Why Don't We Have More Happy Dreams?

Emotions are one of the most frequently studied dream content variables, primarily because they are strongly present in most dream reports. We know quite a lot about negatively toned dreams mainly because of their relationship to mental health disorders and suicide risk. In contrast, little has been written about dream reports featuring positive dream content. A recent study obtained a comprehensive description of prospectively collected highly positive dream reports.

A total of 5,502 dream reports were collected from a total of 345 participants. Of this total, 187 dream reports, or only 3.4%, were rated by 88 participants as being highly positive. The remaining 257 participants did not report any intensely positive dreams. Overall, dreams with strong positive emotional content occur rarely and only for some people.

The main findings of the study of highly positive dreams were as follows: The most frequently reported themes in highly positive dreams were sexual/lustful, positive platonic social interactions, and finding oneself in nature. Interestingly, male and female subjects reported similar themes in their highly positive dreams. Some subjects reported having highly positive dreams with themes of flying or a loved one returning from the dead. Overall, the most frequently reported emotions in highly positive dreams were joy, lust/sexual arousal, calmness/serenity, surprise, and playfulness/amusement.

In a study on the content of a large sample of bad dreams and nightmares (based on 9,796 home dream reports from 572 participants), the study found that nightmares comprised 2.9% of the entire sample of dream reports. This indicates that the prevalence of both highly positive dreams and highly negative dreams, or nightmares, is nearly identical, around three percent of all dreams! Dreams with maximal positive or negative intensity ratings occur with comparable frequencies. When considered across all dreams, irrespective of valence, approximately one dream out of 25 contains maximally intense emotions.

What part of our brain drives these emotional dreams?

Currently, neuroscientists think that the amygdala plays an important role in the generation of dream emotions; these, in turn, influence dream plots, either positive or negative. Studies of humans with brain disorders have provided some intriguing insights. People with temporal lobe epilepsy or post-traumatic stress disorder show a general association between abnormally high activity in the amygdala and nightmares and excessive negative emotions. In contrast, the dreams of people with bilateral calcification of a portion of their amygdala (Urbach-Wiethe Disease) were significantly more pleasant and also significantly shorter than normal. [For more about sleep, see my book The Brain: What Everyone Needs to Know.]

Dream content is also influenced by your medications.

Many common pharmaceuticals are designed to influence the same neurotransmitters that are responsible for the content of dreams, leading to disturbed dreams that feel like nightmares. Alcohol imbalances the function of the neurotransmitter GABA, leading to decreased REM sleep during the first part of the night. As the alcohol is metabolized, GABA function returns to normal, and the brain attempts to enter REM sleep more often to compensate for the loss. This is called “REM pressure,” and it is always associated with nightmares. Barbiturates and the entire class of benzodiazepine drugs produce the same kind of REM pressure.

The selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor anti-depressants alter the actions of serotonin and norepinephrine. These two neurotransmitters are responsible for taking the sleeping brain out of REM sleep into non-REM sleep. Consequently, these drugs cause the sleeping brain to spend less time in REM sleep. Most of the conventional anti-depressants lead to reduced REM time, fragmented sleep, and increased abnormal dreams.

The top four drugs that act upon norepinephrine receptors in the brain and body are used to treat high blood pressure and related cardiovascular problems, including pindolol, metoprolol, alprenolol, and propranolol, which are frequently associated with reports of nightmares.

Statins, including simvastatin, atorvastatin, and rosuvastatin, used to treat high levels of blood cholesterol, also cause nightmares. Statins that enter the brain may more easily cause more nightmares than statins that do not cross the blood-brain barrier. Statins may indirectly alter the function of serotonin and other neurotransmitters involved in the control of sleep and dreaming.

Cocaine and the amphetamine derivatives that alter the release of dopamine consistently induce a longer sleep latency, reduced total sleep time, and suppression of REM sleep, leading to nightmares. The effects of cannabis on sleep architecture are variable. However, reports of reduced total REM sleep have been consistent across studies. Subjects frequently report strange dreams as the cannabis dose wears off. Studies also report a REM rebound, a night with increased nightmares, after about one to three days after stopping cannabis use.

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Overall, most dreams do not contain strong emotions, and when they do it’s just as likely to be a pleasant dream as an unpleasant one, unless you have taken a medication that interferes with normal sleep architecture. Given how common the use of these drugs mentioned have become, it is amazing that anyone ever has any positively pleasant or joyful dreams.

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