Ditto--Part 2

• Psychotherapy is a science by Joe Weiss, 5/15/97
  
  

Mental Activity Report Data

It has been stipulated that new elements from past experience participate in the construction of each REM dream of a night. In Part 2 of this document it will be argued also that REM dreams are tightly structured at the manifest level so as to control REM presentations along specific pathways. These statements imply that one should be surprised to find two REM dreams of the same night that resemble one another very much at the manifest level, except perhaps to share a dream element or two, despite the possibility that these dreams pertain to closely related subjects.

Dement and Wolpert (1958) studied the relationships in manifest content of dreams occurring during the same night. Below is their statement of what they found:

"Nonetheless, the manifest content of nearly every dream exhibited some obvious relationship to one or more dreams occurring on the same night. In 7 of the 38 multiple dream sequences, all the dreams seemed to be united by a common theme, but in the majority of cases only contiguous dreams were obviously related. Accordingly, the first and second dreams in any given sequence might contain elements in common while the third and fourth dreams would have different points of similarity. Occasionally, three or even four dreams would share a connecting link. There was also considerable overlapping of relationships. For example, the second dream might be related to the first by one element and to the third and fourth by another, while the fourth and fifth dreams might have still another connecting link. The manifest content of a dream was only occasionally closely related to the manifest content of another dream when there were intervening dreams which did not share the relationship."

The lack of a close relationship at the manifest level could, of course, mean that the dreams of a particular night are not closely related at any level. To decide this question what is needed is an examination of sequential dreaming from the point or view of underlying content.

Offenkrantz and Rechtschaffen (1963) conducted such an investigation and found that "despite the high variability of manifest content, all the dreams of a night were concerned either with the same conflict or with a limited number of different conflicts. Second, we believe the data support the hypothesis, derived from French's approach, that the organization of any particular dream depends at least in part on the consequences of the attempted solution to the conflict in the previous dreams. For example, when the solution of a problem in one dream was relatively gratifying, the dreamer usually would attempt an even bolder gratification of a disturbing wish in the next dream. In turn, reactive motives such as fear of retaliation, fear of loss of love, guilt, or shame were stimulated by the bolder gratification. Thus, an alternation of predominantly gratifying and predominantly disturbing dreams in the same night was not unusual. Third, we believe the data support the hypothesis of a parallel between the sequence of waking behavior and the defensive-adaptive ego activities in the dream sequence."

It has been claimed that the first REM dream is closely tied to the events of the previous day but that other past experiences participate in later dreams. If this is true, then the manifest content of the first REM period should tend to contain many direct allusions to the events of this previous day, whereas later dreams should show evidence that other experiences have been incorporated.

Offenkrantz and Rechtschaffen offer some data on this point too. They state that "the manifest content of the first and/or second dream on 11 of the 15 nights was concerned directly with the laboratory situation. No later dream was concerned with the laboratory situation in an undisguised way." They state further that "the manifest dream was located in a geological setting of childhood or adolescence in 9 dreams occurring after 4:30 a.m. on 8 different nights, whereas childhood scenes never occurred early in the night." This shift backwards in time has been observed also by Verdone (1965).

It has been claimed that NREM content is related to that of REM dreams, with this relationship being conjectured as most apparent in the case of stage 2. If that is correct, then the manifest content of a particular stage 2 interval should be similar to that of the very next REM dream that appears.

Studies of the relationships between REM and NREM mental activity are rare, and if any exist that test the above supposition, I am unaware of them. Awakenings for the purpose of sampling mental content have generally followed a haphazard schedule. Rechtschaffen, Vogel, and Shaikun (1963), for example, awakened subjects either 30 or 90 minutes after each onset of sleep, depending on the toss of a coin. Nevertheless, their findings are generally consistent with the predictions made here:

"Identical or very nearly identical manifest elements are repeated in the reports from NREM awakenings throughout the night. Repeated manifest elements occur in the accounts of sleep mentation obtained by awakening from all NREM stages (EEG stages 2, 3, and 4).

"The Identical, or nearly identical, manifest images reported in separate awakenings, both REM and NREM, appear in different contexts in each account. This suggests that the repetition of manifest elements is not merely a recall of the previous report. When manifest images are repeated in the reports of consecutive NREM, or NREM and REM awakenings, the change of contexts in which these images appear indicates that manifest themes reported on different awakenings are not part of a continuous narrative. This observation parallels the report of Dement and Wolpert that contents of consecutive REM period reports are not continuous.

"A manifest element which is repeated throughout the night may first appear in the report from an early NREM period before the first REM period of the night. We interpret this to mean that persistent NREM images are not recalled from previous unreported REM period dreams.…

"In summary, the structure of sleep mentation, at least on the manifest level, is marked both by an apparent lack of observable connections between different episodes of mental activity on some nights and by the repetition of elements in varying contexts in different episodes on other nights. On those nights when themes and images persist through both NREM and REM periods, the dreams do not arise sui generis as psychologically isolated mental productions, but emerge as the most vivid and memorable part of a larger fabric of interwoven mental activity during sleep."

These relationships will receive more study in Part 2.

REFERENCES

Dement, W. and N. Kleitman, Cyclic Variations…., EEG Clin. Neurophysiol., 9:673, 1957.

Dement, W.C, and E.,A. Wolpert,. The Relation of Eye Movements, Body Motility, and External Stimuli to Dream Content, J. Exp. Psychol., 55:543, 1958.

Dement, W., and E.A. Wolpert, Relationships in the Manifest Content of Dreams Occurring on the Same Night, J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 126:568, 1958.

Foulkes, D., The Psychology of Sleep, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966.

Foulkes, D. and G. Vogel, Mental Activity at Sleep Onset, J, Abnorm. Psychol., 70:231, 1965.

Herman, J.,.et al, Color and Other Perceptual Qualities of REM and NREM Sleep, Psychophysiol., 5:223, 1969.

Offenkrantz, W., and A. Rechtschaffen, Clinical Studies of Sequential Dreams I. A Patient in Psychotherapy, Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 8:497, 1963.

Rechtschaffen, A. and D. Foulkes, Effect of Visual Stimuli on Dream Content, Percept. and Mot, Skills, 20:1149, 1965.

Rechtschaffen, A., Hauri, P., and M. Zeitlin, Auditory Awakening Thresholds in REM and NREM Sleep Stages, Percept. Mot. Skills, 22:927, 1966,

Rechtschaffen, A., Vogel, G., and G. Shaikun, Interrelatedness of Mental Activity During Sleep, Arch., Gen. Psychiat., 9:536, 1963.

Verdone, P., Temporal Reference of Manifest Dream Content, Percept. Mot. Skills, 20:1253, 1965.

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