Mental Sleep Activity and Disturbing Dreams in the Lifespan

Abstract

Sleep significantly changes across the lifespan, and several studies underline its crucial role in cognitive functioning. Similarly, mental activity during sleep tends to covary with age. This review aims to analyze the characteristics of dreaming and disturbing dreams at different age brackets. On the one hand, dreams may be considered an expression of brain maturation and cognitive development, showing relations with memory and visuo-spatial abilities. Some investigations reveal that specific electrophysiological patterns, such as frontal theta oscillations, underlie dreams during sleep, as well as episodic memories in the waking state, both in young and older adults. On the other hand, considering the role of dreaming in emotional processing and regulation, the available literature suggests that mental sleep activity could have a beneficial role when stressful events occur at different age ranges. We highlight that nightmares and bad dreams might represent an attempt to cope the adverse events, and the degrees of cognitive-brain maturation could impact on these mechanisms across the lifespan. Future investigations are necessary to clarify these relations. Clinical protocols could be designed to improve cognitive functioning and emotional regulation by modifying the dream contents or the ability to recall/non-recall them.

Dream Recall upon Awakening from Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep in Older Adults: Electrophysiological Pattern and Qualitative Features

“…Additionally, the temporo-parietal junction is involved in the cortical network responsible for mental imagery and visual memory [ 41 ]. Interestingly, some studies on DR in children revealed a relationship between dreaming and visuospatial /visual memory skills, which depend on the brain maturation of posterior areas (for a review, see [ 17 , 19 ]). Additionally, studies on the complete cessation of dreaming showed the pivotal role of parietal and occipital areas in generating and recalling the processes of dream experience [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ].…”

“…It is worth noting that dream research is almost totally restricted to young participants, and we know very little about the evolution of these mechanisms during the lifespan (for a review, see [ 17 ]). In particular, the effect of aging on dreaming has been poorly investigated, despite the close relationship between aging and sleep changes [ 18 , 19 ]. It is well known that significant variations characterize the sleep macrostructure in older people.…”

“…However, some lines of research collecting the DR frequency in older adults showed a critical age-related reduction in DR rate. On the one hand, this reduction may be associated with cognitive deterioration and difficulties in the storage and recall of dream materials [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]; on the other hand, it may be related to the loss of interest in one’s own mental sleep activity (i.e., dream salience) during older age [ 19 , 23 , 24 ]. However, this issue has been extensively debated since the drop in DR rate was found already during middle age [ 21 , 25 ], and no differences occurred between middle-aged and older adults [ 26 ].…”

The Influence of Sleep Quality, Vigilance, and Sleepiness on Driving-Related Cognitive Abilities: A Comparison between Young and Older Adults

“…As people age, sleep undergoes some macrostructural and microstructural changes [19][20][21][22]. Concerning macrostructural modifications, the senescence induces shorter sleep duration, longer sleep latency times, a higher number of intra-sleep awakenings, more time spent in the lighter stages of sleep, reduction of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and deeper stages of Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep, advanced phase (i.e., the anticipation of the sleep beginning and the morning awakening) and increased daytime naps (for a review, see [19]).…”

<p>Electrophysiological Correlates of Dream Recall During REM Sleep: Evidence from Multiple Awakenings and Within-Subjects Design</p>

“…Besides, our sample is totally composed of young university students and this could represent a bias that does not allow us to generalize our results. For instance, since the literature on dreaming during lifespan is very poor, 7,8,35 within-subject studies will carry out on larger age ranges (eg, older adults; children). Although the difficulty of obtaining the NREC condition during REM sleep is well known, 1 our sample consisting of 10 subjects with within-subject comparisons is relatively small and further investigation should enlarge the sample size to strengthen the current findings.…”