We present a brief review of sleep research which, when combined with psychoanalytic experience, has led to the hypothesis that REM sleep and dreaming serve the function of adaptation by the process of integration of information. We then report the results of a study of dreams, based on this hypothesis. We studied dreams and their relation to waking mental activity and found a correlation between problems in manifest dreams and those in pre- and postsleep waking life. Dreams can be understood on the basis of problems that appear in them. We also found evidence for a relation between the solution of problems in dreams and the fate of those problems the next day. We discuss these findings in relation to some of the controversies about dreaming, and then present suggestions for future research.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BregerL. (1967). The function of dreams. J. Abnorm. Psychol., 72:1–28
2.
BonimeW.BonimeW. (1982). The Clinical Use of Dreams.New York: Basic Books
3.
CartwrightR. (1986). Affect and dream work from an information processing point of view. J. Mind Behav., 7:411–427
4.
CartwrightR.CartwrightR. (1972). Effects of dream loss on waking behavior. Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 27:277–280
5.
CrickF.CrickF. (1983). The function of dream sleep. Nature, 304:111–114
6.
DeKonnickJ.ProulxG.KingW.DeKonnickJ.ProulxG.KingW. (1977). Intensive language learning and REM sleep: further results. Sleep Res., 7:146
7.
DewanE. (1970). The programming(P) hypothesis of dreaming. In Sleep and Dreaming, ed. HartmannE.. Boston: Little, Brown, pp. 295–307
8.
FosshageJ. (1987). New vistas in dream interpretation. In Dreams in New Perspective, ed. GlucksmanM.GlucksmanM.. New York: Human Sciences Press, pp. 23–43
9.
FoulkesD.FoulkesD. (1965). Mental activity at sleep onset. J. Abnorm. Psychol., 70:231–243
10.
FreudS. (1900). The interpretation of dreams, S. E., 4 & 5
11.
FrenchT.FrenchT. (1964). Dream Interpretation: A New Approach.New York: Basic Books
12.
GlaubmanH.OrbachI.AviramO.FriederI.FriemanM.PelledO.GlaubmanH.OrbachI.AviramO.FriederI.FriemanM.PelledO. (1978). REM deprivation and divergent thinking. Psychophysiol., 15:75–79
13.
GreenbergR. (1966). Cerebral cortex lesions: the dream process and sleep spindles. Cortex, 2:357–366
14.
GreenbergR. (1981). Dreams and REM sleep: an integrative approach. In: Sleep, Dreams and Memory, ed. FishbeinW.. New York: Spectrum Publications, pp. 125–133
15.
GreenbergR.GreenbergR. (1975). REM sleep and the analytic process: a psychophysiologic bridge. Psychoanal. Q., 44:392–402
16.
GreenbergR.GreenbergR. (1980). The private language of the dream. In The Dream in Clinical Practice, ed. NattersonJ.. New York: Aronson
17.
GreenbergR.PearlmanC.FingarR.KantrowitzJ.GreenbergR.PearlmanC.FingarR.KantrowitzJ. (1970). The effects of REM deprivation: implications for a theory of the psychologic function of dreaming. Brit. J. Med. Psychol., 43:1–11
18.
GreenbergR.PearlmanC.SchwartzW.GreenbergR.PearlmanC.SchwartzW. (1983). Memory, emotion, and REM sleep. J. Abnorm. Psychol., 92:378–381
19.
GrieserC.GreenbergR.GrieserC.GreenbergR. (1972). The adaptive function of sleep: differential effects of sleep and dreaming on recall. J. Abnorm. Psychol., 80:280–286
20.
HawkinsD. (1966). A review of psychoanalytic dream theory in the light of recent psychophysiologic studies of sleep and dreaming. Brit. J. Med. Psychol., 39:85–104
21.
HennevinE.HennevinE. (1977). Etude des relations entre le sommeil paradoxal et les processus d'acquistion. Physiol. Behav., 18:307–319
22.
HobsonA. (1988). The Sleeping Brain.New York: Basic Books
23.
HobsonA.HobsonA. (1977). The brain as a dream state generator: an activation synthesis hypothesis of the dream process. Amer. J. Psychiat., 134:1335–1348
24.
JeannerodM.MouretJ.JeannerodM.MouretJ. (1965). Etude de la mortricité oculaire au cours de la phase paradoxale du sommeil chez le chat. Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol., 18:554–566
25.
KleinG. S. (1976). Psychoanalytic Theory: An Exploration of Essentials.New York: Int. Univ. Press
26.
MaederA. (1916). The Dream Problem. Nerv. Ment. Dis., monogr. 22. New York: New York Publishing Co
27.
PalomboS. (1984). Deconstructing the manifest dream. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 32:405–420
28.
PearlmanC. (1979). REM sleep and information processing: evidence from animal studies. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev., 3:57–68
29.
PearlmanC. (1982). Sleep structure variation. In Biological Rythyms, Sleep and Performance, ed. WebbW.. New York: Wiley, pp. 143–173
30.
RoffwargH.DementW.MuzioT.RoffwargH.DementW.MuzioT. (1962). Dream imagery: relationship to rapid eye movements. Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 7:235–238
31.
RoffwargH.HermanJ.RoffwargH.HermanJ. (1975). The middle ear muscles: predictability of their phasic activity in REM sleep and dream material. Sleep Res., 4:165
32.
RotenbergV. (1984). Search activity in the context of psychosomatic disturbances of brain monoamines and REM sleep function. Pavlovian J. Biol. Sci., 19:1–15
33.
WinsonJ. (1985). Brain and Psyche: The Biology of the Unconscious.Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday
