At least part of the adaptive purpose of dreams is for the subject to confront past trauma repeatedly, so as to disarm the trauma's emotional payload. Like saying a word so many times that it loses its meaning. This is done in a setting (sleep) which is minimally disruptive to the subject's life. Being made to confront past traumas would be debilitating while awake, but as the subject is already debilitated while sleeping, there's little to be lost from this adaptation.
However, when traumatic load is especially high (as might occur following, for example, prolonged or severe childhood trauma) this can lead to lifelong sleep disorder. The subject sleeps excessively because of the greater need for dreaming. Sleep quality is also impacted because the sleep cycle is spent confronting high stress memories, which heavily taxes the central nervous system during a time when it would otherwise have depressed function. The subject may feel sleepy even after long rest. Additionally, the subject becomes prone to sleep-aversion disorders (eg. Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, Insomnia, early waking) because of the subconscious recognizance that he will have to confront past trauma whenever he sleeps. This is the true reason why insomnia is so strongly correlated with depression, PTSD, etc. The brain does not want to take the medicine called nightmares.
Supporting evidence:
• Sleep disorder and nightmare incidence is nearly universal among clinical patients reporting childhood trauma, and relatively common among patients reporting adult trauma
• Depression and PTSD virtually always comorbid with insomnia and/or Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome and/or early waking, to the extent that some researchers hypothesize sleep disorder as the *cause* of depression (in reality they share a common cause: trauma)
• Exposure therapy proven to improve sleep function even for non-PTSD patients
What do you think?
However, when traumatic load is especially high (as might occur following, for example, prolonged or severe childhood trauma) this can lead to lifelong sleep disorder. The subject sleeps excessively because of the greater need for dreaming. Sleep quality is also impacted because the sleep cycle is spent confronting high stress memories, which heavily taxes the central nervous system during a time when it would otherwise have depressed function. The subject may feel sleepy even after long rest. Additionally, the subject becomes prone to sleep-aversion disorders (eg. Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, Insomnia, early waking) because of the subconscious recognizance that he will have to confront past trauma whenever he sleeps. This is the true reason why insomnia is so strongly correlated with depression, PTSD, etc. The brain does not want to take the medicine called nightmares.
Supporting evidence:
• Sleep disorder and nightmare incidence is nearly universal among clinical patients reporting childhood trauma, and relatively common among patients reporting adult trauma
• Depression and PTSD virtually always comorbid with insomnia and/or Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome and/or early waking, to the extent that some researchers hypothesize sleep disorder as the *cause* of depression (in reality they share a common cause: trauma)
• Exposure therapy proven to improve sleep function even for non-PTSD patients
What do you think?
