Do Dreams Prepare Us To Face Our Fears?

Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com – Scientists have long wondered whether dreams serve a real purpose. Is it possible that some of our dreams prepare us to face our fears? Can dreams be considered real training for our future reactions and potentially prepare us to face real-life dangers?

To find out researchers analyzed the dreams of people and identified which areas of the brain were activated when they experienced fear in their dreams.

Credit: Public Domain

Scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), Switzerland discovered that once the individuals woke up, the brain areas responsible for controlling emotions responded to fear-inducing situations much more effectively.

These results demonstrate that dreams help us react better to frightening situations, thereby paving the way for new dream-based therapeutic methods for combating anxiety.

Researchers employed high-density electroencephalography (EEG), which uses several electrodes positioned on the skull to measure brain activity.

The results of the study showed that certain regions of the brain are responsible for the formation of dreams and that certain other regions are activated depending on the specific content within a dream, such as perceptions, thoughts, and emotions.

“We were particularly interested in fear: what areas of our brain are activated when we’re having bad dreams?” Lampros Perogamvros, a researcher in the Sleep and Cognition Laboratory said in a press statement.

The scientists from Geneva placed 256 EEG electrodes on 18 subjects whom they woke several times during the night. Each time the participants were woken up, they had to answer a series of questions such as: ‘Did you dream? And, if so, did you feel scared?’

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“By analyzing the brain activity based on participants’ responses, we identified two brain regions implicated in the induction of fear experienced during the dream: the insula and the cingulate cortex,” Perogamvros explained.

The insula is also involved in evaluating emotions when awake and is automatically activated when someone feels afraid. The cingulate cortex, for its part, plays a role in preparing motor and behavioral reactions in the event of a threat.

“For the first time, we’ve identified the neural correlates of fear when we dream and have observed that similar regions are activated when experiencing fear in both sleep and wakeful states,” continues the Geneva-based researcher.

Do Dreams Prepare Us For Our Waking Lives?

The researchers then investigated a possible link between the fear experienced during a dream and the emotions experienced once awake. They gave a dream diary to 89 participants for the duration of a week.

The subjects were asked that each morning upon waking, they note down whether they remembered the dreams they had during the night and to identify the emotions they felt, including fear. At the end of the week, they were placed in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

“We showed each participant emotionally-negative images, such as assaults or distressful situations, as well as neutral images, to see which areas of the brain were more active for fear, and whether the activated area changed depending on the emotions experienced in the dreams over the previous week,” Virginie Sterpenich, a researcher in the Department of Basic Neurosciences at UNIGE said.

If a person fear drowning a dream can help to overcome this anxiety. Credit: Public Domain

Scientists say they discovered that the longer a someone had felt fear in their dreams, the less the insula, cingulate and amygdala were activated when the same person looked at the negative pictures. In addition, the activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is known to inhibit the amygdala in the event of fear, increased in proportion to the number of frightening dreams!

Following the revelation of a potential function of dreams, the researchers are now planning to study a new form of dream therapy to treat anxiety disorders.

They are also interested in nightmares, because unlike bad dreams, in which the level of fear is moderate — nightmares are characterized by an excessive level of fear that disrupts sleep and has a negative impact on the individual once awake.

Written by Cynthia McKanzie MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer