Sigmund Freud: Do Dreams Really Guard Sleep?

Do Dreams Really Guard Sleep?

Is it true that dreams help to protect humans when they are sleeping? This theory suggested by Sigmund Freud is tested and analyzed to see if it can be proven true or not. Scientists tests two different aspects of Freud's theory being 1) seeing if arousal while sleeping will cause a person to dream and 2) seeing if people who do not dream or can not dream causes sleep disruption. So the two hypotheses here are if any kind of external arousal while someone is sleeping will stimulate dreaming and if people who do experience dreams at all will cause their sleep to be provoked. The mind is a complex system so there will be a lot of factors to consider when testing these two hypotheses.

There were several studies

done that involved dream reports which allowed scientists to test their first hypothesis. There was one study that involved various young adults being awakened after stimulation through light and then several others being awakened without stimulation. After comparing the results from the two it was shown that not only was there more dream reports from those with stimulation, but there was an increase in dreams for those who were in NREM rather than those in just REM state. Scientists then declared that stimulation while sleeping in NREM state can help with increased dreaming. They also tested arousal during sleep for patients with medical conditions. They gave them questionnaires after dreaming and they revealed that compared to people without medical conditions, like restless leg syndrome, there was no increase in dream recall frequency. However the dream questionnaires only reflect dreaming partially and not completely which is one limit that scientists had to take into account. Another limit was that the studies that involved patients with sleep apnea did not look into NREM dreaming. Another factor with arousal during sleep is unsatisfied drive demands. The pressure that comes from these unconscious thoughts are supposed to be increased in patients who have neurotic disorders such as OCD and panic disorder. When they tested this the DRF was significantly higher in patients that were not affected by these disorders, however there were also several limits that affected this as well. Not only does this relate back to the questionnaire limit in the previous study, but most of the patients were also affected by medication which has effects on sleep.
Now testing the second hypothesis regarding people with anoneira which is the inability to dream. One case reported involving two brothers who both were shown to have issues with mental imagery which coincides with really low REM dream recall, yet they both said they had no issues with sleep. Tests were also done on people with secondary anoneira which is brain damage after dreaming. The results showed that patients with secondary anoneira showed a significant increase in sleep disruption than those without it.
Overall, looking at the studies that were done and the limits involved as well the scientists concluded that there is no huge argument against Freud's theory. The studies done only affected NREM sleep however and there is nothing to suggest whether or not REM sleep helps with arousal. If they were to do further testing in the future they want to focus on separating REM and NREM sleep dreaming, look more into DRF conditions, and look more into patients with primary anoneira. I am not fully convinced by the results simply because it seems like there are too many holes. There has not been enough research done into the subject to fully back up the experiments that they conducted. There were several limits as well, so it might be more effective to do more tests to make sure there are less limits affecting the results. To conclude, Freud's theory on dreams helping to protect sleep still needs to be tested more.