Sleep plays a major role in mood regulation; that's a truism that is behind every mother's call for "time to go to bed!" But while the links between dreams and depression are well documented, the role of dreams in maintaining mental health is still one of the most confusing components in the function of sleep.
In the 1970s, psychologists noted that people suffering from depression also report more dreams than average. In fact, people who are clinically depressed may dream three or four times as much. The quality of REM dreams (also called "paradoxical sleep") is different too: more intense emotions, more negative themes, more nightmares, and more unpleasant dreams, in general.
It's insult on top of injury that these unpleasant dreams are often mixed with insomnia and less slow-wave sleep: that "deep" sleep that leaves us feeling restored and refreshed. Rather than waking up refreshed, the clinically depressed dreamer wakes up feeling like he has been in battle all night long and now has to get up and do it again in waking life.
It's insult on top of injury that these unpleasant dreams are often mixed with insomnia and less slow-wave sleep: that "deep" sleep that leaves us feeling restored and refreshed. Rather than waking up refreshed, the clinically depressed dreamer wakes up feeling like he has been in battle all night long and now has to get up and do it again in waking life.
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