Emotions in dreams and their influence on waking affects
Alexandre Lemyre, M.A., Ph.D.
The content of this article was last updated on February 1, 2022.
Introduction
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by emotions. During my bachelor’s degree in psychology, in my free time, I spent a lot of time theorizing about the psychological processes responsible for anxiety (in particular, anxiety in social situations), mourning, and romantic attachment. In parallel many of my dreams are highly emotional, and I have suffered from episodic nightmares until my early twenties. At some point, these two aspects of my life – my curiosity about emotions and my fascination with dreams and nightmares – collided, and I started seriously studying emotions in dreams, as well as the interaction between dream emotions and the affects experienced after sleep. Eventually, this became the centerpiece of my doctoral thesis. In the present post, I will summarize the scientific literature on that topic. I hope you enjoy!
Studying dreams in a sleep laboratory
A sleep laboratory includes a sleeping room where polysomnography can be used to differentiate sleep stages. Polysomnography includes several tools that are used to monitor limb movements (electromyogram, EMG), eye movements (electrooculogram, EOG), and brain waves (electroencephalogram, EEG). These measures are usually used to differentiate four sleep stages: stage 1 (the hypnagogic stage, which corresponds to the transition from wake to sleep, that is, falling asleep), stage 2 (light sleep), stage 3 (deep sleep, also called slow-wave sleep), and rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep). Stage 1, 2, and 3 are often referred to as non-REM sleep stages.
REM sleep is the sleep stage most strongly associated with the experience of dreams (Nielsen, 2000), although dreams can also occur in stages 2 and 3. Oneiric experiences that occur during stage 1 (while falling asleep) are usually referred to as “hypnagogic hallucinations” or “hypnagogic imagery” (Lemyre et al., 2020), but some researchers call these experiences “dreams” (Domhoff, 2019). For the sake of simplicity, in the present post, I will not differentiate between “hypnagogic hallucinations” and “dreams”, and simply use the term “dreams” throughout. Interestingly, there are differences in the nature of dreams that are experienced in the four sleep stages (e.g., McNamara et al., 2007; Wamsley et al., 2007). One of these differences pertains to the emotionality of the dreams. This will be discussed in more details in the next section.
In the context of dream studies conducted in sleep laboratories, while the participant is sleeping, polysomnographic data are analyzed by researchers who are in another room. When the researchers observe that the sleeping participant is in a particular sleep stage (say, REM sleep or stage 3), they awaken them. Then, they ask the participant what was going through their mind before waking up (this method was used in the pioneering work of Dr. Foulkes, 1962, who is a fantastic sleep and dream researcher). Sometimes, the participant will report a dream. From there, there are two ways of extracting specific information about these dreams. The first way is to ask follow-up questions to the participants, such as questions on the presence and intensity of emotions in the dream they have just experienced (thereafter referred to as “self-rating”). The second way is to record (and later write down) the dream report so that members of the research team can analyze it based on a coding system (thereafter referred to as “external rating”).
Dream emotions in different sleep stages: results from laboratory studies
Several laboratory studies compared REM sleep dreams and non-REM sleep dreams on the presence and intensity of dream emotions. For the sake of clarity, the term “non-REM sleep dreams” refers to dreams that were experienced in stage 2 or in stage 3, and on rare occasions, in stage 1.
The results from these laboratory studies are summarized here. In three laboratory studies, dream emotions in the dream reports were scored by external raters. Two of these studies found that a greater proportion of REM sleep dreams contain emotions compared with non-REM sleep dreams (Cavallero et al., 1992; Rechtschaffen et al., 1963). The third study focused on dreams experienced in the morning and found no difference in the number of emotions between REM sleep dreams and stage 2 dreams (Cicogna et al., 1998). In five laboratory studies, the participants self‑rated the presence or intensity of dream emotions based on a single question. In these studies, the proportion of dreams with emotions and the intensity of the dream emotions tended to be greater for REM sleep dreams compared with non‑REM sleep dreams (Carr & Nielsen, 2015; Foulkes, 1962; Foulkes & Rechtschaffen, 1964), although one study found no such difference (Ogilvie et al., 1982), and another one obtained mixed results (Suzuki et al., 2004). Finally, in three laboratory studies, the participants self‑rated the intensity of multiple dream emotions (one question per dream emotion). Scores for the intensity of emotions in REM sleep dreams tended to be higher than for non-REM sleep dreams (Smith et al., 2004; Wamsley et al., 2007), although the most recent study observed no such difference (Yu, 2020). In summary, although not all studies found a significant difference in the quantity or in the intensity of dream emotions between REM sleep and non-REM sleep, when such a difference was observed, it was always in favor of REM sleep. Therefore, emotions appear to be more prominent in REM sleep dreams than in non‑REM sleep dreams.
