Disturbed Dreaming and Emotion Dysregulation

SUMMARY The AMPHAC/AND network is a vital componentof the physiologic infrastructure of normaldreaming and likely influences the shaping ofemotional imagery during normal and DD. By itsendemic nature, dreaming is a naturally occurringself-regulatory process that may operate muchlike the emotional processing and habituation ordesensitization that occurs during exposuretherapy. 51,96 Thus, the nature and quality of REMsleep in particular likely interacts with these brainregions in the formation of dream imagery to facil-itate the reduction or even elimination of fear-based memories in an ongoing attempt atachieving emotional homeostasis and optimizesurvival function. REFERENCES 1. Freud S. The interpretation of dreams. New York:Basic Books; 1955.2. Gilboa A, Shalev AY, Laor L, et al. Functionalconnectivity of the prefrontal cortex and the amyg-dala in posttraumatic stress disorder. Biol Psychiatry2004;55:263–72.3. Jung CG. Dreams: the collected works of C.G. Jung.Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press; 1974.4. Maquet P, Pe´ters J-M, Aerts J, et al. Functionalneuroanatomy of human rapid-eye-movementsleep and dreaming. J Cogn Neurosci 1996;383:163–6.5. McGaugh JL. The amygdala modulates the consol-idation of memories of emotionally arousing experi-ences. Annu Rev Neurosci 2004;27:1–28.6. Hobson JA, Pace-Schott E, Stickgold R. Dreamingand the brain: towards a cognitive neuroscienceof conscious states. Behav Brain Sci 2000;23:793–842.7. Kramer M. The selective mood regulatory function ofdreaming: an update and revision. In: Moffitt A,Kramer M, Hoffmann R, editors. The functions ofdreaming. Albany (NY): State University of NewYork; 1993. p. 139–96.8. Cartwright R. Dreaming as a mood regulationsystem. In: Kryger MH, Roth T, Dement WC,editors. Principles and practice of sleep medicine.4th edition. Philadelphia: Elsevier Saunders; 2005.p. 565–72.9. Cartwright RD. Affect and dream work from an infor-mation processing point of view. J Mind Behav 1986;7:411–27.10. Vogel GW. A review of REM sleep deprivation. ArchGen Psychiatry 1975;32:749–61.11. Cartwright RD, Kravitz HM, Eastman CI, et al.REM latency and the recovery from depression:getting over divorce. Am J Psychiatry 1991;148:1530–5.12. Brown RJ, Donderi DC. Dream content and self-re-ported well-being among recurrent dreamers, past-recurrent dreamers, and nonrecurrent dreamers.J Pers Soc Psychol 1986;50:612–23.13. Cartwright RD. The nature and function of repetitivedreams: a survey and speculation. Psychiatry 1979;42:131–7.14. Zadra A, Desjardins S, Marcotte E. Evolutionaryfunction of dreams: a test of the threat simulationtheory in recurrent dreams. Conscious Cogn 2006;15:450–63.15. Bremner JD, Vythilingam M, Vermetten E, et al.Neural correlates of declarative memory for emotion-ally valenced words in women with posttraumatic236