Thread: Are All REM Dreams Depressive and/or fearful?

Ah yes, Rosalind Cartwright. I've never read any of her work, but I'd love to.

My own experience with REM dreaming has been that these dreams act as a mechanism to regulate, or lessen depression by giving us a chance to deal with all of the negative emotions that we might experience in our waking life. So if we have a lot of negative feelings that aren't being dealt with in our waking lives, they will manifest in the form of depressing or terrifying dreams. I think it makes sense that being depressed would prolong the REM cycle; if there is more shit that we gotta deal with, then that might take precedence over other cycles of sleep, like the deeper cycle that helps to repair our bodies.

I would hypothesize that REM is one way that our bodies attempt to cure depression, rather than create it.

About the dreams you mentioned, they seem to all be related to your being afraid of people not accepting you or wanting you around, even your own sister. If you want to be rid of these nightmares then (I know this is going to sound super trite) learn to love yourself. Look in the mirror and say, "I love you! If nobody else does, I do!" and really mean it. I think that you are a beautiful person, and I accept you as you are. But then again, I might be completely wrong about what your dreams are trying to tell you^^

I hope someone can add a more scientific perspective to this topic

^^ Not scientific, perhaps, but here's a thought:

No, it is not true, voByJunior; whatever you read was flat-out wrong, period. Ignore it.

REM dreams are effectively all dreams, psychologically speaking, and all dreams are certainly not depressing or negative. This is true no matter how long you stay in REM. One sad thing about many of the folks who write about dreaming: they tend to assume that dreams are generally depressing or negative because the only dreams they hear about are depressing or negative -- psychologists get their samplings of dreams from their patients, for instance, and not a lot of people go to psychologists with happy dreams.

Yes, as you sort of noted, dreams are definitely a reflection of your psyche, and often a mirror for your waking-life troubles (though a helpful mirror, if you give them a chance). So the miserable dreams you list might have more to do with your waking-life anxieties than with how long you spend in REM. Be assured, though, they are also a reflection of the positive moments of your waking-life as well ... it's just that the negative stuff manages to get remembered so much more easily.

And yes, though it is true that REM dreams are depressing, negative, or scary many times... but not all the time. By the way you word your post, I think you already know that, but I just wanted to confirm.

I have also read something similar, but not that all REM dreams are negative. As I recall it was more that negative feelings and thoughts are more common than positive ones overall in REM dreams. And as Sageous said, the statistics doubtless reflect the fact that people who submit themselves to the care of psychologists/psychiatrists are usually not experiencing the happiest times of their lives.