Comparing dreams experienced at home and dreams experienced in a sleep laboratory
Only two studies compared home dreams (i.e., dreams experienced while sleeping at home) and laboratory dreams (i.e., dreams experienced while sleeping in a laboratory). In these studies, when sleeping at home, the participants completed a dream diary in the morning (with this method, it is impossible to know the sleep stages in which home dreams were experienced). St-Onge et al. (2005) compared 247 home dreams and 149 laboratory REM sleep dreams from a sample of women. For each dream, the participants indicated whether they had experienced four positive dream emotions (happiness, contentment, quietness, and cheerfulness) and four negative emotions (anger, sadness, uncertainty, and anxiety). They were also asked to rate the intensity of the emotions that were experienced. Overall, the negative dream emotions were more frequent and more intense in home dreams than in laboratory dreams, whereas no such difference was observed for the positive emotions (St-Onge et al., 2005). Sikka et al. (2018) compared home dreams with laboratory REM sleep dreams. Emotions in the dream reports were coded by external raters. The proportion of primarily negative dreams, as well as the mean number of negative emotions per dream were greater for home dreams than for early-night and late-night laboratory dreams (Sikka et al., 2018). Relatedly, Hartmann (2010) noted that nightmares rarely occur when sleeping in a laboratory. One possible explanation for the lower frequency and intensity of negative emotions in dreams that are experienced in the laboratory is that people feel unusually safe in that context (Hartmann, 2010). Another plausible explanation is that sleeping “under surveillance” triggers an inhibition mechanism that would be involved in the process of dream production. To the best of my knowledge, neither of these hypotheses has been directly tested.
Self-rating of dream emotions compared to external rating of emotions in dream reports
As already mentioned, emotions in dreams can be reported by the participants (i.e., self‑rated) or scored by external raters (i.e., the researchers) based on the transcript of the dreams (i.e., the dream reports). Three studies (Röver & Schredl, 2017; Schredl & Doll, 1998; Sikka et al., 2017) compared self-rating and external rating of emotions in home dreams. In these studies, 95‑99% of the dreams were self-rated as emotional, in contrast with 48-86% when external rating was used. Moreover, the intensity of positive and negative dream emotions was greater when using self-rating than when using external-rating, and this effect was stronger for positive emotions. In the same line, the proportion of home dreams that were rated as primarily positive was greater with self-rating than with external self-rating (Röver & Schredl, 2017; Schredl & Doll, 1998; Sikka et al., 2017). In a laboratory study, all 115 REM sleep dreams were rated as being emotional when self‑rating was used, compared with only 29% when external rating was used (Sikka et al., 2014). Notwithstanding whether the dreams were experienced at home (Sikka et al., 2017) or in a sleep laboratory (Sikka et al., 2014), the mean number of positive emotions per dream, as well as the mean number of negative emotions per dream are greater with self‑rating than with external rating. Based on all these results, it is likely that external rating leads to an underestimation of the intensity and frequency of dream emotions, especially for the positive ones.
There is a tenacious belief in dream research according to which dream emotions are mainly negative. This belief has its root in studies that used an external rating approach for the analysis of dream emotions, which lead to an underestimation in the proportion of primarily positive dreams. In fact, when emotions in home dreams are self‑rated, 35-50% of dreams are rated as primarily negative, and 35-56% are rated as primarily positive, depending on the study (Röver & Schredl, 2017; Schredl & Doll, 1998; Sikka et al., 2017). Moreover, when the emotions in laboratory dreams (i.e., dreams experienced while sleeping in a laboratory) are self-rated, positive emotions are more common than negative ones (Sikka et al., 2014). However, the latter result should be interpreted cautiously: as discussed above, sleeping in a laboratory might prevent the experience of negative emotions in dreams.
Are all dreams emotional?
