Function of dreams.

Breger, Louis

doi:10.1037/h0025040

Cited by 128 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Several researchers have suggested that stressful waking-life experiences are also preferentially incorporated into dreams, indicating that stressfulness, as well as emotionality, may be a factor that influences continuity (e.g. 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).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, evidence suggests that dreams facilitate 'mastery' over affectively arousing memories (Breger, 1967;Koulack, 1993;Wright & Koulack, 1987); emotional experiences are dreamt of repetitively until they are resolved (Hartmann, 1998); and dreams may enable the amelioration of emotions attached to waking-life experiences (Hartmann, 1996;Walker & van der Helm, 2009), perhaps particularly for fear emotions (Levin & Nielsen, 2007Levin et al, 2010;Nielsen & Lara-Carrasco, 2007). Another interpretation of the results could come from the emotional memory consolidation theory of sleep and dreaming, which is related to, but slightly different from, the emotion-processing theory.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Malinowski¹,

Horton²

2014

Dreaming

108

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The Continuity Hypothesis of dreaming states that waking life is continuous with dreams, but many of the factors that have been postulated to influence wakedream continuity have rarely been studied. The present study investigated whether certain factors -emotional and stressfulness intensity, and certain types of experiences -influence the likelihood of a waking-life experience being incorporated into a dream. Participants (N=32) kept dream diaries and waking-life experience logs for fourteen consecutive days, and waking-life experiences were matched to dream reports. Waking-life experiences that were incorporated into dreams were significantly more emotional, but no more stressful, than those that were not incorporated into dreams. Major daily activities were incorporated significantly less than the combination of personally significant experiences, major concerns, and novel experiences. Results are discussed in terms of dream functionality, particularly in relation to a postulated emotional memory assimilation theory of dream function.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Malinowski¹,

Horton²

2014

Dreaming

108

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“…He does a thorough job of pulling together recent work on the role of sleep in memory formation and he responds well to the many voices that still are skeptical of this relationship. This is a battle that has been going on since the early days of modern sleep research, when investigators such as Hawkins (1966), Breger (1967), Dewan (1970), Greenberg (1970), Hartmann (1970), Stern (1970), Fishbein (1971), Pearlman (1973), Glaubman et al (1978), Hennevin and Leconte (1977), and Palombo (1978) began to publish studies related to the role of REM sleep in the integration of information or memory. Walker's summary of recent work builds on the earlier work in a most convincing manner.…”

Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where is the classic interference theory for sleep and memory?

Coenen

2005

Behav Brain Sci

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Walker's target article proposes a refinement of the well known two-stage model of memory formation to explain the positive effects of sleep on consolidation. After a first stage in which a labile memory representation is formed, a further stabilisation of the memory trace takes place in the second stage, which is dependent on (REM) sleep. Walker has refined the latter stage into a stage in which a consolidation-based enhancement occurs. It is not completely clear what consolidation-based enhancement implies and how it can be dissociated from a stage for memory-stabilisation. A more serious consideration, however, is whether a second stage in memory consolidation that is solely dependent on sleep, is really necessary. The classical, passive, interference theory is able to explain adequately the findings related to the effects of sleep and memory, and can lead perhaps better to an understanding of the highly variable data in this field.

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“…While Freud (1900) emphasized the wish-fulfilling function of dreams, later theorists have viewed the dream both as a creative outlet for problem-solving and as a source for the integration of disparate affective elements that remain isolated during waking mentation (Breger, 1967;Cartwright, 1986;Erikson, 1954;French & Fromm, 1964;Jones, 1962;Fosshage, 1983;Brown & Donderi, 1986;Levin, 1990;Moffitt, Kramer, & Hoffman, 1993).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike waking conscious thought which can be so readily manipulated, both intentionally or otherwise, the dream lays bare the interplay of deeper motivations as well as cognitive and affective processes which remain relatively unaffected by the demand characteristics of everyday social discourse (Breger, 1967;Fromm, 1951).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%