Dreaming and dream amnesia in the light of reactive and predictive homeostasis
Péter Simor, Philippe Peigneux, Róbert Bódizs
November 25, 2022 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/rfu94 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key findings | The authors propose that dreaming and dream amnesia are inherent aspects of sleep's homeostatic functions, shaped by reactive and predictive processes across the night. They argue that awakening promotes goal-directed prospection that competes for shared neural resources with dream production and recall, contributing to dream amnesia, and highlight putative roles for nocturnal cortisol and the cortisol awakening response. |
Abstract
Dreams are often viewed as fascinating but relatively irrelevant mental epihenomena of the sleeping mind with questionable or no functional relevance. Despite long hours of oneiric activity, and high individual differences in dream recall, dream amnesia is one of the most robust and universal features of dreaming. In this review, we conceptualize dreaming and dream amnesia as inherent aspects of the homeostatic functions of sleep and wakefulness. In this framework the temporal progression of sleep throughout the night is shaped by reactive and predictive homeostatic functions. Mental activity during sleep conforms to the dynamic interplay of restorative processes and future anticipation, and particularly during the second half of the night, unfolds as a special form of non-constrained, self-referent, and future-oriented cognitive process. Awakening facilitates constrained, goal-directed prospection that competes for shared neural resources with dream production and dream recall, and hence, contributes to dream amnesia. We present the neurophysiological aspects of reactive and predictive homeostasis during sleep, highlighting the putative role of nocturnal cortisol as well as the cortisol awakening response in predictive homeostasis and dream amnesia, respectively. The theoretical and methodological aspect of our proposal is discussed in relation to the study of dream recall, sleep-related cognitive processes and altered dreaming in sleep disorders.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming | 2019 | Review | |
| Sleep and dreaming are for important matters | 2013 | Review | |
| Nightmare Disorder and Isolated Sleep Paralysis | 2020 | Review | |
| My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares? | 2019 | Review | |
| Dream Recall: State or Trait Variable? Part I: Model, Theories, Methodology and Trait Factors | 1996 | Review |