When participants complete a dream diary at home and rate the presence of emotions in their dreams, between 93% and 100% of dreams contain at least one emotion (Merritt et al., 1994; Nielsen et al., 1991; Schredl & Doll, 1998; Sikka et al., 2017; Yu, 2007). Most dreams that are recalled following spontaneous (natural) awakenings at home are from REM sleep, although a non-negligible proportion is from NREM sleep (Stickgold et al., 1994).
There are several possible reasons why such a high proportion of emotional dreams have been observed in home dream studies. First, emotional dreams might be more likely to be recalled upon spontaneous awakenings compared with non-emotional dreams. Second, the last dreams of the night might be more likely to be recalled when sleeping at home. This is important to consider since dream emotions show to a “time‑of‑the-night” effect (Montangero, 2018, p. 34; Sikka et al., 2018), whereas dreams become more emotional as the sleep period progresses. Finally, depending on the instructions they receive, some participants might preferentially report interesting (emotional) dreams while omitting boring (non-emotional) ones. For all these reasons, studies on spontaneously recalled dreams at home are unlikely to offer reliable estimates on the proportion of emotional dreams (i.e., how many dreams contain emotions and how many do not).
In four laboratory studies, participants were awakened from REM sleep throughout the night (a typical night contains four to five REM sleep cycles) and asked to report their dreams. In the first study, the participants were presented with a list of seven emotions (anger, anxiety/fear, sadness, shame, joy/elation, love/erotic, surprise, along with a category titled “other”). They had to report whether they had experienced each emotion in their dream (Fosse et al., 2001). In two other studies, the participants were asked whether they had experienced any feeling or emotion in their dream (Foulkes et al., 1988), or how they felt during the dream (Strauch & Meier, 1996). Based on these three studies, between 70% and 74% of REM sleep dreams contain at least one “emotion”, “feeling”, or “mood state” (Fosse et al., 2001; Foulkes et al., 1988; Strauch & Meier, 1996). In the fourth laboratory study, participants were presented with a list of 20 emotions. Again, the participants reported whether they had experienced each emotion in their dream. In this study, all dreams in REM sleep contained at least one emotion (Sikka et al., 2014). It is possible that using an extensive list of emotion terms helped the participants recall their dream emotions. In contrast, it is also plausible that this approach led to false positives (i.e., thinking an emotion was experienced in the dream whereas it was not), which would involve a recall bias. In summary, at least 70% of dreams experienced in REM sleep while sleeping in a laboratory are emotional, but this estimate might be higher based on the results of Sikka et al. (2014). These results represent, in my opinion, the best available estimates of the proportion of emotional dreams in REM sleep.
Importantly, the results presented in the previous paragraph cannot be generalized to non‑REM sleep dreams. Indeed, as discussed in a previous section of this post, laboratory studies have shown that non-REM sleep dreams are less emotional than REM sleep dreams. To the best of my knowledge, reliable estimates on the proportion of emotional dreams in non-REM sleep are still lacking. Moreover, these estimates would likely differ according to the non-REM sleep stages, namely, stages 1, 2 and 3.
The coherence of dream emotions in relation to the dream events
Kahn (2019) collected 178 home dream reports from 26 participants. After reporting each dream in a diary, the participants commented on the similarities or distinctions between their thinking in the dream, and what their thinking would have been like if they had experienced the dream events in waking life. According to this author, “It was discovered that almost all comments included participants’ emotional reactions not just their thinking.” (p. 3), and “The current study found that emotional reactions of the dream-self were similar to how its wake-self would react. If the dream-self became impatient, angry, or happy about its own or a dream character’s behavior, its wake-self would have reacted the same” (Kahn, 2019, p. 4). Unfortunately, the author does not report quantitative data (e.g., percentages) to support this claim. Nonetheless, these results constitute a preliminary support for the coherence of dream emotions.
Foulkes et al. (1988) conducted the only study specifically designed to analyze the coherence of dream emotions. To that end, 17 young adults were awakened in REM sleep throughout the night while sleeping in a laboratory, resulting in 94 dream reports. On each awakening, the participants were asked to describe any feeling they had experienced during the dream. Then, they were asked to describe any feeling they would have experienced if the dream events had occurred in waking life instead (the participants were oriented to interpret this question apart from the plausibility of the events). For 47% of all dreams, the affect (feeling or emotion) was similar or identical in the dream and in its waking counterpart. In 17% of the dreams, the dreamer did not experience any affect, but the same situation in waking would have produced an affect. In 13% of the dreams, the dream did not produce an affect, and the same situation in waking would not have produced any affect either. In 8% of the dreams, the affect experienced in the dream was incoherent: the same situation in waking would have produced a different affect. Finally, a single dream was accompanied by an affect whereas the same situation in waking would not have produced any affect (Foulkes et al., 1988). In summary, not all dreams that should contain an affect do, but when an affect is experienced in a dream, it is generally coherent (that is, the same situation in waking would produce a similar or identical affect).
