Month: April 2024

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Dream to remember, dream to forget, dream to feel better…

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Dreaming after an emotional experience might help us feel better in the morning

Although dreaming has been implicated in the consolidation of memories, it seems we also dream to forget. In a similar way that sleep has been shown to clean our brains of clutter, a recent study supports the notion that dreaming helps us rid our minds of non-essential memories so we can focus on what is important to us, but only if we remember our dreams.

Zhang and colleagues (2024) recently completed a study that supports an active role for dreaming in reducing next-day reactivity associated with emotional memories. Their research also suggests there is a mechanism in which dreams enhance salient emotional experiences at the expense of less relevant, or neutral memories. In short, dreaming helps us remember and process what’s important to us, and to forget what is not. But again, only if we recall our dreams.

This is an interesting feature of the study – the results only applied to those who recall dreams. We know that just because we don’t recall dreams in the morning, this does not mean we did not dream during the night. Most of our dreams are forgotten; it has been suggested that dreams do their job even when we don’t recall them. However, this study demonstrates an important role for dreams that we remember upon waking – a possibly a reason it’s worth cultivating greater dream recall.

According to the authors: “This study asks why we dream. Building on prior work demonstrating a link between sleep and the processing of emotional memories, we examine whether dreaming alters overnight memory and emotional reactivity on an emotional picture task. We found that participants who reported dreaming exhibited an emotional memory trade-off, prioritizing retention of negative images over neutral memories, a pattern that was absent in those who did not recall their dreams. Moreover, dreaming was associated with decreased emotional reactivity to negative memories the following day, with reduced reactivity tied to more positive dream content. We provide the first empirical support for dreaming’s active involvement in sleep-dependent emotional memory processing, suggesting that dreaming after an emotional experience might help us feel better in the morning.”

This article juxtaposes the continuity hypothesis of dreaming with that of dreaming as emotional regulation. “The Emotion Regulation theory of dreaming is different from the Continuity theory of dreaming as it proposes that dreams lead to a functional change in emotion regulation during waking.” The authors note a dichotomy in the prevalent theories about dreaming – those who consider dreaming a passive activity ascribe to the continuity of dream affect before, during and after dreaming. Those who ascribe to Emotion Regulation or Simulation theories suggest dreaming plays an active role in changing one’s experience (albeit by different mechanisms: Emotion Regulation by downregulating negative emotions, and Simulation Theory by preparing for future experiences).

The current study is an attempt to test whether dreams actively support the transformation of emotional reactivity by measuring changes after a night of sleep in both those who report dreams and those who do not recall any dreams. If the dream recallers have decreased reactivity the morning after dreaming, this would support the sleep-to-forget, sleep-to-remember (SFSR) hypothesis. SFSR is supported by previous studies which show that REM sleep preferentially preserves emotional memories over neutral ones.

However, the authors note that results of research into the effect of REM sleep on emotional reactivity are decidedly mixed – some studies show increased regulation, others, increased arousal. In surveying existing literature, the authors reached the conclusion that “dreaming might play a role in both the memory consolidation and the emotional regulation aspects of emotional memory processing.”

To test the change in next-day emotional reactivity after memorable dreaming, 125 women were studied, in a mix of sleep lab and at-home settings. The authors were able to replicate prior reports of an emotional memory trade-off in which sleep preferentially enhances consolidation of negative versus neutral memories. They suggest their study “highlights the critical role of dreaming in emotional memory processing during sleep.”

The study also supported prior research showing that emotional reactivity to previous experiences decreases after a night of sleep, but again, this effect was only present in those who remembered their dreams. In participants who did not recall dreams, no significant differences were found between negative and neutral memory performance. This interesting distinction was flagged as “remarkable” and an important topic for future research.

 

Zhang J, Pena A, Delano N, Sattari N, Shuster AE, Baker FC, Simon K, Mednick SC. Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget. Sci Rep. 2024 Apr 15;14(1):8722. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z. PMID: 38622204; PMCID: PMC11018802.

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Trauma-Related Nightmare Type Linked to Higher Suicide Risk

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Adding to the robust literature linking nightmares to suicide risk, a new study offers an important distinction for clinicians: of the 3 nightmare types identified by researchers, only trauma-related nightmares are linked to a greater risk of suicide (Youngren et al., 2024). Idiopathic and complex nightmares (comorbid with sleep and breathing problems) do not lead to higher suicide risk.

The study is important for a couple of reasons. First, it supports the theory of differing nightmare types and their resulting effects on mental health. Second, it provides guidance for clinicians who treat trauma, nightmares, and suicidality. The study also found that those who suffer from trauma-related or complex nightmares are more likely to seek treatment than those who experience idiopathic nightmares.

