Now I believe that is a reality! Dreaming is not the sole realm of laypeople, of poets and artistes. Scientists and inventors too daydream. And what about the things that we never actually even dreamt of…? Did you ever dream of the computer and internet before you actually saw it? Well, someone somewhere obviously did. Because without a dream and a wish, nothing is possible…. Can we this Christmas, wish for food, education and employment for all? Would that come true as well…? Can Mamata go national?
Successful coalitions at the Centre have been usually headed by leaders with weak power bases. Is a green Diwali possible? Ultra right and wrong: Women in India face a new threat to their freedom of choice. These psychological theories date back to the work of Sigmund Freud and others in the 20th century, who spearheaded the notion that the hidden meanings of dreams could be unlocked when examined within the context of a person's real-world experiences.
In contemporary dream analysis, therapists attempt to help patients interpret their dreams, via the use of dream reports, looking for clues, symbols, and structures that might correspond with other parts of the dreamer's life. One of the most well regarded systems for interpreting dream reports is called the Hall and Van de Castle system , which codifies dreams in terms of the characters that appear within them, the interactions these characters have, and the effects these interactions subsequently have on the characters, among many other concepts.
There are several possible explanations. Some experts suggest that dreams may include events that a person has not necessarily thought through while awake. After dreaming of something, such as passing or failing a test, a student might begin to believe in the probability of either outcome. This can happen because the dream may be considered a reflection of the most likely outcome, which becomes very life-like and powerful in the dream state.
The power of dreams, however, only applies to outcomes that can be at least partially controlled by a person who knew of the dream. This theory also suggests that obvious clues may not be considered important until all the facts are pooled. Sometimes this occurs during sleep. Several variables related to this hypothesis were identified through a theoretical analysis of the scientific literature.
Sleep disturbances : problems with sleep are found in 15— Dissociation : nearly two-thirds of people with BPD experience dissociative symptoms Korzekwa and Pain, and dissociative symptoms are correlated with a fantasy proneness; both dissociative symptoms and fantasy proneness are related to DRC Giesbrecht and Merckelbach, Cognitive disturbances: Many BPD patients experience various cognitive disturbances, including problems with reality testing Fiqueierdo, ; Mosquera et al.
Thin boundaries : People with thin boundaries are more prone to DRC than people with thick boundaries, and people with BPD tend to have thin boundaries Hartmann, The theoretical analysis on the basis of these findings suggests that people who suffer from BPD may be more susceptible to confusing dream content with actual waking events. Dream-reality confusion DRC is a difficulty or inability to determine whether an event or experience occurred during the waking state or whether it was part of a dream.
Although, only few studies on DRC in non-clinical populations have been conducted e. Research has found that there is a relationship between DRC and psychotic symptoms e. BPD is a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and affect, and marked impulsivity that begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association, , p.
To qualify for this diagnosis, the person should, among other symptoms, make a frantic effort to avoid real or imaginary abandonment, experience a chronic feeling of emptiness or stress-related temporary paranoid symptoms, or exhibit severe dissociative symptoms. Moreover, persons with BPD often engage in self-destructive behaviors and are at significant risk of suicide. Borderline personality disorder affects between 1 and 5. Due to the complex psychopathology of BPD, numerous studies have examined different areas of functioning in individuals with this disorder.
The present theoretical analysis addresses the question of whether individuals with certain features of BPD may have difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality. This hypothesis is supported by the underlying assumption that there are groups of interrelated variables that are present in both DRC and BPD.
These variables, which we identified through an analysis of the scientific literature, can be divided into the following categories: i sleep disturbances; ii dissociative symptoms; iii negative dream content; iv cognitive disturbances; and v thin boundaries. This division was made on the basis of theoretical considerations; no factor analyzes have been conducted yet. Each of these five variables is presented separately below.
Sleep disturbances, for the purpose of this theoretical analysis, include a variety of problems with sleep that are discussed below. Such sleep problems are very common among individuals with BPD Hafizi, Though there is little epidemiological data on sleep disorders among persons diagnosed with BPD, cross-sectional studies show that sleep disorders are prevalent in 15— Compared to a non-clinical group, individuals with BPD take more time to fall asleep, sleep for shorter times, have lower sleep efficiency, and have frequent sleep disturbances Semiz et al.
Patients with BPD also have more night awakenings than persons from a non-clinical population Battaglia et al. Labile sleep—wake cycles are another example of sleep disturbances. