Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis
Open accessPreprint — published as 10.1002/hbm.24843
Abstract
SUMMARY Despite partial experimental evidence, it is a long-standing and common belief that dreams serve an emotion regulation function. Revisiting this idea, recent neuroscientific theories have proposed that emotions experienced in dreams contribute to the resolution of emotional distress (e.g. fear extinction) and preparation for future waking affective reactions. Here we addressed one emerging common prediction from these theoretical accounts, namely that experiencing fear in dreams is associated with more adapted responses to threatening signals during wakefulness. Using a stepwise approach across two studies, we first identified brain regions activated when experiencing fear in dreams and then showed that frightening dreams modulated the response of these same regions to threatening stimuli during wakefulness. As predicted, more fear in dreams was associated with reduced activation of those fear-responsive regions during wakefulness. Specifically, in Study 1, we performed serial awakenings in 18 participants recorded throughout the night with high-density EEG and asked them whether they experienced any fear in their dreams. Insula activity increased (i.e. decreased delta and increased gamma power) for dreams containing fear. In Study 2, we tested 89 participants and found that those with higher incidence of fear in their dreams showed reduced fMRI response to fear-eliciting stimuli in the insula, amygdala and midcingulate cortex, while awake. Consistent with better emotion regulation processes, the same participants also displayed increased medial prefrontal cortex activity. These findings support that emotions in dreams and wakefulness engage similar neural substrates, and substantiate a link between emotional processes occurring during sleep and emotional brain functions during wakefulness.
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The insula is involved in social-emotion experience and visceral state, contributing to integration of affective information.
“The insula is involved in social-emotion experience and in visceral state (Chang et al., 2013), contributing in the integration of affective information (Shah et al., 2009; Sterpenich et al., 2019).”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Sterpenich et al., 2019
The Discussion says insula activation during dreaming could reflect the integration of sensory, affective, and bodily information. This supports the integration idea, but the cited sentence presents it as a general, unqualified role of the insula rather than a tentative interpretation of dream-related activation. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredEmotional regulation and dreaming share similar neurobiological bases suggesting that the amygdala, hippocampus and mPFC operate in a continuum between wakefulness and REM sleep.
“Firstly, we highlighted that emotional regulation and dreaming share similar neurobiological bases suggesting that the amygdala, hippocampus and mPFC operate in a sort of continuum between wakefulness and REM sleep (De Gennaro et al., 2011, 2016; Eichenlaub et al., 2014; Vallat et al., 2018a; Sterpenich et al., 2019).”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Sterpenich et al., 2019
The Introduction proposes that emotions in dreams involve the same brain circuits as emotions during wakefulness, and the Discussion links dream fear with amygdala and mPFC responses while awake. But the paper does not establish that the amygdala, hippocampus and mPFC together operate in a continuum between wakefulness and REM sleep; its discussion of the hippocampus is limited to citing another study of brain structure and dreaming. No page numbers are provided in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe presence of fear in dream experience has been considered as a trait-like factor of the participants.
“the presence of fear in DE has been considered as a trait-like factor of the participants”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Sterpenich et al., 2019
Subjects experiencing frequent fear during dream experience have higher activation of mPFC and reduced activation in the insula, amygdala and midcingulate cortex when faced with aversive stimuli.
“subjects experiencing frequent fear during DE have a higher activation of mPFC and reduced activation in the insula, amygdala and midcingulate cortex when faced with aversive stimuli”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Sterpenich et al., 2019
This activation could reflect an attempt to reactivate threatening situations with emotional and motor reactions experienced during wakefulness.
“This activation could reflect an attempt to reactivate threatening situations with emotional and motor reactions that people experienced during wakefulness (Sterpenich et al., 2019).”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Sterpenich et al., 2019
DE during REM sleep containing fear, compared with DE without fear, was associated with decreased delta power over the insula and midcingulate cortex.
“The results revealed that DE during REM sleep containing fear, as compared with DE without fear, was associated with decreased delta power over the insula and midcingulate cortex (Sterpenich et al., 2019).”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Sterpenich et al., 2019
In NREM sleep, DE containing fear was associated with the same pattern plus increased gamma power in the right insula.
“The same pattern, along with increased gamma power, was found in the right insula during NREM sleep in the case of DE containing fear (Sterpenich et al., 2019).”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Sterpenich et al., 2019
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References 94 · Cited by 99
- Authors
- Sterpenich, V, Perogamvros, L., Tononi, G., & Schwartz, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Geneva (CH)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Corresponding author
- Perogamvros, L
- Venue
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Publisher
- openRxiv
- Published
- 2019-01-29
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 840-850
- ISSN
- 1065-9471 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7267911
- OpenAlex
- W2982649648
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 6.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Human Brain Mapping (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (51NF40-104897)
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (104897, 159862, 51NF40, 135653, 320030, 155120)
- Université de Genève (320030-135653, 51NF40-104897, 320030-159862)
- National Institutes of Health (5p20mh077967-04, NIH/NCCAM P01AT004952)
- National Institute of Mental Health (P20MH-077967, 5P20MH077967)
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (P01AT004952)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- dream content, emotional arousal, threat response, insula, midcingulate cortex, amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, emotion regulation, sleep and emotion
- MeSH terms
- Emotional Regulation, Adult, Amygdala, Dreams, Electroencephalography, Fear, Female, Gyrus Cinguli, Homeostasis, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Wakefulness, Prefrontal Cortex
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