Dreaming has recently become a topic of scientific research. This review updates current findings on dream studies, emphasizing recent research on the neural mechanisms of dreaming. It summarizes new evidence on the functional role of dreams, including insights from studies on dreams and nightmares during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent advances on the neural basis of mental activity during sleep have shifted towards dream-related phenomena, such as dream experiences in relation to parasomnias and hypnagogic hallucinations. Some findings are consistent with the main models explaining dream recall (continuity hypothesis; activation hypothesis), while some results contrast with the role of the parieto-occipital region in dream experience.
Mindfulness meditation, delivered as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) or mindfulness-based therapy for insomnia (MBTI), reduces sleep latency and total wake time and increases total sleep time in people with insomnia, according to randomized controlled studies using both patient-reported and quantitative sleep measures. Both approaches are well accepted by patients and produce long-lasting effects. A three-arm randomized study found similar improvement in insomnia between MBSR and MBTI, with possibly longer duration of efficacy in the MBTI group. MBTI is also effective and accepted for insomnia in older patients.
Dream science remains poorly understood despite extensive study. Older research suffered from methodological problems such as unclear definitions, small sample sizes, and theoretical biases, and evidence is equivocal about whether rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and dreaming have a special relationship. Because the link between REM sleep and dreaming is poorly defined, evidence-based studies require a dream report. Dreaming can be studied through recall frequency, content, effects on waking behavior, associated medications, and pathophysiology. From behavioral, neuroanatomical, neurochemical, pathophysiological, and electrophysiological perspectives, dreaming is a complex cognitive state influenced by medical, psychological, sleep, and social variables.