Rapid Eye Movement Dreaming Research Articles

How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them

The importance of sleep for healthy brain function is widely acknowledged. However, it remains unclear how the internal generation of dreams might facilitate cognitive processes. In this perspective, we review a computational approach inspired by artificial intelligence that proposes a framework for how dreams occurring during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep can contribute to learning and creativity. In this framework, REM dreams are characterized by an adversarial process that, against the dream reality, tells a discriminator network to classify the internally created sensory activity as real. Such an adversarial dreaming process is shown to facilitate the emergence of real-world semantic representations in higher cortical areas. We further discuss the potential contributions of adversarial dreaming beyond learning, such as balancing fantastic and realistic dream elements and facilitating the occurrence of creative insights. We characterize non-REM (NREM) dreams, where a single hippocampal memory is replayed at a time, as serving the complementary role of improving the robustness of cortical representations to environmental perturbations. We finally explain how subjects can become aware of the adversarial REM dreams, but less of the NREM dreams, and how content- and state-awareness in wake, dream, and lucid dreaming may appear.

Whole-body procedural learning benefits from targeted memory reactivation in REM sleep and task-related dreaming

Sleep facilitates memory consolidation through offline reactivations of memory traces. Dreaming may play a role in memory improvement and may reflect these memory reactivations. To experimentally address this question, we used targeted memory reactivation (TMR), i.e., application, during sleep, of a stimulus that was previously associated with learning, to assess whether it influences task-related dream imagery (or task-dream reactivations). Specifically, we asked if TMR or task-dream reactivations in either slow-wave (SWS) or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep benefit whole-body procedural learning. Healthy participants completed a virtual reality (VR) flying task prior to and following a morning nap or rest period during which task-associated tones were readministered in either SWS, REM sleep, wake or not at all. Findings indicate that learning benefits most from TMR when applied in REM sleep compared to a Control-sleep group. REM dreams that reactivated kinesthetic elements of the VR task (e.g., flying, accelerating) were also associated with higher improvement on the task than were dreams that reactivated visual elements (e.g., landscapes) or that had no reactivations. TMR did not itself influence dream content but its effects on performance were greater when coexisting with task-dream reactivations in REM sleep. Findings may help explain the mechanistic relationships between dream and memory reactivations and may contribute to the development of sleep-based methods to optimize complex skill learning.

Postsession Dreaming in Neurofeedback as an Indication of Nondeclarative Learning

Clients may report increased dreaming following neurofeedback sessions. Increased dreaming may not be strictly a side effect of training but may rather be a result of the nondeclarative learning accomplished in training. Research has demonstrated the connection between dreaming and consolidation of memory in both animals and human subjects. Rapid eye movement (REM) deprivation studies have shown the importance of REM sleep to the retention of newly learned skills. Other studies have shown that learning may increase the proportion of REM sleep on subsequent nights. More specifically, REM dreaming may be related to the consolidation of procedural, nondeclarative memory, the type of learning that occurs also during neurofeedback training. When a client reports increased nocturnal dreaming following a neurofeedback session, this may serve as a valuable early indication that their brain is responding to this type of training.

Insight from the consideration of REM dreams, non-REM dreams, and daydreams.

Throughout history there have been reports and claims that consideration of dreams can produce personal realizations and insight. We assessed Exploration-Insight scores associated with discussing Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) dreams in connection with recent waking life experiences. Thirty-one participants were cued in the sleep laboratory for a daydream report and then awakened from REM and N2 sleep for dream reports. Participants subsequently discussed each of their dream and daydream reports for 30-40 minutes with two experimenters, following the structured Ullman (1996) dream group discussion procedure. Participants assessed the benefit of discussing the reports by completing the Gains from (Day)Dream Interpretation (G(D)DI) questionnaire. We found no difference in G(D)DI scores between discussing REM and N2 dream reports, and no difference between dream and daydream discussions in engagement and thoroughness of exploring the reports. However, discussing dream reports produced higher scores on the G(D)DI Exploration-Insight subscale compared with discussing daydream reports. Significant differences were evident in items reflecting the learning of what the report means in terms of waking life issues. Frontal theta prior to waking from N2 was significantly associated with Exploration-Insight score obtained after N2 dream discussion, but this relationship was not found for REM dreams. The findings of high ratings of Exploration-Insight after discussing dreams were evident even though participants did not select the dream, unlike what can occur for home recorded dreams, and even though discussion was brief. We suggest that insight might be produced by embodied and metaphorical thinking in dreams.

