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Dreams Mix Fear and Joy for Better Mornings
20 Apr
Summary
- Fearful dreams increase the chance of a bad morning mood.
- Dreams with both fear and joy raise the odds of a good mood.
- Emotional complexity in dreams may offer a protective effect.
Experiencing fear in dreams can negatively impact your mood the following morning, according to a recent study published in the journal Sleep. However, the research also revealed a potentially beneficial effect of emotional complexity in dreams.
Participants who reported dreams containing both fear and joy were 20% more likely to wake up feeling calm. This finding suggests that experiencing multiple emotions simultaneously in a dream might offer a protective effect on one's mood.
Interestingly, individuals skilled in emotion regulation showed higher levels of dream fear and consequently worse morning moods. Researchers are exploring whether certain distressing dreams, distinct from nightmares that wake the sleeper, could signify the brain's adaptive processing of emotions.
