Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams

Emotional intensity in dreams increases as the night progresses, with late-night dreams rated as more emotional than those from early sleep. This pattern was observed in a multiple awakening study of 20 participants who provided 61 dream reports. Contrary to expectations, the rise in emotionality was not tied to REM sleep awakenings. Late-night dream reports were also longer, but report length did not correlate with emotional intensity, suggesting that emotionality is independent of recall ability or narrative complexity. The findings indicate that emotional processing during sleep may unfold across the night through mechanisms separate from those governing dream recall or story elaboration.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Emotional processing is a crucial adaptive function. Research suggests that sleep, particularly rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, may have a role in processing the emotional load of past events. Notably, dream experiences may offer insight into this nighttime process. Some studies have reported increased emotionality in dreams as the night progresses, possibly reflecting ongoing emotional processing in the sleeping brain. However, findings on how dream affect evolves throughout the night remain mixed. In this study, we investigated how emotional intensity in conscious experiences during sleep changes across the night and sleep stages. Participants (N subjects = 20) were subjected to a multiple awakening paradigm, where they were awakened 4-5 times throughout the night and asked to recall their dreams (N dreams = 61). Additionally, they rated the emotional intensity of their experiences using a structured cued questionnaire. Emotional intensity in dreams increased significantly throughout the night, with late-night dreams being more emotional than dreams collected during earlier sleep. Contrary to our expectation, this increase was not driven by dream reports obtained from REM sleep awakenings. Moreover, late- night dream reports were also significantly longer than those from early sleep, yet the length of the dream reports did not correlate with their emotional intensity. This suggests that the emotionality of dreams is not directly linked to the ability to recall the dream or its narrative complexity. Instead, it could be driven by emotional processes occurring independently throughout the night, or by other factors that regulate our access to dream experiences and their emotional content.