A skeleton key to dream interpretation

There are typical themes that are repeatedly dreamed by most people. Given their omnipresence in dreams, they may constitute a skeleton key for an interpretation of dreams. This study aims to demonstrate how the classification of dream themes using the Dream Motif Scale (DMS)can facilitate dream interpretation without actively involving dreamers in the analytic process. On the strength of previous research findings concerning the DMS categorization of dream themes, overnight alterations in affective valence, and modus operandi of dream expression, nine steps for dream interpretation were developed. The sample contained 7 subjects whose dream experiences were evaluated by the retrospective self-rating, dream-diary, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) awakening methods. Eight emotionally toned REM dreams were selected and analyzed using the DMS classification system. The results of dream analyses were compared against the subjects’ personality profiles assessed by 17 personality traits indicative of superego functioning, instinctual affect, and ego strength. It seems that utilizing the DMS system to identify and classify themes in dreams, supplemented with the analysis of affect valence, can provide clinicians with some directions for working toward a dream interpretation that is consonant with an individual’s personality characteristics. Since the proposed procedures for dream interpretation do not require dreamers’ active participation, they are potentially instrumental in a clinical setting, especially at the beginning of the therapeutic process when certain individuals are reluctant to reflect on their dream experiences. This interpreter-oriented approach, however, only provides an alternative for working with difficult dreams; whether a dream interpretation is useful still hinges on the dreamer’s capability to connect it with waking experiences.

Incorporation of recent waking-life experiences in dreams correlates with frontal theta activity in REM sleep.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and its main oscillatory feature, frontal theta, have been related to the processing of recent emotional memories. As memories constitute much of the source material for our dreams, we explored the link between REM frontal theta and the memory sources of dreaming, so as to elucidate the brain activities behind the formation of dream content. Twenty participants were woken for dream reports in REM and slow wave sleep (SWS) while monitored using electroencephalography. Eighteen participants reported at least one REM dream and 14 at least one SWS dream, and they, and independent judges, subsequently compared their dream reports with log records of their previous daily experiences. The number of references to recent waking-life experiences in REM dreams was positively correlated with frontal theta activity in the REM sleep period. No such correlation was observed for older memories, nor for SWS dreams. The emotional intensity of recent waking-life experiences incorporated into dreams was higher than the emotional intensity of experiences that were not incorporated. These results suggest that the formation of wakefulness-related dream content is associated with REM theta activity, and accords with theories that dreaming reflects emotional memory processing taking place in REM sleep.

The bizarreness and reality of dreams

Dreams are one of the most common experience in our lives. The vivid and bizarre features of dreams have fascinated humankind throughout history. Dreaming is an ancient physiological and psychological phenomenon, and whether it fulfils an adaptive function has inspired varied theories. Some theories take a perspective that dreaming serves no adaptive function but rather a biologically epiphenomena. Some theories claim that dreaming fulfill various neurophysiological functions. However, the dream contents are viewed as random noise generated by the sleeping brain. Other theories believe that what appears in dreams is important since it serves functions which relate to psychological adjustment. More recent theories tend to relate dreaming to intellectual or cognitive functions, such as learning, memory consolidation, problem solving or simulating of threats in real life. The enigma of dreams is extensively studied with the development of science technology. Although the dream science was initiated from the REM (rapid eye movement sleep) sleep dreams, the equation ″REM=dreaming″ is an oversimplification. Dream-like mentation may occur during all stages of sleep. The controversy now is whether dreams reported from REM and NREM (non-rapid eye movement sleep) sleep are equivalent or different from each other. Three different theoretical models about the REM/NREM mentation have been proposed: (1) An one-generator model, which claims that regardless of the sleep stage in which the mention occurs, it only stems from a single set of process; (2) a two-generator model, which holds a perspective that REM and NREM mentions have differentiated generation systems; (3) a covert REM sleep model, which assumes that the NREM sleep dream is generated from the covert activity that occurs in REM sleep. Since there are experimental evidences supported both the similarities and differentiation in phenomenological aspects and the underlying brain activities of REM and NREM sleep dream, it is still controversial which model is the most optimal interpretation for the two mentation. The dream is a special state of consciousness. The continuity and discontinuity between waking and dreaming has been a controversy in dream science. The similarities and differences in both phenomenon and brain activity between dreaming and waking provide important knowledge of human consciousness, especially lucid dreaming, a hybrid state of consciousness with features of both waking and dreaming, which provides an unique chance to reveal the neural basis of consciousness. Moreover, dream studies are significant in the clinical practice in psychiatry and psychology. Although advances in neurophysiological and neuroimaging methods have offered new insight into the brain correlates of dreaming, the private nature of dreaming has made it a formidable study object. The studies of dreaming are still confronted with methodological challenges. To reveal the mystery of dreaming, integration of the designs and methods from multiple fields (such as phenomenology, neuroscience, clinical practice, etc) is necessary.

