Nightmares, Dream Engineering, and Evolutionary Thresholds of Dysfunction
Sérgio da Silva
Psychology International July 24, 2026 DOI: 10.3390/psycholint8030046 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key points | Argues that unpleasant dreams may be adaptive outputs of threat simulation and emotional processing systems, and that the key distinction is between self-limiting processes and those crossing into maladaptive feedback loops, supporting selective dream engineering for dysfunctional nightmares. |
Abstract
Why do humans produce dysphoric dreams and nightmares at all? This paper develops a cautious evolutionary theory of unpleasant dreaming by extending the logic of evolutionary psychiatry to dream life. Research on dream continuity suggests that dreams are not detached from waking mental life, but instead reflect current concerns, emotional preoccupations, memory fragments, and bodily states. Work on threat simulation, emotional processing during sleep, and the neurocognitive structure of nightmares further suggests that some disturbing dreams may not be mere malfunctions. Rather, they may be costly outputs of systems involved in salience tracking, threat rehearsal, emotional adaptation, or flexible model updating. At the same time, nightmare research shows that recurrent and trauma-linked nightmares can become clinically serious, producing sleep disruption, daytime distress, and functional impairment. This paper argues that the proper distinction is not between “useful dreams” and “pathological nightmares” in any simple sense, but between unpleasant dream processes that remain self-limiting and those that cross a threshold into maladaptive feedback loops. On that basis, dream engineering is defended not as routine suppression of unpleasant dreaming, but as a selective and limited intervention appropriate when recurrence, rigidity, carryover, and impairment indicate dysfunction. A structured research agenda is proposed to test this threshold model and to distinguish adaptive bad dreams from pathological nightmares.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 18
- Aetiology and treatment of nightmare disorder: State of the art and future perspectives Journal of Sleep Research January 29, 2019
- Dream content and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study of the continuity hypothesis Journal of Clinical Psychology 2005
- Targeted dream incubation at sleep onset increases post-sleep creative performance Scientific Reports May 15, 2023
- The effectiveness of lucid dreaming therapy in patients with nightmares: A systematic review. L'Encephale October 1, 2023
- Benefits and concerns of seeking and experiencing lucid dreams: benefits are tied to successful induction and dream control. SLEEP Advances 2022
and 13 more in the library