The study used a sample of 3,543 veterans who had previously attempted suicide. The main goal of the study was to examine the relationship of nightmare type to both suicide reattempt and treatment utilization. Multiple logistical regression analysis showed that when controlling for anxiety and depression, only trauma-related nightmares significantly predicted suicide re-attempts.

The authors speculated that the difference in nightmare content for trauma-related nightmares may account for their greater links with suicide. Trauma-related nightmares tend to be more direct replication of traumatic events, and are more easily recalled than other types of nightmares. Therefore, those who have frequent trauma nightmares are more likely to re-experience their traumatic memories. This can lead to life-threatening despair on its own. And it can also create higher levels of distress that interfere with sleep. Insufficient and poor-quality sleep have been clearly linked to suicide, with or without nightmares.

The authors advocate for nightmare treatment: “Regardless of the mechanism, our findings support treating nightmares to potentially reduce suicide risk.” They note that although prior studies how shown that both psychotherapy and medication failed to reliably help with PTSD-related nightmares (e.g. Peppard et al., 2013; Raskine et al., 2013), the outcome picture is altered when nightmare type is considered. According to a Youngren (2021), when nightmares are divided by type: “trauma-related nightmares appeared to decrease after nightmare-specific therapies such as ERRT, whereas complex nightmares did not.”

This is good news for clinicians. Nightmares directly related to trauma are most highly linked to suicide risk and also appear to be the most amenable to treatment. More good news – although previous studies suggest nightmares are vastly undertreated, the current study shows that those with trauma-related nightmares are more likely to seek treatment than those who suffer from idiopathic (less dangerous) nightmares.

Also noteworthy: the term ‘complex nightmares’ to denote nightmares associated with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a new one. Such nightmares can also be trauma-related, but are associated with poorer dream recall. More research is needed to understand the distinctions between these complex states and their implications for treatment.

Overall this important study is yet another reason for clinicians to ask about nightmares, especially for those patients with suicidal ideation or previous attempts. Another step is to determine whether the dreams depict memories of specific traumatic events. If so, nightmare treatment is not only warranted, but according these recent finding, may reduce both the nightmares and the risk of suicide.

 

Don’t miss our 1-hour seminar on critical information for therapists about nightmares and suicide, including current research and how to help. We are currently offering a 30% discount! Click here to avail the promo!! 

References

Youngren, W. A., Bishop, T., Carr, M., Mattera, E., & Pigeon, W. (2024). Nightmare types and suicide. Dreaming, 34(1), 1.

Youngren, W., Balderas, J., & Farrell-Higgins, J. (2021). How sleep disordered breathing impacts posttrauma nightmares and rescripting therapies. Dreaming, 31(1), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/ drm0000161

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How Does My Dream Mean?

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Feel into the dream images to arrive at your own answers

Yes, you read that correctly. So many people come to me with a dream image or story and want an immediate answer to the question: what does it mean? It’s natural to want to know this because dream images are often so strange and powerfully evocative that we sense there is meaning in them.

But I want to impress on you that meaning in dreaming is not the same as an intellectual understanding or a goal-oriented response to the image. Dreams almost never present a life situation and spell out what you should do. They are asking you to do something quite different – to feel into the image and arrive at your own answers.

When friends ask me what their dream means, I think they are often looking for a particular solution, a quick explanation that will make the dream make sense. But this isn’t how dreams convey meaning. When we’re dreaming, our prefrontal cortex, the part of our brain that thinks logically and makes plans for the future, is mostly asleep. That’s why we can’t seem to find our gate at the airport, act in a decisive fashion, or even notice that we are in the strange world of dreaming. Dreams don’t come from a place of logic but instead are mediated by a different set of neural correlates, the same as those active in daydreaming. It is an imaginative and creative state that moves forward in non-logical steps.

Dreams are the same – they are a world apart from logic, characterized by images and infused with emotion. So to really understand a dream, you need to feel your way into the image. The meaning will come through your body and not necessarily in words, but rather in a felt sense of meaning and of depth. Dream meaning takes you deeper than words, so to really grasp it I suggest you first revisit it experientially, immerse in the felt meaning and then you can try to express this in words, images, music, movement, or whatever medium seems best.

This creative expression will point to the meaning of your dream, though may never quite capture it all. This is because we never have perfect recall of our dream-state experience. There is always a sense of having left far more insight and experience in the dream realm than we can recall. We are left with snippets and fragments and can piece a sense of the whole together from there. It will be imperfect, much like a piece of writing or drawing will never be exactly like what you are trying to express. But the attempt to express is what will bring you closer to how your dream expresses the felt meaning it carries.

 

Meaning and memory sources are not the same

Sometimes dreamers think they understand the meaning of their dream because they can identify the memory sources of their dream. If they saw a scary movie the night before dreaming about a ghost, they’ll say the movie is why they dreamt about a ghost.