Daydreams incorporate recent waking life concerns but do not show delayed ('dream-lag') incorporations.

This study investigates the time course of incorporation of waking life experiences into daydreams. Thirty-one participants kept a diary for 10 days, reporting major daily activities (MDAs), personally significant events (PSEs) and major concerns (MCs). They were then cued for daydream, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and N2 dream reports in the sleep laboratory. There was a higher incorporation into daydreams of MCs from the previous two days (day-residue effect), but no day-residue effect for MDAs or PSEs, supporting a function for daydreams of processing current concerns. A day-residue effect for PSEs and the delayed incorporation of PSEs from 5 to 7 days before the dream (the dream-lag effect) have previously been found for REM dreams. Delayed incorporation was not found in this study for daydreams. Daydreams might thus differ in function from REM sleep dreams. However, the REM dream-lag effect was not replicated here, possibly due to design differences from previous studies.

NREM sleep spindles are associated with dream recall

Both rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreaming and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep spindles have been linked to processes of memory consolidation. However, relationships between the two phenomena have yet to be explored. In a heterogeneous sample of 53 healthy subjects who had participated in a memory consolidation protocol and who varied in their self-reported recall of dreams and nightmares, we assessed overnight polysomnography, N2 sleep spindle density, REM dream word count, and retrospective estimates of how often they recall dreams, bad dreams (dysphoric dreams, no awakening), and nightmares (dysphoric dreams, with awakenings). Fast spindle density positively correlated with all measures of dream recall but was most robustly associated with bad dream recall and REM dream word count. Correlations with bad dream recall were particularly strong for spindles occurring in sleep cycles 2 and 3 and correlations with word count for cycles 1, 4, and 5. While slow spindle density showed opposite correlation...

REM dream activity of insomnia sufferers: a systematic comparison with good sleepers

Background and ObjectiveThe dream activity of patients with primary insomnia (PI) has rarely been studied, especially using in-laboratory dream collection, although dreams could be linked to their state of hyperarousal and their negative waking experiences. The objective of the study was to compare patients with PI and good sleeper controls (GSCs) in terms of dream recall frequency and dream content. Patients/MethodsPolysomnography was recorded in 12 patients with PI and 12 GSCs (aged between 30 and 45 years) for five consecutive nights. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep awakenings were enforced on nights 3 and 5 for dream collections. ResultsThe REM dream collections revealed that the groups were similar in terms of dream recall frequency (p ≤ 0.7). With respect to dream content variables, the dreams of GSCs tended to comprise more positive emotions (p = 0.06), whereas the dreams of patients with PI were characterized by more negative elements than positive ones (p = 0.001). Subjectively, GSCs characterized their dreams as being more pleasant and containing more joy, happiness, and vividness (p ≤ 0.03) than patients with PI. Finally, elevated negative dream content was associated with lower sleep efficiencies in insomnia (p = 0.004). ConclusionThese results suggest that less positive emotions and greater negative content characterize the dreams of patients with PI, which is in line with their waking experiences. One potential explanation could be hyperarousal exacerbating presleep negative mentation, thus contributing to poorer sleep quality. The lack of difference in dream recall frequency is most likely due to the forced awakening “dream collection” procedure. The study of dream activity seems a promising avenue for understanding the 24-h experience of insomnia better and exploring the potential benefits of dream management techniques.

Comparing personal insight gains due to consideration of a recent dream and consideration of a recent event using the Ullman and Schredl dream group methods.

