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

The dream as prediction seems inherently improbable. The bizarre occurrences in dreams never characterize everyday life. Dreams do not come true! But assuming that bizarreness negates expectations may rest on a misunderstanding of how the predictive brain works. In evolutionary terms, the ability to rapidly predict what sensory input implies—through expectations derived from discerning patterns in associated past experiences—would have enhanced fitness and survival. For example, food and water are essential for survival, associating past experiences (to identify location patterns) predicts where they can be found. Similarly, prediction may enable predator identification from what would have been only a fleeting and ambiguous stimulus—without prior expectations. To confront the many challenges associated with natural settings, visual perception is vital for humans (and most mammals) and often responses must be rapid. Predictive coding during wake may, therefore, be based on unconscious imagery so that visual perception is maintained and appropriate motor actions triggered quickly. Speed may also dictate the form of the imagery. Bizarreness, during REM dreaming, may result from a prospective code fusing phenomena with the same meaning—within a particular context. For example, if the context is possible predation, from the perspective of the prey two different predators can both mean the same (i.e., immediate danger) and require the same response (e.g., flight). Prospective coding may also prune redundancy from memories, to focus the image on the contextually-relevant elements only, thus, rendering the non-relevant phenomena indeterminate—another aspect of bizarreness. In sum, this paper offers an evolutionary take on REM dreaming as a form of prospective coding which identifies a probabilistic pattern in past events. This pattern is portrayed in an unconscious, associative, sensorimotor image which may support cognition in wake through being mobilized as a predictive code. A particular dream illustrates.

Section: Illustrative Dream - “Bagpuss”mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dream to Predict? REM Dreaming as Prospective Coding

Llewellyn

2016

“…Sleep processes – and we would argue, the concomitant subjective experience of dreaming – enabled the hyperassociativity of the information that was already stored to be used in a creative and useful way. Similarly, working with dreams has been shown to generate insight into the self ( Edwards et al, 2013 , 2015 ), and more insight is obtained when participants are asked to make associations between the dream images and waking life than when simply richly describing the dream images (or a combination of the two: Hill et al, 1998 ). Perhaps then the idea of dreams telling us “something we don’t already know” should be restated as “something we are not aware of knowing,” in which ‘knowing’ may constitute formerly disparate pieces of information that require reconfiguring to become useful.…”

Section: The Emotion Assimilation Theory Of Sleep and Dreamingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming

Malinowski

Horton

2015

Self Cite

In this paper we propose an emotion assimilation function of sleep and dreaming. We offer explanations both for the mechanisms by which waking-life memories are initially selected for processing during sleep, and for the mechanisms by which those memories are subsequently transformed during sleep. We propose that emotions act as a marker for information to be selectively processed during sleep, including consolidation into long term memory structures and integration into pre-existing memory networks; that dreaming reflects these emotion assimilation processes; and that the associations between memory fragments activated during sleep give rise to measureable elements of dream metaphor and hyperassociativity. The latter are a direct reflection, and the phenomenological experience, of emotional memory assimilation processes occurring during sleep. While many theories previously have posited a role for emotion processing and/or emotional memory consolidation during sleep and dreaming, sleep theories often do not take enough account of important dream science data, yet dream research, when conducted systematically and under ideal conditions, can greatly enhance theorizing around the functions of sleep. Similarly, dream theories often fail to consider the implications of sleep-dependent memory research, which can augment our understanding of dream functioning. Here, we offer a synthesized view, taking detailed account of both sleep and dream data and theories. We draw on extensive literature from sleep and dream experiments and theories, including often-overlooked data from dream science which we believe reflects sleep phenomenology, to bring together important ideas and findings from both domains.

“…Intuitions may come to the surface of consciousness suddenly, as a “hunch,” the sudden perception of a pattern in seemingly unrelated events, or as creative discovery.” From this statement, we can see that N types may be more able to find correlations between the waking source domain and the dream domain. Previous evidence shows that consideration of the relationship between waking experiences and dreams can bring out insights and benefits ( Hill et al, 1998 ; Edwards et al, 2013 , 2015 ). So N types’ advantage to find correlations could give them more insights and benefits than S types.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship Between Personality Types in MBTI and Dream Structure Variables

Zhao

Huang

2020

This study aimed to explore relationships between personality type variables and dream structure variables. In the questionnaire experiment (N = 410), we investigated associations between different personality variables in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire (MBTI) and various aspects of dreams in the Mannheim Dream questionnaire (MADRE). The MBTI has four dimensions. In the Extroversion/Introversion (E/I) dimension, I types dreamt more of emotional intensity and passive emotions than E types. In addition, I types may become more distressed in nightmares than E types. E types more frequently shared their dreams with others. In the Sensation/Intuition (S/N) dimension, N types had a more positive attitude toward dreams and can get more novel ideas and help from their dreams than S types. In the dream diary experiment (N = 47), we investigated whether the S/N dimension may influence waking events' incorporation into dreams. External judges decoded paired waking events and dream reports. N types had more metaphorical incorporation than S types. More specifically, N types had more metaphorical expressions in their dreams than S types. This result may be due to the different characteristics between S types and N types. It may provide support for the dream continuity hypothesis.