This is only partly true. Dreams do pick up ‘day residue’ and also older memories as source material. I see these as a palette for our dream-maker to draw from and recombine so that the dream weaves images that are uniquely meaningful to us. I believe particular images are presented in a way that evokes a nuanced kind of felt sense that we will recognize. Dreams draw from images from our past and yet mostly create new images that are hybrids of things we know and things that are new. Just because you can recognize the memory source doesn’t mean that you already know what the dream means. You’ll still have to feel your way into the image, to understand it at an embodied level.

Dreams express themselves through an embodied emotional experience and can only truly be understood if you re-enter that experience and allow it to speak to you. If you’re looking for a tidy, simple explanation of your dream, you are not going to find it. Or if you do come up with an explanation like that, it may satisfy your intellect, but it won’t be complete. Instead, it will be a delimiting version of what your dream might mean. Like a felt sense, the dream always means more and can open us up to much more than we can immediately say about it. This is part of what makes them so deeply evocative.

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Dream Program Doubles Confidence in Working with Dreams

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The reviews are in! Those who just completed the year-long Embodied Experiential Dreamwork program last year said their confidence in tending dreams is now at 8 out of 10 – up from a class average of 3.7 at the start of the program.

If you are considering taking this program, you may be interested in what our recent grads had to say about it. Here are some of the comments from our exit survey:

“Since taking this program, personally, I now pay more attention to my dreams because I am more fully at ease with them and  have various ways of being with them – many ways of opening the doors that can lead to possible meanings.

Professionally, I can offer clients these ways of helping them be with their dreams, particularly bad dreams and nightmares. For those considering taking this program: it is well worth the time, energy and effort. There is so much specifically and practically to learn about dreams and how to work with them.”

– Tom Larkin, Focusing Oriented Therapist and Certifying Coordinator

 

“I really liked both theoretical and experiential learning. I was needing a more structured and systematic knowledge about dreamwork, and this course really provided me with that. It’s a beautiful foundation. I also liked our group very much, so many beautiful people with different backgrounds and sensitivities, and I think that all of us being honest and engaged together really contributed to the richness of experience.”

– Ivana Kolakovic, Registered Psychotherapist

 

“My most loved aspects were witnessing Leslie working with dreams in a group setting, and the intimacy of the group itself. I also loved the spaciousness in the container and the levity Leslie brought to the group. Clinically, I loved the experiential aspects of focusing and dreamwork combined.  As a result of taking this program, I now move slower with my dreams and I feel more connected to figures and aspects that show up. I also feel more resourced in my work with dreams.

Something else I loved about this program is that it wasn’t formulaic, but process oriented, which really supported the individual finding their own way. It was a nice blend of clinical and personal exploration.

I would also say another benefit is the small group size, because you really get to be in a safe and intimate space. It also provides an opportunity to try on others’ dream images and expand figures within your own dreamscape.”

– Jaclyn Woods, LMFT

 

“If you’re interested in working with dreams this is a solid, inspiring, practical, evidence-based method that has empowered me to connect more deeply with my own dream life and work with my clients and their dreams with confidence.”

– Kate Tenni, Sensorimotor Art Therapist and Grief Counsellor

 

About the Instructor(s) – Here are a few comments, thank you so much

Leslie has so so much knowledge but also this beautiful talent for attunement and sensitivity to track the dreamer’s internal life

10+! Leslie was brilliant! She was clear, flexible, so empathic. She created a lovely virtual space in which to be and work, and held each of us preciously when we shared.

Leslie is thoroughly knowledgeable, extremely skilled and competent, open and welcoming, responsive, flexible, clear, articulate, tech savvy, approachable.

Robbyn is also incredibly gifted.  The sessions with her were such a helpful supplement and practice time. (Robbyn assists with the class and offers a bonus dream session between class meetings.)

For more information about the ‘EE’ program, here is the link.

 

 

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Sleep Paralysis… curse or blessing?

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A first encounter with sleep paralysis (SP) is usually terrifying. But for those who experience it often and learn to stay calm, it can be entryway to lucid dreaming and extraordinary states.

Ryan Hurd, a sleep paralysis expert, has experienced hundreds of episodes himself and offers a road map for those who experience it. The following is a summary of his book, Sleep Paralysis, A Guide to Hynagogic Visions & Visitors of the Night.

In Hurd’s initial encounter with SP at age 14, all he wanted to do was wake up from the nightmare: first a ring, then a menacing voice that said, ‘Darkness rules!’ A pervasive felt sense of evil. The strong feeling of being pushed down forcibly into sleep. He was left feeling crazy, haunted and reticent to talk about his experience. It was classic a SP episode, and it deeply influenced the course of his life. He later became both a dream researcher, lecturer and lifelong lucid dreamer.

