Dissociated Effects of Age and Recent Troubling Experiences on Nightmares, Threats and Negative Emotions in Dreams

Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation

There is increasing evidence that sleep plays an important role in affective processing. However, it is unclear whether dreaming-the subjective experiences we have during sleep-also serves an affect regulation function. Here, we investigated the within-person relationship between negative affect experienced in dreams and next-day waking affect level, affect reactivity, and affect regulation. For 5 days, 40 participants reported their dreams and rated their dream affect and post-sleep waking affect level upon morning awakening. Thereafter, they performed an affect reactivity and regulation task which involved viewing neutral and negative pictures with the instruction either to simply view the pictures or to down-regulate the affect evoked by these pictures. Multilevel regression analyses showed that the more negative affect people experienced in their dreams at night, the more negative affect and the less positive affect they reported the next morning. However, negative dream affect was associated neither with affect reactivity to the pictures nor with the ability to down-regulate negative affect in response to these pictures. In fact, Bayesian analyses favored the null hypotheses. These findings fail to provide support for the affect regulation function of dreaming and, instead, speak for affective continuity between dreaming and post-sleep wakefulness.

Dreamers' evaluation of the emotional valence of their day-to-day dreams is indicative of some mood regulation function

Dreams may contribute to psychological adaptation by aiding in mood regulation. One way it could be achieved is through a desensitization process whereby negative events are replayed within the dream under lower conditions of negative emotionality. Evidence of this theory is supported by the tendency of dreamers to evaluate their emotions felt in their dreams more positively compared to an independent judge (i.e., positivity bias). Additionally, it has been observed that while dream emotions are typically more negative than pre-sleep emotions, morning emotions are more positive, suggesting that emotional regulation occurs overnight and may help improve mood in the morning. The present study aimed to examine the relationships between pre-sleep, dream, and morning mood and the potential desensitization function of remembered dreams as indicated by their effects on morning mood and stress. Methodology: Participants (N = 188; Mean age = 19.2, SD = 3.0) recorded their dreams (N = 345 dreams) and self-reported their stress and mood at bedtime, during their dream retrospectively, and upon waking. A judge also evaluated the subjects' dream moods. Subjects' positivity bias was defined as the difference between the subjects and the judge's evaluation of the positive emotions in the dream. Results: A MANOVA revealed that subjects perceived a higher level of positive emotions in their dreams compared to a judge. Multi-group path analysis revealed that some relationships between pre-sleep, dream, and morning emotions and stress differed in positive and negative dream nights. In both groups, the strongest predictors of morning mood and stress were pre-sleep mood and stress, respectively. The second strongest predictor of positive morning mood was the subjects' dream positivity bias. Conclusion: Results provide some support for the association of dreaming in mood regulation attributable to REM sleep. They also highlight that pathways implicated in mood regulation may be distinct from stress regulation.