Changes in the valence of dream emotions
Notwithstanding whether dreams are experienced while sleeping in a laboratory or at home, they can contain multiple emotions (e.g., Nielsen et al., 1991; Sikka et al., 2014). In a study by Merritt et al. (1994), 20 psychology students kept a dream diary at home. When reporting a dream, the participants had to indicate the emotions that were experienced in reaction to each dream event, if any had been experienced (response options were as follows: fear/anxiety, anger, sadness, shame, joy/elation, affection/erotic, surprise, and other). Each participant reported 10 dreams over a period of time, for a total of 200 dream reports. The authors observed that almost half of the 200 dreams (n = 92) contained a least one shift in the valence of emotions. That is, in the same dream, the dreamer experienced a shift from positive to negative emotions, or from negative to positive emotions. Among these 92 dreams, the average number of shifts was 1.9, which means that many of these dreams contained more than one emotional shifts (Merritt et al., 1994).
The intensity of dream emotions
While many studies have assessed the intensity of dream emotions (e.g., Sikka et al., 2014; Smith et al., 2004; Yu, 2020), they generally report the average intensity of specific emotions across all dreams. With this methodological approach, if an emotion does not occur in a number of dreams, it will receive the lowest score (for example, zero) on the intensity scale for these dreams. Thus, the frequency of occurrence of a given dream emotion will impact its average intensity across dreams. This does not tell us how intense dream emotions are when they DO occur, which I believe is a more interesting question. Two studies have brought up a partial answer to this question. In a laboratory study by Fosse et al. (2001), 88 dream reports from REM sleep were collected from nine participants. According to the participants’ own ratings, the emotional intensity of these dreams was low (for 18% of the dreams), medium (for 28% of the dreams), or high (for 28% of the dreams); the remaining dreams (26%) contained no emotion (Fosse et al., 2001). In another study with 20 participants, the self-rated intensity of emotions in 79 dreams experienced at home was similar to the self-rated intensity of emotions experienced during the most significant daily events (Nielsen et al., 1991).
The influence of dream emotions on waking affects
When nightmare sufferers are questioned about the impact of their dysphoric dreams, a very commonly reported consequence is a negative effect on their emotions or mood after waking up and during the day (Dunn & Barrett, 1988; Hochard et al., 2015; Köthe & Pietrowsky, 2001; Lemyre et al., 2019; Pietrowsky & Köthe, 2003). This effect can be indirect: for instance, a person may feel guilty for having experienced a nightmare (or for actions that were committed in the nightmare), grapple with traumatic memories that were activated by the nightmare, or simply feel fatigued and irritable due to the disrupted sleep. This effect can also be direct, whereas the same emotions that were experienced in the nightmare remain activated after sleep (Lemyre et al., 2019). The effect of nightmares on waking affects is discussed more thoroughly in another post on the consequences of nightmares. The following paragraphs will focus on the relationship between dreams emotions (not limited to nightmares) and the affective state during the post‑sleep period.
Three studies suggest that dreams can impact emotions (or mood) after waking up. In one study, 20 participants completed a questionnaire every morning for a month. On 45% of mornings with dream recall, the participants rated their dream(s) as having an influence of “4” or above on their mood upon awakening (the scale ranged from from from 1 [“not influential”] to 7 [“very influential”]) (Wasserman & Ballif, 1984). In another study, 32 participants kept a dream diary at home until they had reported two dreams (64 dreams in total). After reporting each dream, they had to indicate whether their mood in their dream affected their mood in the morning. Their responses show that half of the dreams had a positive (n = 10 dreams) or negative (n = 22 dreams) effect on their morning mood. Although no statistical test was performed, the raw data suggest that dreams with a positive effect on the morning mood were perceived as pleasant (mean pleasantness = 3.18 on a four-point scale) whereas dreams with a negative effect on the morning mood were perceived as unpleasant (mean unpleasantness = 3.47 on a four-point scale) (Nixon et al., 2017). In a third study, participants rated the intensity of 15 emotions in their dream(s) of the previous night, as well as the intensity of these emotions immediately after sleep. The intensity of the emotions experienced in the dreams were positively correlated with the intensity of the same emotions experienced after sleep (Yu, 2007). The results of the later study should be interpreted with caution, however, since correlations do not imply causation.
