Memories of waking-life events are incorporated into dreams, but their incorporation is not uniform across a night of sleep. This study aimed to elucidate ways in which such memory sources vary by sleep stage and time of night. Twenty healthy participants (11 F; 24.1 ± 5.7 years) spent a night in the laboratory and were awakened for dream collection approximately 12 times spread across early, middle, and late periods of sleep, while covering all stages of sleep (N1, N2, N3, REM). In the morning, participants identified and dated associated memories of waking-life events for each dream report, when possible. The incorporation of recent memory sources in dreams was more frequent in N1 and REM than in other sleep stages. The incorporation of distant memories from over a week ago, semantic memories not traceable to a single event, and anticipated future events remained stable throughout sleep. In contrast, the relative number of recent versus distant memory sources changed across the night, independently of sleep stage, with late-night dreams in all stages having relatively more remote memory sources than dreams earlier in the night. Qualitatively, dreams tended to repeat similar themes across the night and in different sleep stages. The present findings clarify the temporal course of memory incorporations in dreams, highlighting a specific connection between time of night and the temporal remoteness of memories. We discuss how dream content may, at least in part, reflect the mechanisms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation.
Therapies focused on lucid dreaming could be useful for treating various sleep disorders and other conditions. Still, one major roadblock is the paucity of systematic information on the consequences of attempting these sorts of dreams. The current study sought to quantify positive and negative aspects of seeking lucid dreams, describe their phenomenology in detail, and identify features associated with positive or negative experiences. Observational data from a massive lucid-dream discussion forum were analyzed to capture lucid-dreaming themes. Forum posts were independently rated on multiple dimensions hypothesized to contribute to the valence of lucidity-related phenomena. Our results revealed that lucid dreams can end nightmares and prevent their recurrence, but they can also induce harrowing dysphoric dreams. The realization of dreaming (lucidity) and dreams with high control were both associated with positive experiences. We translated our results into a process model that describes the progression from lucid-dream induction to waking benefit, identifying potential areas of concern. Our results and model suggest that negative outcomes primarily result from failed induction attempts or lucid dreams with low dream control, and that successfully inducing high-control lucid dreams poses low risk for negative outcomes. Lucid dreaming has valuable therapeutic and recreational potential, but a better understanding of the risks is required. Our findings provide new insights into possible negative repercussions and how to avoid them in future applications.
The application of lucid-dreaming therapy as a treatment for sleep disorders is hampered by a lack of information about the variable consequences of attempting these sorts of dreams. The current study sought to quantify positive and negative aspects of seeking lucid dreams, describe their phenomenology in detail, and identify features associated with positive or negative experiences. Observational data from a massive lucid-dream discussion forum was analyzed to capture lucid-dreaming themes. Forum posts were independently rated on multiple dimensions hypothesized to contribute to the valence of lucidity-related phenomena. Our results revealed that lucid dreams can end recurring nightmares, but they can also induce harrowing dysphoric dreams. The realization of dreaming was less likely to be associated with negative experiences, and dreams with high control were associated with positive experiences. We translated our results into a process model that describes the progression from lucid-dream induction to waking benefit, identifying potential areas of concern. Our results and model suggest that successfully inducing high-control lucid dreams poses low risk for negative outcomes, and that negative outcomes primarily result from failed induction attempts or lucid dreams with low dream control. Whereas lucid dreaming has valuable therapeutic and recreational potential, our findings provide critical insight into its negative associations, with recommendations for how to avoid them in future applications.
Evidence suggests that dream content, such as dreaming about a learning task, is associated with improved task performance following sleep. Given links between sleep and language learning, we conducted a morning nap study to assess whether dream content correlates with improvement on a sign language learning task. We collected data from 16 participants who completed a sign language vocabulary learning and recall task before and after a 2-hr nap opportunity. Participants were awakened from REM sleep and asked to report a dream and rate the extent to which their dream incorporated elements of the laboratory or the task on a 1–9 Likert scale, and an independent judge additionally scored laboratory incorporation in dreams. Results showed that lab-related dreams were associated with improved performance on the task following sleep. Overall, the results are in line with recent findings that dream content correlates with learning, here extended to a sign language task. The results could be interpreted in several ways: Dream content may be influenced by trait factors (cognitive capacity and motivation) that correspond with learning, or dream content could either reflect or actively enhance underlying memory consolidation during sleep.
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