Dreams that work: The relation of dream incorporation to adaptation to stressful events.

Abstract

Forty-nine volunteer subjects going through divorce, twenty-three women and twenty-six men, had sleep studies at the time of the initial break-up and one year later. Thirty-one of these were diagnosed as depressed on a combined criterion of meeting the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and a Beck Depression score above 14 and eighteen met neither criterion. The depressed and non-depressed did not differ in Dream-like Fantasy, but did in Affect Strength and type. Those who were depressed who incorporated the ex-spouse into their dreams at the time of the break-up were significantly less depressed and significantly better adjusted to their new life at the follow-up point than those who did not. These dreams were rated as having stronger affect. Persons who are depressed during a stressful time in their lives, who dream with strong feelings, and incorporate the stressor directly into their dreams appear to "work through" -their depression more successfully than those who do not.

Evidence for the preferential incorporation of emotional waking-life experiences into dreams.

“…Breger, 1967;Koulack, 1993;Piccioni et al, 2002;Wright & Koulack, 1987). For example, dreams are very clearly affected by traumatic experiences (see reviews by, for example, Barrett (1996) and Punamäki (2007)), and other more common stressful waking-life experiences such as surgery (Breger, Hunter, & Lane, 1971) and divorce (Cartwright, 1991(Cartwright, , 2011Cartwright et al, 1984;Cartwright et al, 2001;Cartwright et al, 2006). However, while some experimental studies have found measurable effects of stressful experiences on dreams, mostly in terms of dream affect (de Koninck & Brunette, 1991;de Koninck & Koulack, 1975;Koulack et al, 1985), a naturalistic study found no effect either in terms of direct or indirect incorporations, or changes to dream affect (Delorme et al, 2002).…”

“…Nevertheless, it was surprising that stressfulness was not also found to be a factor, since some research has illustrated that experiencing stressful situations leads to dreaming of those situations, such as surgery (Breger, Hunter, & Lane, 1971) and divorce (Cartwright, 1991(Cartwright, , 2011Cartwright et al, 1984;Cartwright et al, 2001;Cartwright et al, 2006), and many researchers have concluded that dreams reflect waking-life stressors (e.g. Breger, 1967;Koulack, 1993;Piccioni et al, 2002;Schredl, 2002;Wright & Koulack, 1987).…”

Dreams, Unconscious Fantasies and Epigenetics

“…Many clinical psycho-physiologic experiments (Palombo 1973(Palombo , 1978Greenberg and Pearlman 1974 ;Greenberg et al 1990 ;Cartwright 1977Cartwright , 1991 proved to be highly productive in a different way: Their fi ndings reveal correspondences between qualitative and cognitive aspects of dream content and the emotional problems that confronted the dreamer in broad time frames that encompass stressful life problems from the past and the present. These correspondences further emphasize the role of memory and emotion in the dream process.…”

Attachment hypothesis of REM sleep: Toward an integration of psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology and the implications for psychopathology research.

“…Inasmuch as REM deprivation has been associated with increases in drive-related behavior (both sexual and appetitive), this may speak to the palliative effects associated with REM deprivation. However, some have argued that it is the REM rebound effect that is palliative (e.g., Cartwright, 1991), whereas others have attributed the antidepressant effects more directly to REM deprivation per se (e.g., Wu & Bunney, 1990). It is important to note that the prototypical decreased REM latency found among depressives as a group is, upon closer inspection, essentially bimodal.…”