The intensity of dream emotions

[Ev]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this hypothesis: During baseline wakefulness, our emotions are capped at a certain intensity. During dreams, the emotional cap is raised. Lucid dreamers learn to contain their excitement, or they wake up. Still, the intensity is still all there. Emotions in dreams resonate with intent/expectation. This is much more subdued in waking life. While one may "wind oneself up" (anger/excitement/etc), it takes a lot longer and may not happen at all. In dreams this process is seems to be a lot quicker. Thinking about the emotion/experience in a dream intensifies it. Beauty becomes much more intense than can ever be perceived at the baseline waking state. Even a blank wall or some sand may become amazing. What are your thoughts? What are the possible implications?

[COLnop]

I'd have to agree with this...I don't have anything to support the claim except personal experience though. Emotions are always way stronger in dreams for me than during waking hours. I think it might be because we're closed off from the distractions of the outside world and are really tuned into ourselves and our subconscious during dreams...Maybe. There's probably a better explanation out there.

[Hyu]

From personal experience I can agree as well that emotions can be much stronger in dreams than in waking life. I have also read this statement many times on DV, especially in relation to falling in love within a dream, so I'm assuming that the common consensus is that this is true. I personally feel that it might have something to do with the simplicity of dreams as well. (this is just a feeling, I'm not basing this on any facts) For example if you fall in love in a dream. Love is something extremely complex, yet in a dream it seems like the most simple and straightforward thing in the world. You can experience "unconditional love" in a dream, something I feel does not exist in waking life. In waking life there will always be questions and doubts on your mind about your lover, this is not the case in dreams. Maybe this is one reason why the emotion of love can be so much more intense in dreams, so intense in fact that you can sometimes still feel it hours after having woken up. I also agree with what COLnop is suggesting. If you think about it, we have a ton of things on our mind when we're awake. We constantly try to solve numerous problems, even if we aren't consciously thinking about them. For example, if you have to make a difficult decision within 2 days, you'll often find that your opinion switches back and forth even if you don't think about the problem consciously. I believe this is happening because we are constantly trying to solve the problem subconsciously. I also believe that we do not do so when we are dreaming, which might be why we are able to fully focus on the dream.

[Rilly]

I've never felt any strong emotions in my lucid dreams before. I don't remember having strong emotions in non-lucid dreams except for nightmares.

[Laretta]

I've never felt any strong emotions in my lucid dreams before. I don't remember having strong emotions in non-lucid dreams except for nightmares. I don't feel any strong emotions just I stay as calm as possible during a dream (Lucid or not). My first lucid dream was random - just plugged my nose and realized I was dreaming. I didn't run around or burst out in excitement just stood on the place and started testing some funny things in a dream (flying for example) - I remember I said to DCs they're just creations of my own mind.... And I felt really silly as they started laughing at me when I said this

[Chimpertainment]

I have experience some dreams wherein it feels as though I am personifying a certain emotion. It is an all-consuming state of being and all my actions are centered around that feeling. In the past these dreams were common for me but not recently. Every once in a while there would even be a dream in which I would feel as though my mind was splitting open with the intensity of emotion. The depths and heights of joy, peace, happiness, anger, fear, resentment, love etc. in conjunction with imagery characterizes these dreams in my dream life. Now that I have somewhat more experience with dreams, I can say once the emotion reached a certain stage it become a near mystical experience. It can be extremely positive or negative depending on the emotion but a useful experience none the less.