Dreams: The Contemporary Theory

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Dreams The Contemporary Theory
Ernest Hartmann, M.D. Professor of
Psychiatry Tufts University School of
Medicine Director, Sleep Disorders Center Newton
Wellesley Hospital
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I was walking along a beach somewhere. It
wasnt exactly like any of the beaches I know, I
think my friend Jan was with me. Suddenly, a
huge wave reared up out of the ocean and totally
engulfed us. Im not sure what happened after
that. I struggled and struggled to get to the
surface. There was no one else with me. Im not
sure whether I made it, and I awoke, terrified.
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Fear, Terror A huge tidal wave is coming at
me. A house is burning and no one can get
out. A gang of evil men, Nazis maybe, are
chasing me.
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Helplessness, Vulnerability I dreamt about
children, dolls dolls and babies all
drowning. He skinned me and threw me in a heap
with my sisters I could feel the pain, I could
feel everything. There was a small hurt animal
lying in the road.
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Guilt A shell heads for us (just the way it
really did) and blows up, but I cant tell
whether its me or my buddy Jack who is blown
up. I let my children play by themselves and
they get run over by a car. I leave my children
in a house somewhere and then I cant find them.
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Grief A mountain has split. A large round hill
or mountain has split in two pieces, and there
are arrangements I have to make to take care of
it. A huge tree has fallen down. Im in this
huge barren empty space. There are ashes strewn
all about.
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Scoring for the CI (Central Image)
Dream ID
1. CI? (Y/N)
3. Intensity (rate 1-3)
2. What is it?
4. What emotion?
5. Second emotion?
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I was walking along a beach somewhere. It
wasnt exactly like any of the beaches I know, I
think my friend Jan was with me. Suddenly, a
huge wave reared up out of the ocean and totally
engulfed us. Im not sure what happened after
that. I struggled and struggled to get to the
surface. There was no one else with me. Im not
sure whether I made it, and I awoke, terrified.
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Most Recent Dream
Dream that Stands Out
Most Recent Daydream
Daydream that Stands Out
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Waking Sleep Onset
NREM REM
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CI Intensity
2.50
2.00
1.50
CI Intensity Score
1.00
Mean of Student Group
0.50
0.00
0
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Cases
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CI Scores in the Trauma Group (N10) Versus
Matched Student Control Group (N30)(Mean
S.E.M.)
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CI Scores in Students Reporting Abuse or No Abuse
1.12 1.2
0.65 1.0

• t 2.63, p 0.01

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Methods Participants
9/11 STUDY

• Complete data sets obtained from 44 persons,
  living in the US who have recorded their dreams
  every morning for years.
• 33 women, 11 men. Mean age about 50.

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Methods

• Each participant provided 20 dreams the
  last ten recorded before 9/11 and the first ten
  after 9/11, without any selection or alteration.

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Methods Scoring

• All dreams were scored on a blind basis for CI
  intensity, emotion pictured by the CI,
  dreamlikeness, and vividness.
• Dreams were also scored on three ad-hoc scales of
  content 1) attacks 2) buildings like WTC or
  pentagon 3) airplanes, and on a scale of
  nightmare-likeness

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Results After vs. Before 9/11
Bef Aft Dif t p
CI 1.10 1.28 .18 3.29
.001 one-tailed
Length 12.93 11.88 -1.04 1.3 NS
D-like 4.50 4.54 .04 .47
NS
Viv 4.22 4.24 .02 .17
NS
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Results, continued
Bef Aft Dif t p
Bldgs. .059 .104 .045
1.70 NS
Planes .045 .061 -.016
.85 NS
Attacks .034 .098 .064
2.74 lt.01
NM-like .213 .307 .094 2.28
lt.05
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Results Nightmares (16 Ss)

• Before 9/11 After 9/11
• Definite nightmares
• (agreement between two scorers) 3 2
• Less definite
• (one scorer definite/one scorer possible
  ) 3 3

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Results Nightmares (contd)

• Before 9/11 After 9/11
• Total possible nightmares 30 33
• (by either scorer)
• All results not significant

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Conclusions
If we can generalize from these 44 dream
journalers, our dream imagery overall was more
intense after 9/11/01 than before.
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Conclusions (continued)
However, dreams after 9/11/01 were not
significantly longer, more dreamlike or more
vivid. They did not contain more references to
buildings or airplanes. They did contain
slightly more references to attacks and they were
scored as slightly more nightmare-like.
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Conclusions (continued)

• Consistent with previous studies the intensity of
  the dreams central image (CI) appears to be a
  measure of emotional arousal or emotional power.

