The laterality of dreaming.

Dreaming appears to be lateralized to the left hemisphere in people with typical brain organization, according to a review of neurological cases where brain damage led to loss or change in dream recall. The distribution of lesion sites across the left and right hemispheres was analyzed to test competing hypotheses about whether dream generation is controlled by the right hemisphere, left hemisphere, or both hemispheres equally or unequally. The evidence best supports the left-hemisphere hypothesis.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The cortical locus of dream generation could be lateralized to the right or left hemisphere, or be bilaterally represented with either equal or unequal contributions from each hemisphere. In this paper we review the neurological literature for cases of loss or alteration of dream report after brain damage. The distribution of lesion sites is used to test the various hypotheses concerning the laterality of dreaming. The hypothesis receiving best support is that dreaming is lateralized to the left hemisphere in individuals with typical neurologic organization.