Waves
waves show there is something special about REM sleep and REM dreams
Foulkes and Scott 1973
found 24% of daydreams were described like dreams
Foulkes and Fleisher 1975
- 19% of daydreams are hallucinations
- 20% are involuntary
Antrobus 1983
- REM dreams are more bizarre and have more characters because they are longer
- they may be longer because of better recall from REM sleep
Solms 2000
- dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms
- Dreaming is controlled by the fore-brain
REM sleep is controlled by the brain-stem
dreaming having a function?
- the threat simulation theory (Ravonsuo 2000)
people who practice overcoming threats in the dream environment will have an evolutionary fitness benefit in waking life
Wamsley and Stickgold 2011
- dreams are the experience of the brain understanding the consolidation of memories
- dreams do not copy previous experiences but link them to pre-existing knowledge structures
dreaming and memory consolidation
- dreaming, particularly during REM, play a role in consolidating and integrating new information
- studies shown sleep enhances the retention of declarative and procedural memories
Wamsley 2010
and
Wamsley and stickgold 2019
- improvement in learning task performance across sleep was associated with dreaming of the learning task
- however dreaming of the task was found to be poor performance
- the dream content might thus not be part of functional brain processes during sleep
the null hypotheses
- there is no purpose or function to our dreams - even when they are meaningful
- they allow that dreams have some meaning in that they refer to individual waking experiences - therefore do differ between people
Owen Flanagan 2000 book ‘dreaming souls’
in support of the null hypotheses
- he describes dreams as decorative ‘sprandels’
- the term is used in evolutionary theory to describe a function-less feature of an organism
- if dreams are function- less, evolution might not of acted to stop them. but would have made them more difficult to remember
research designs that could demonstrate dreaming does or does not have a function
- researchers could collect dream reports or laboratory-based sleep studies
- dream content analysis - to identify patterns with cognitive or emotional variable
- longitudinal studies - track changes in dreams
- neuroimaging techniques - fMRI and EEG
- used to examine brain activity during dreams
from a phenomenological perspective
- dreams are subjective experiences that hold personal meaning and significance for individuals
- dreams often reflect inner thoughts and emotions
- underscores the importance of considering individual perspectives and interpretations of dreams
researcher propose that dreaming may serve functions related to memory consolidation, emotional processing and cognitive integration
- research suggest that dreaming may contribute to the encoding, consolidation and integration of memories and emotional experiences
- theoretical frameworks such as the activation-synthesis theory and the neurocognitive model of dreaming suggest that dreams may serve adaptive functions in cognitive and emotional processing.
neuro-imaging studies and dreaming
- shown that dreaming is associated with specific patterns of brain activity.
- increased activity in regions such as PFC
- findings suggest that dreaming may involve the activation of multiple brain networks
what do some researchers argue can contribute to the emotional intensity of REM dreams
the emotional processing and memory consolidation functions of REM sleep can contribute to the emotional intensity and narrative complexity of REM dreams
NREM and dreams
- dreams can occur
- dreams in this stage are less vivid and more thought-like but can still be complex and memorable
individual variability in dream recall and content
some report more vivid and frequent dreams from NREM sleep stages
Lucid dreaming occuring in both REM and NREM
suggesting that dream formation mechanisms are not exclusive to REM sleep
research design - study dreaming in diverse cultural contexts
to see if the proposed functions of dreaming are universal or if they are culture specific
research design - dreaming and sleep patterns in animals
- to understand the evolutionary aspects of dreaming
research design - study individuals with sleep disorders that affect dreaming
to observe the impact on cognitive and emotional functions