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Creating a dream in the laboratory

• If a dream involves the picturing of emotion
  (contextualizing emotion), could one create a
  dream or something very dream-like by allowing
  waking imagery (daydream) to develop under the
  influence of strong emotion?

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• Where To Look For CIs (Easiest to Hardest)
• Dreams after trauma
• Dreams in stressful situations
• Dreams in special situations, such as pregnancy
• Dreams in patients in whom a dominant emotion or
  concern is obvious
• Dreams in experimental situations (thirst,
  hunger, external stimuli)
• Dreams in a patient or client about whom
  information is available
• Ordinary dreams from unknown dreamers

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Nets of the Mind
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CBF in REM Sleep vs. Slow Wave Sleep
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We do not dream of reading, writing and
arithmetic

• Results from 250 good dream recallers

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RESULTS Question A (Frequency of the 3 Rs in
dreams) READING 48 of subjects said never, and
an additional 36 said hardly ever, although
the group spent 150 94 minutes per day
reading. WRITING 56 of Ss said never and an
additional 36 said hardly ever, although this
group spent 106 87 minutes per day
writing. TYPING 75 of Ss said never and an
additional 19 said hardly ever, although this
group spent 98 97 minutes per day
typing. CALCULATING 73 of Ss said never and
an additional 22 said hardly ever, although
this group spent 23 29 minutes per day
calculating.
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Relative Prominence Scores for Six Activities X
S.E.M.
6
5
4
3
2
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Walking Writing Talking
Reading Sexual Typing
with Friends Activity
Questionnaire study in 250 frequent dreamers.
The scale on the left runs from 1 The activity
is far more prominent in my waking life it
hardly occurs in my dreams, to 7 The activity
is far more prominent in my dreams it hardly
occurs in my waking life.
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• More powerful emotion leads to more intense dream
  imagery.
• Thus the intensity of the dream image is a
  measure of the power of the dreamers emotion.

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Thick Boundary Subjects
Thin Boundary Subjects
Most Recent Dream
Dream Stands Out
Most Recent Daydream
Daydream Stands Out
Most Recent Dream
Dream Stands Out
Most Recent Daydream
Daydream Stands Out
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Large portions of the cortex (what we usually
think of as mind) are basically an
image-generator. During focused waking (left-end
of the continuum) the cortex can be constrained
into acting as a calculator, a reader or filer of
texts, a carefully calibrated body-navigator,
etc. Towards the right-end of the continuum it
relaxes into pure story-imagery, guided by the
emotional state (as in dreaming).
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Imagery of the Dream (Contextualizing Image)
Underlying Emotional State
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The cortex acts as an image-maker
Imagery of the Dream (Contextualizing Image)
Pathways involving amygdala and other subcortical
limbic areas
Underlying Emotional State
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Focused Waking
Sensory Input
Task
Image Generator
Memory
Emotional State
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Dreaming
Sensory Input
Task
Image Generator
Memory
Emotional State
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Engine Wheels Metal
Gasoline Highways A
Journey Motion Beginnings,
ends Goal Brakes Speed
Start-stop Obstacles In
control, out of control Crash? Exhilarati
on, danger
TRUCK
CAR IN MOTION
RELATIONSHIP
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The functions of dreaming Dreaming connects
broadly. It interconnects. It interweaves
traumatic (and other) new material. This
interconnecting has both an immediate function in
smoothing things out or calming a storm and a
longer term function in term of providing broader
connections an increase in connections rather
than simply consolidation of memory. Dreaming
has a quasi-therapeutic function dreaming allows
the making of connections in a safe place.
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The functions of dreaming (continued) The cross
connections, interconnections, weaving in, etc.
all occur whether or not a dream is actually
remembered. A remembered dream can, of course,
be functional in other ways. A new connection in
dreaming can play an essential role in problem
solving, science, art, and self-knowledge.
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Functions of REM sleep
(major theories)
1. REM sleep is necessary for, or at the very
least facilitates, certain kinds of learning
(based on numerous animal and human studies by
Hennevin and Leconte, C. Smith, De Koninck,
Stickgold and others, 1960-1998). 2. REM sleep
functions to develop the nervous system,
especially in the immature animal (Roffwarg,
Muzio, and Demunt, 1966). 3. REM sleep functions
in the repair, reorganization, and formation of
new connections in the cortex (Hartmann, 1973).