Why Do We Dream?

By Eleanor McGlinchey, PhD

Why do we dream?

Over the past few months, it is clear that our world has changed – which means that many of the things on people’s minds have also changed. Given this context, it may seem strange to talk about something like why we dream. However, I believe dreaming (in the literal and hopeful sense) might be what we need more of right now.

I am sure that if you have ever done a quick google search of “Why do we dream”, you have seen at least 100 different answers to this question - many of them bizarre and perhaps nonsensical. Funny how that works, as that also happens to be how dreams are actually experienced! If you remember your dreams upon waking, they may not appear related to what’s going on in your life. Yet dreams can have some aspect of our alert lives or far back memories of people or places woven into them – and furthermore, we often experience dreams as very real. So what does it all mean? There are some great theories out there about this but I’d like to focus on a few common questions about dreams and propose that dreaming IS a form of nightly therapy.

Since the early days of clinical psychology, dreams were valued by clinicians as sources of information on the inner workings of their patients. Over time, neuropsychological research focused on when dreams occur within the sleep cycle, with dedicated attention to understanding when dreams begin to negatively affect the dreamer, either by impairing sleep quality or causing psychological distress while awake.

Bad dreams vs nightmares

There are two types of distressing dreams: bad dreams and nightmares. Bad dreams contain negative content that the dreamer recalls once awake, yet the content does not cause startled awakenings. Nightmares, on the other hand, frequently occur during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep during the second half of one’s sleep cycle and cause individuals to wake up in a fright.

The differentiation of bad dreams from nightmares can be helpful as more and more research suggests that bad dreams actually help the dreamer cope with difficult emotions through the dream itself. When we are awake, it is common to push away hard emotions that we do not want to feel or reflect upon. However, during dreaming sleep, research shows that the emotion centers of your brain are very active while the logic and inhibition centers of the brain are essentially “turned off”. That is why the content of the dream might not seem rationale or interpretable, but emotions such as sadness, anxiety, or powerlessness may be very present and even reflect an emotion you were holding at bay during the day. These bad dreams at night are actually working through tough emotions in unexpected ways when your brain is less inhibited so that by morning, you have actually done some major work in coping with the emotions you were likely to rationalize or resist during waking hours. Even if you can’t remember your dreams, your brain still had this active time of processing those emotions.

Treatment for nightmares: Imagery Rehearsal Therapy

Unfortunately, nightmares are not good nighttime therapy. A nightmare happens when the stress of a dream becomes too overwhelming and the dreamer must wake in order to escape the emotional experience occurring in the dream. In a sense, the therapeutic process of dreaming becomes disrupted. One treatment method for nightmares is Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT), which is a form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT.) IRT is conducted through a series of therapy sessions in which dreamers recount their nightmares but are then encouraged to imagine them following a different, more pleasing storyline. IRT is simply an adjusted form of traditional imagery exercises commonly used as a mindfulness or relaxation skill in therapy, sport performance psychology, or even yoga classes.

Keeping track of your nightmares

IRT consists of three main parts that can usually be adapted and adjusted based on the person. First, the morning after a nightmare, the dreamer audio records a detailed account of their nightmare. The second part requires intentionally changing the content of the dream (whether one part or multiple parts) so that it no longer causes distress and recording this new, modified dream. The most important step is rehearsing (through listening to the audio or repeating aloud) to the modified dream before preparing to go to sleep. Finally, the dreamer journals about what they reviewed in their mind and how it affected them.

Imagery Rehearsal Therapy is effective

While some researchers believe that a form of reconditioning may be at the heart of why IRT works, how exactly this imagery rehearsal exercise changes nightmares requires further research. What we do know is that it has been found to be an effective treatment! If you are interested in learning more about IRT or trying it yourself with professional support, please reach out to a sleep specialist.

Have you ever shared your dreams with your therapist or anyone else? Did you know that you can change your nightmares? And perhaps more importantly, in these uncertain and distressing times we live in, I encourage you to not only reflect on your literal nightly dreams but also on your waking hopes and dreams. Take some time, even if small, to quiet distractions and imagine what hope looks like for you outside of our 2020 circumstances. This quiet rest, if practiced often, might make a world of difference in your both your nighttime and waking dreams.