Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget.
Scientific Reports April 15, 2024 Jing Zhang, Andres Pena, Nicole Delano et al.
Dreaming appears to play an active role in how the brain processes emotional memories during sleep. People who reported dreaming after a full night of sleep showed the typical emotional memory trade-off—remembering negative images better while forgetting neutral ones—and also showed reduced emotional reactivity the next day. Those who did not recall dreams showed neither effect. Additionally, more positive dream content was linked to more positive emotional reactivity the following day. These results suggest that dreaming actively helps process emotional experiences, possibly by enhancing important memories and allowing less relevant information to fade.