Dreams

• low-level sensory areas or high-order sensory areas

  • dreams may be more closely related to the imagination than perception

• Lesion studies- have shown that the tempero-parieto-occipital junction must be intact

  • region effects imagery in wakefulness

• dreams are created in a way of imagery

  • this accounts for strange properties in dreams 

    • ex: scene switches, blended characters, weird plot

• Waking- watching the live news

• Dreaming- watching a movie being created by an interesting and creative director

Nightmares

• nightmares can be characterized as repeated occurrences of extremely dysphoric and well-remembered dreams that usually involve a threat to one's survival, physical integrity, or security.

  • most result in early awakening, and worsened sleep quality

  • people generally wake up restless, and alert, but with obvious emotional and physical signs of stress

    • fear, tachycardia, tachypnea, cold sweats

  • may be recurrent in people with PTSD, depression, or anxiety

• Idiopathic vs posttraumatic nightmares

  • idiopathic- unknown etiology, and is unrelated to other disorders

    • content is generally unspecific

      • failure, being chased, helplessness, evil force, disaster

    • they can serve as an adaptation to any stressful event in currently happening in life

  • posttraumatic- part of the stress reaction following a traumatic event

    • suicidal dreams

• nightmares in turn can create more anxiety in the waking life

• depression: recurrent nightmares can worsen depression as it can create melancholy after awakening which can last the rest of the day

• dreams are not only generated by the brainstem during REM sleep but by complex forebrain mechanisms independently of REM

  • IMPAIRED FEAR EXTINCTION IS CONTINUOUSLY ACTIVATED IN PEOPLE WITH NIGHTMARE DISORDER

    • RESULTS IN PEOPLE PROCESSING NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE SEMANTIC STIMULI MORE HEAVILY

Lucid dream therapy

• Lucid Dreaming- the person has control over their dream, they can even control their own plot

  • this could in turn help people with recurring nightmares by actively having them change the course of their dream

• Neurobiological mechanisms

  • frontal activation > inhibits the limbic system

  • in REM frontal activity is usually decreased

  • in lucid dreams (LD) frontal gamma activity is increased (~40 Hz)

    • frontal region deals with executive control, rational judgment, attention, and working memory

  • In REM there is also an increase in dopamine levels which generally occurs in the nucleus accumbens

  • in theory, activation of the frontal lobe will suppress the limbic system during LD which could decrease the intensity and frequency of nightmares

  • There are limitations since lucid nightmares can also occur

• this type of psychotherapy would happen in a 6-week period with therapists there to guide patients through techniques

• techniques would then be used in the dreams to help decrease the intensity of the nightmares

conclusion

• may be efficient

• even when lucidity is not achieved, the induction exercises help patients develop critical thinking over their dreams

Many of the studies had very minimal differences and doing research can be difficult since most of the information is taken from the subjects' responses. Sample sizes are also generally small which means the results are limited. It is also very difficult to manipulate dream content specifically.