream per month. Dream recall frequency decreased with advancing age, but did not differ between men and women. Fifty-five percent of the respondents characterized the affective content of their dreams: 29% reported neutral, 20% positive, and 6% negative dreams. Four percent of the sample reported suffering from nightmares. These respondents more frequently reported snoring, interrupted sleep, daytime somnolence, anxiety and nervousness, depression, high dream recall, recurrent dreams, and dreaming in color. Twenty-six percent of the total sample reported that sometimes they realized during their dreams that they were dreaming. These respondents more frequently reported family problems, high dream recall, positive dream content, recurrent dreams, dreaming in color, and nightmares.

What makes dreams positive or negative: relations to fundamental dimensions of positive and negative mood.

The present study examined the general emotional content of dreams reported by individuals who typically experience "positive" versus "negative" dreams. Self-reports of the 153 participants indicated that positive versus negative dreamers (ns = 42 and 24, respectively) generally experienced more positive emotions, e.g., joviality, self-assurance, and fewer negative emotions, e.g., fear, sadness. No differences were found in the self-reports of the participants in the experience of surprise, guilt, fatigue, and shyness between the groups, hence, positive and negative dreams do not appear to reflect simply more positive and fewer negative emotions, respectively.

O-18-3 - Specific activation of limbic dopaminergic structures in rat brain by Ca 2+ channel blockers

Trimipramine is a sedating tricyclic antidepressant which is not only effective in the treatment of depression but also in primary insomnia. In contrast to most other antidepressants, trimipramine does not affect rapid eye movement sleep. In a large sample of depressive outpatients (N = 3926), the effect of trimipramine on dream recall and dream emotions was studied. The effect of trimipramine on dream recall was small and might be explained by the reduction of negatively toned dreams. The 4-week treatment with trimipramine yielded a considerable shift in dream emotions towards the positive end of the scale, which is paralleled by the decrease of symptom severity. The present findings support the continuity hypothesis of dreaming by demonstrating a close link between waking-life symptomatolgy and negative dream emotions. Future studies should analyze dream content in order to support the hypothesis that improvement in day-time symptoms is reflected in patients' dreams.