 

Symptoms of Sleep Paralysis

Hurd said the symptoms of SP are “near universal” and “noted throughout history and across cultures.” An episode might include one or more of the following:

Inability to move;
a feeling of great weight on your chest, abdomen and/or throat;
hearing buzzing or crackling sounds, or voices;
difficulty breathing;
heart racing;
extreme fear;
out-of-body experience;
electrical current or shock;
seeing lots of spiders or insects;
sensing, seeing and/or bring touched by an apparition or presence;
full awareness and a sense that what is happening is very real.

Isolated SP is common – about 40% of people experience it at least once in their lifetime (and a full 75% of post-secondary students). Alarming as it is, SP is a normal part of sleep, not pathological or a sign of psychosis.* It happens most often from sleep deprivation or disrupted sleep cycles (ie shift work, jet lag, late-night partying). It is an intrusion of REM/dreaming during the transition from wake-to-sleep or sleep-to-wake. In essence, your dreams are being superimposed onto the waking state. This is why the visions that arise can feel so real.

 

Ways to Manage Sleep Paralysis

Most people who experience SP occasionally simply want the hellish experience to stop. Hurd has found the following series of responses to be the most helpful:

  • Identify to yourself that you are having an eposide of SP
  • Surrender, don’t fight it (or it intensifies)
  • Wiggle your toes or clench a fist to break the paralysis
  • Focus on calm, steady breathing
  • Wait patiently for the episode to end, usually after a minute or two

Some people experience multiple episodes of sleep paralysis, or have a series of false awakenings. If you are worried about falling asleep and back into another episode, Hurd suggests you wake up more fully before going back to sleep:

  • Expose your eyes to bright light for a least a minute
  • Get up and do 10 minute of exercise
  • Write about the encouter in your journal

Then go back to sleep! Do not make things worse with even more sleep deprivation. To prevent SP, good sleep hygiene is essential… things like sleeping and waking at the same time every day, sleeping in a cool, dark, quiet place that you feel safe in, avoiding caffeine, alcohol and strenuous exercise too close to bedtime.

 

Get to Know the ‘Stranger’

For those who have learned to relax and go with the SP experience, and are brave and curious about the presence that appears to them, Hurd suggests turning toward the apparition with openness and trust (with the caveat that not all of the figures that appear are benign). However, if it feels available to you and safe enough, he suggests you relax, trust, be curious, ask what the stranger wants. These actions can transform the presence into something helpful and healing.

He notes that many tales of hauntings and magical creatures may in fact stem from sleep paralysis. A major clue is the timing of the visitation – if the presence appears at the edges of sleep, it is likely a hypnagogic hallucination. Vampires, the legend of the Sea Hag, ghosts, out-of-body experiences and even alien abductions may be attributed to sleep paralysis. It can also be a doorway to lucid dreaming and deeply spiritual encounters.

 

Sleep Paralysis as a Doorway to Extraordinary States

Despite his initially terrifying experiences with SP, Hurd now sees these as a “blessing in disguise.” If you recognize the state you are in as SP, you are already dreaming while awake, and can use this to co-create the kinds of dreams you would like to have. He suggest that once you have come to terms with your personal beliefs and have learned to relax into an SP state, you can “focus on the kinds of dreams you want to have and watch them materialize around you.”

He describes how you can use SP as an entrée into out-of-body experiences, lucid dreaming, creativity and spiritual growth.

Hurd even suggests ways to encourage SP (and of course do the opposite if you want to prevent it): Sleep on your back; take a nap when you are sleep-deprived or have jet-lag; or wake up 2 hours before your usual time, and nap later. When you nap while sleep-deprived, there is pressure to make up for a lack of REM sleep, and this intrusion of REM can induce the mixed state of SP.

The key message in all of this is that the valence of the visions which appear to us in a hynagogic state are dependent on the degree of safety we feel. The more frightened we are, the more terrifying the images that visit. It is an example of how we co-create dreams. If we stay calm, we can engage with the dream state while maintaining lucid awareness. Hurd notes that those new to lucid dreaming often treat it as a “virtual playground’ and invite fantasy experiences like flying or sex. But deepening into the experience can lead to truly extraordinary visions and “even a taste of enlightenment.”

 

Don’t miss our 1-hour seminar on critical information for therapists about nightmares and suicide, including current research and how to help. We are currently offering a 30% discount! Click here to avail the promo!

 

Reference:

Hurd, Ryan (2011). Sleep Paralysis, A Guide to Hynagogic Visions & Visitors of the Night. Los Altos, CA: Hyena Press.

*Symptoms of typical isolated sleep paralysis are not considered harmful – unless they include sleep apnea, narcolepsy or other parasomnias. If you have any concerns, consult a sleep medicine professional for diagnosis and treatment.