Dreams might influence the individual’s affective state not only after waking up, but also during the following waking hours. In that regard, depending on the studies, between 44% and 80% of individuals indicate that their dreams sometimes influence their emotions/mood during the day (≥ 2 times/year or at least “rarely”) (Kuiken & Sikora, 1993; Pagel & Vann, 1992; Schredl, 2000, 2009). The frequency of dream recall is positively associated with the frequency at which dreams are perceived to influence daytime mood (Schredl, 2009). The latter result is not surprising, since people who remember their dreams more often have more “opportunities” to notice an effect of dreaming on their mood. Overall, the percentage of dreams that are perceived to have a noticeable effect on daytime mood ranges from 18% (Schredl, 2009) to 26% (Schredl & Reinhard, 2009). Importantly, the emotional valence of the dreams (positive or negative) is positively associated with the valence of the mood on the following day. Moreover, the greater the intensity of the emotion(s) in a dream, the more likely it is that the dream will be perceived to influence waking mood (Schredl & Reinhard, 2009).
To summarize, converging evidence suggests that some dreams influence affects (emotions or mood) in the morning and, to a lesser extent, during the following waking hours. This effect appears to be dependent on the valence of the emotions experienced in the dream: positively valenced dreams would influence affects positively, whereas negatively valenced dreams would influence affects negatively. This effect may also be dependent on the intensity of the dream emotions: the more intense the dream emotion, the more likely this dream would be to influence affects in waking. Whether this effect of dreams on emotions is functional remains an open question. According to the Feeling Priming Theory developed in the context of my doctoral thesis, this effect is functional, or at least, was functional for our ancestors (Lemyre et al., 2022). You can read my post on the theoretical explanations of nightmares to learn about this theory.
Summary and conclusion
The use of polysomnography in a sleep laboratory allows to study dreams from REM sleep and from non-REM sleep (i.e., stages 1, 2 and 3). Dreams experienced in REM sleep tend to be more emotional than dreams experienced in non-REM sleep. Moreover, dreams tend to be more positively valenced when people sleep in a laboratory compared to when they sleep at home. There is also evidence suggesting that external raters underestimate the frequency and intensity of emotions in dream reports, especially, positive emotions. For that reason, estimates of dream emotions based on self-ratings (i.e., when the participant evaluates the presence and/or the intensity of emotions in their own dreams) are likely to be more reliable. Almost all dreams that are remembered following spontaneous awakenings at home contain self-rated emotions. However, due to a number of methodological issues, these estimates may not be representative of all dreams. Alternatively, laboratory studies in which participants were awakened in each REM sleep cycle throughout the night may offer more representative results. These studies showed that at least two out of three REM sleep dreams contain a self-rated emotion or mood state. Furthermore, emotional reactions in dreams are mostly coherent in relation to the dream events. The same dream can contain multiple emotions and shifts in the emotional valence of a dream are common (i.e., from positive emotions to negative ones, or conversely). Most dream emotions appear to be at least of a moderate intensity, but the available data is sparse. Finally, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that a proportion of dreams have a noticeable effect on affects after awakening and in the following waking hours. This effect is likely dependent upon the valence and intensity of the emotions that are experienced in the dream.
One topic that has not yet received attention, and which I would find highly captivating, is that of “dream moods”. In the present post (and in the dream literature in general), no specific distinction was made between a feeling, an emotion, and a mood. These terms are generally used more or less interchangeably. However, in the scientific literature on affective processes, emotions and moods are defined differently. Contrary to an emotion, a mood has no specific trigger/cause, does not motivate behaviors toward a specific goal, and last for a longer period of time (Beedie, 2007; Forgas & Koch, 2013; Gendolla et al., 2007). In some of my own dreams, I have experienced a feeling of sadness for no evident reason (if there was a cause, it could hardly justify such a reaction). This feeling did not motivate me to pursue a specific goal, and it lasted for most of the dream (in contrast to most dream affects, which appear to be fleeting). Perhaps what I experienced could be qualified as a “dream mood”. The phenomenon of “dream moods” has not been studied as of yet, and probably deserves some attention.
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