There have been reports and claims in the psychotherapeutic literature that the consideration of recent dreams can result in personal realizations and insight. There is theoretical support for these claims from work on rapid eye movement (REM) sleep having a function of the consolidation of emotional memories and the creative formation of connections between new and older memories. To investigate these claims, 11 participants (10 females, one male) reported and considered a recent home dream in a dream discussion group that following the “Appreciating dreams” method of Montague Ullman. The group ran 11 times, each participant attending and participating once. A further nine participants (seven females, two males) reported and considered a recent home dream in a group that followed the “Listening to the dreamer” method of Michael Schredl. The two studies each had a control condition where the participant also reported a recent event, the consideration of which followed the same technique as was followed for the dream report. Outcomes of the discussions were assessed by the participants on the Gains from Dream Interpretation (GDI) scale, and on its counterpart, the Gains from Event Interpretation scale. High ratings on the GDI experiential-insight subscale were reported for both methods, when applied to dreams, and for the Ullman method Exploration-Insight ratings for the dream condition were significantly higher than for the control event condition. In the Ullman method, self-assessment of personal insight due to consideration of dream content was also significantly higher than for the event consideration condition. The findings support the view that benefits can be obtained from the consideration of dream content, in terms of identifying the waking life sources of dream content, and because personal insight may also occur. To investigate the mechanisms for the findings, the studies should be repeated with REM and non-REM dream reports, hypothesizing greater insight from the former.

The dream-lag effect: Selective processing of personally significant events during Rapid Eye Movement sleep, but not during Slow Wave Sleep

Incorporation of details from waking life events into Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep dreams has been found to be highest on the night after, and then 5–7 nights after events (termed, respectively, the day-residue and dream-lag effects). In experiment 1, 44 participants kept a daily log for 10days, reporting major daily activities (MDAs), personally significant events (PSEs), and major concerns (MCs). Dream reports were collected from REM and Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) in the laboratory, or from REM sleep at home. The dream-lag effect was found for the incorporation of PSEs into REM dreams collected at home, but not for MDAs or MCs. No dream-lag effect was found for SWS dreams, or for REM dreams collected in the lab after SWS awakenings earlier in the night. In experiment 2, the 44 participants recorded reports of their spontaneously recalled home dreams over the 10 nights following the instrumental awakenings night, which thus acted as a controlled stimulus with two salience levels, high (sleep lab) and low (home awakenings). The dream-lag effect was found for the incorporation into home dreams of references to the experience of being in the sleep laboratory, but only for participants who had reported concerns beforehand about being in the sleep laboratory. The delayed incorporation of events from daily life into dreams has been proposed to reflect REM sleep-dependent memory consolidation. However, an alternative emotion processing or emotional impact of events account, distinct from memory consolidation, is supported by the finding that SWS dreams do not evidence the dream-lag effect.

Such stuff as REM and NREM dreams are made on? An elaboration

AbstractI argued that rapid eye movement (REM) dreaming is elaborative emotional encoding for episodic memories, sharing many features with the ancient art of memory (AAOM). In this framework, during non–rapid eye movement (NREM), dream scenes enable junctions between episodic networks in the cortex and are retained by the hippocampus as indices for retrieval. The commentaries, which varied in tone from patent enthusiasm to edgy scepticism, fall into seven natural groups: debate over the contribution of the illustrative dream and disputes over the nature of dreaming (discussed in sect. R1); how the framework extends to creativity, psychopathology, and sleep disturbances (sect. R2); the compatibility of the REM dream encoding function with emotional de-potentiation (sect. R3); scepticism over similarities between REM dreaming and the AAOM (sect. R4); the function of NREM dreams in the sleep cycle (sect. R5); the fit of the junction hypothesis with current knowledge of cortical networks (sect. R6); and whether the hypothesis is falsifiable (including methodological challenges and evidence against the hypothesis) (sect. R7). Although the groups in sections R1–R6 appear quite disparate, I argue they all follow from the associative nature of dreaming.

Such stuff as dreams are made on? Elaborative encoding, the ancient art of memory, and the hippocampus

