Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget.
Jing Zhang, Andres Pena, Nicole Delano, Negin Sattari, Alessandra E Shuster, Fiona C Baker, Katharine Simon, Sara C Mednick
Scientific Reports April 15, 2024 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-58170-z (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Duration | One night |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Emotional memory trade-off and sleep-dependent reductions in emotional reactivity occurred only in participants who recalled dreams, not in those who did not. |
Abstract
Dreaming is a universal human behavior that has inspired searches for meaning across many disciplines including art, psychology, religion, and politics, yet its function remains poorly understood. Given the suggested role of sleep in emotional memory processing, we investigated whether reported overnight dreaming and dream content are associated with sleep-dependent changes in emotional memory and reactivity, and whether dreaming plays an active or passive role. Participants completed an emotional picture task before and after a full night of sleep and they recorded the presence and content of their dreams upon waking in the morning. The results replicated the emotional memory trade-off (negative images maintained at the cost of neutral memories), but only in those who reported dreaming (Dream-Recallers), and not in Non-Dream-Recallers. Results also replicated sleep-dependent reductions in emotional reactivity, but only in Dream-Recallers, not in Non-Dream-Recallers. Additionally, the more positive the dream report, the more positive the next-day emotional reactivity is compared to the night before. These findings implicate an active role for dreaming in overnight emotional memory processing and suggest a mechanistic framework whereby dreaming may enhance salient emotional experiences via the forgetting of less relevant information.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Student volunteers trained to become lucid and signal lucidity with horizontal eye... | 2009 | Observational study | n = 6 |
| Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Young adults with a mean age of 20 years | 2002 | Prospective observational study | n = 116 |
| Long-term effects of extreme situational stress on sleep and dreaming Survivors of traumatic events who complained of sleep disturbances, compared with... | 1987 | Case-control study | n = 11 |
| The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Adults who reported dreams | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 147 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 11
- The cathartic dream: Using a large language model to study a new type of functional dream in healthy and clinical populations Journal of Sleep Research February 9, 2025
- Nightly dynamics of emotional content in dreams bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) June 28, 2025
- Association Between Dreams, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms Among Japanese Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study Clocks & Sleep June 26, 2025
- Experimentally inducing dreams of remote emotional memory SLEEP Advances 2025
- Dream experiences and associated sleep, mental health, and lifestyle factors in Japanese adolescents: a cross-sectional study Sleep Epidemiology September 29, 2026
and 6 more in the library
Cites 13
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- Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming Frontiers in Psychology August 18, 2015
- Investigation on Neurobiological Mechanisms of Dreaming in the New Decade Brain Sciences February 11, 2021
- Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience October 19, 2022
- A meta-analysis of the relation between dream content and memory consolidation Sleep December 11, 2023
and 8 more in the library