0139 Testing the Mood Regulatory Hypothesis of Dreaming
Sleep April 20, 2024 Garrett Baber, Daiil Jun, Jeffrey M. Girard et al.
Fearful dreams are associated with worse mood the following day, not better. Analyzing 4986 daily reports from 553 participants, the study found that on days when a person's dream contained more fear, their next-day negative affect was 14% higher—more than twice the effect of poor sleep efficiency (6%). People who generally had more fearful dreams also reported 12% higher average negative affect. These results contradict the theory that dreaming about fear helps regulate mood through a process similar to desensitization therapy. Instead, fearful dreams appear to be a meaningful day-to-day predictor of lower mood, independent of sleep quality and personality traits like neuroticism.