This article argues that rapid eye movement (REM) dreaming is elaborative encoding for episodic memories. Elaborative encoding in REM can, at least partially, be understood through ancient art of memory (AAOM) principles: visualization, bizarre association, organization, narration, embodiment, and location. These principles render recent memories more distinctive through novel and meaningful association with emotionally salient, remote memories. The AAOM optimizes memory performance, suggesting that its principles may predict aspects of how episodic memory is configured in the brain. Integration and segregation are fundamental organizing principles in the cerebral cortex. Episodic memory networks interconnect profusely within the cortex, creating omnidirectional "landmark" junctions. Memories may be integrated at junctions but segregated along connecting network paths that meet at junctions. Episodic junctions may be instantiated during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep after hippocampal associational function during REM dreams. Hippocampal association involves relating, binding, and integrating episodic memories into a mnemonic compositional whole. This often bizarre, composite image has not been present to the senses; it is not "real" because it hyperassociates several memories. During REM sleep, on the phenomenological level, this composite image is experienced as a dream scene. A dream scene may be instantiated as omnidirectional neocortical junction and retained by the hippocampus as an index. On episodic memory retrieval, an external stimulus (or an internal representation) is matched by the hippocampus against its indices. One or more indices then reference the relevant neocortical junctions from which episodic memories can be retrieved. Episodic junctions reach a processing (rather than conscious) level during normal wake to enable retrieval. If this hypothesis is correct, the stuff of dreams is the stuff of memory.

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched: Elaborative encoding in REM dreaming in face of the physiology of sleep stages

Llewellyn suggests that episodic memories undergo "elaborative encoding" during rapid eye movement (REM) dreams, generating novel associations between recent and remote memories that are then instantiated during non-REM (NREM) sleep. This hypothesis conflicts with our knowledge of the physiology of NREM and then REM sleep stages and their ordered succession. Moreover, associations during sleep might also involve the extraction of hidden patterns rather than de novo associations.

The spaces left over between REM sleep, dreaming, hippocampal formation, and episodic autobiographical memory

It is argued that Llewellyn's hypothesis about the lack of rapid eye movement (REM)-sleep dreaming leading to loss of personal identity and deficits in episodic memory, affectivity, and prospection is insufficiently grounded because it does not integrate data from neurodevelopmental studies and makes reference to an outdated definition of episodic memory.

Dissociative symptoms and REM sleep

Llewellyn has written a fascinating article about rapid eye movement (REM) dreams and how they promote the elaborative encoding of recent memories. The main message of her article is that hyperassociative and fluid cognitive processes during REM dreaming facilitate consolidation. We consider one potential implication of this analysis: the possibility that excessive or out-of-phase REM sleep fuels dissociative symptomatology. Further research is warranted to explore the psychopathological ramifications of Llewellyn's theory.

Does Primary Narcissism Exist in Newborn Babies? Evidence from Sleep Science

Does Primary Narcissism Exist in Newborn Babies? Evidence from Sleep Science

Strengths and Weaknesses of McNamara's Evolutionary Psychological Model of Dreaming

This article includes a brief overview of McNamara's (2004) evolutionary model of dreaming. The strengths and weaknesses of this model are then evaluated in terms of its consonance with measurable neurological and biological properties of dreaming, its fit within the tenets of evolutionary theories of dreams, and its alignment with evolutionary concepts of cooperation and spirituality. McNamara's model focuses primarily on dreaming that occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep; therefore this article also focuses on REM dreaming.

La motricité redevient-elle normale en sommeil paradoxal ? Le trouble comportemental en sommeil paradoxal

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is characterized by violent, or potentially violent, movements during REM sleep, corresponding to enacted dreams. During sleep monitoring, there is a partial or total loss of the normal muscle atonia during REM sleep. REM sleep behavior disorder predominantly affects elderly subjects without any other disease (idiopathic RBD, a precursor of Parkinson disease and Lewy body dementia) or suffering from various neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, mainly synucleinopathies. In addition to being a treatable cause of nocturnal injury of the patients or their bed-partners, RBD is a fantastic window into motor and cognitive control during REM sleep. Notably, parkinsonism transiently disappears during RBD. The patient's voice is louder and better articulated than when awake, and movements are rapid (but jerky) suggesting that the deleterious message from the basal ganglia to the primary motor cortex is reduced or bypassed. As we observed culturally-acquired behaviors, retired patients practicing their former work with mastered gestures, as well as sentences pronounced with appropriate prosody, gesturing, fluency, and syntax during the RBD, we suggest that these behaviors are generated by the same cortical areas as during wakefulness. This model also enables the demonstration that REM during REM sleep are coded in the same direction as the arm and hand movements, as if the dreamer were scanning the dream images. This online access to the motor and verbal dream scenario (through the video and audio monitoring), and the physiological measures (via the EEG, eye movements, muscle tone, respiration, heart rate), together with the offline access to the mental content (dream report after the awakening) constitute a triangulation for validating new hypotheses about REM sleep and dreams.