Sleep, to us, represents a state of complete relaxation that allows us to recharge ourselves and carry out tasks. However, the significance of sleep to our bodies is far greater than just that. Particularly significant is the role that sleep plays in the long-term retention of memories. While sleeping is not the only time in which we dream, an average individual might dream for 2 hours a night. Dreams have a greater impact on our consciousness than we realise and a significant amount of research has been carried out to interpret their importance, meaning, and causation. According to the continual activation theory, we dream to process and encode data from short- to long-term memory.
Our perception of reality relies largely on our past memories. However, researchers know that memories are fragile and can be easily amended by suggestion. These suggestions can come about through an altered state of our consciousness that often occurs during each REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle. REM sleep is the deepest stage of sleep and also the period during which we dream the most. Certain experimental models of psychosis have shown how the cognitive disconnect and lack of awareness while sleeping can cause our dreams to be mistaken for real memories. To better understand this relationship, a study was conducted that hypothesized and concluded that the process of encoding episodic memories in our sleep is similar to the mechanisms of the conscious mind. The malleability of the conscious mind may lead to a dissonance between reality and what we dream.
Oneirophrenia, a hallucinatory dream-like state easily confused with reality, was initially confused with schizophrenia, but gained its definition circa 1950. One of the markers of this state is derealization and mistaking hallucinations with reality. Sleep deprivation, one of the primary causes of oneirophrenia, naturally reduces the amount of REM sleep we get every night. Moreover, sleep consolidation increases the total percentage of REM sleep, ultimately improving cognitive functions. Simply put, tired people sleep more deeply and dream more vividly.
An extension of this is dream-reality confusion (DRC) that occurs in approximately 15% of all healthy people with this percentage going up to 83% in patients with narcolepsy and also shows an increase in those with a borderline personality disorder.
The Florence False Interpretation study further confirmed the malleability of one’s consciousness by conducting a 30-minute dream interpretation psychotherapy session which resulted in the participants falsely believing that they had undergone a mildly traumatic childhood event because of particular details from their dreams. Along with sleep-related issues, people exhibiting DRC also tested high on neuroticism and dissociative symptoms. Those with high dream recall often strongly identify with emotions they feel while dreaming. When these feelings have a long term retention span, they mimic memories in our brain and are identified by us as a real experience, whether real or not. We are more prone to making such errors if our dreams feel realistic. However, only 10% of our dreams have been shown to be distorted with the rest being fairly ordinary scenarios.
Another prominent factor in DRC is one’s degree of awareness during the dreams.
Extremely vivid dreams can eventuate particularly owing to lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is mostly intentional and does not have a spontaneous onset. It occurs during the REM phase of sleep and can be induced through forms of psychotherapy or meditation. Lucid dreaming has shown positive benefits in improving a person’s physiological condition. There is anecdotal evidence of it being used to alleviate anxiety and some empirical evidence of its efficacy in the management of PTSD. With this method, a sense of control is evoked in the dreamer as they can consciously determine the course of their dream.
The continuity hypothesis elucidates the content of our dream as being relevant to our present and past experiences. We can also trace this concept back to the Freudian postulate as explained in The Interpretation of Dreams, indicating that we cannot fully separate the content of our dreams from our consciousness. This is because our consciousness and subsequently our perception is our reality, as a sum, can alter our past experiences and with it, our ability to make decisions.
While we may not be able to accurately measure the extent to which our sleep can affect our reality, it is evident that a variety of factors can cause substantial change for the same. This opens up avenues for sleep researchers to better answer the epistemological question — Why do we dream? Understanding the role that sleep and dreams play in our consciousness can help us get an understanding of sleep disorders and their treatment, ultimately furthering the quality of mental healthcare.
Aria Dabholkar
