ReviewFrontiers in psychology2015
Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed.
- From living metaphors in impactful dreams to sublime disquietude and sublime enthrallment.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Investigating dreams by strategically presenting sounds during REM sleep to reactivate waking experiences.Neuropsychologia · 2025Article
- Nightmare distress mediated the correlation between autobiographical memory specificity and depression.PloS one · 2025Article
- The Epistemic Limits of Impactful Dreams: Metacognition, Metaphoricity, and Sublime Feeling.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Evidence of an active role of dreaming in emotional memory processing shows that we dream to forget.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Dreaming of being chased reflects waking-life experiences related to negative relationships with others metaphorically.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Awake or Sleeping? Maybe Both… A Review of Sleep-Related Dissociative States.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- The route to recall a dream: theoretical considerations and methodological implications.Psychological research · 2023Review
- Article
- Dreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic: A narrative review.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Review
- The Oneiric Activity during and after the COVID-19 Total Lockdown in Italy: A Longitudinal Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Negative dream affect is associated with next-day affect level, but not with affect reactivity or affect regulation.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Article
- Presleep focusing on positive spontaneous thoughts enhanced the possibility of dreaming of them.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Dreams and nightmares during the pandemic.Somnologie : Schlafforschung und Schlafmedizin = Somnology : sleep research and sleep medicine · 2022Review
- Sleep parameters improvement in PTSD soldiers after symptoms remission.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Article
- Relationship Between Epilepsy and Dreaming: Current Knowledge, Hypotheses, and Perspectives.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Review
- Risk Factors and Psychosocial Correlates of Emotionally Negative Dreams in Patients Referred to a Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre.The Malaysian journal of medical sciences : MJMS · 2020Article
- Key Concepts in Dream Research: Cognition and Consciousness Are Inherently Linked, but Do No Not Control "Control"!Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this paper we propose an emotion assimilation function of sleep and dreaming. We offer explanations both for the mechanisms by which waking-life memories are initially selected for processing during sleep, and for the mechanisms by which those memories are subsequently transformed during sleep. We propose that emotions act as a marker for information to be selectively processed during sleep, including consolidation into long term memory structures and integration into pre-existing memory networks; that dreaming reflects these emotion assimilation processes; and that the associations between memory fragments activated during sleep give rise to measureable elements of dream metaphor and hyperassociativity. The latter are a direct reflection, and the phenomenological experience, of emotional memory assimilation processes occurring during sleep. While many theories previously have posited a role for emotion processing and/or emotional memory consolidation during sleep and dreaming, sleep theories often do not take enough account of important dream science data, yet dream research, when conducted systematically and under ideal conditions, can greatly enhance theorizing around the functions of sleep. Similarly, dream theories often fail to consider the implications of sleep-dependent memory research, which can augment our understanding of dream functioning. Here, we offer a synthesized view, taking detailed account of both sleep and dream data and theories. We draw on extensive literature from sleep and dream experiments and theories, including often-overlooked data from dream science which we believe reflects sleep phenomenology, to bring together important ideas and findings from both domains.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.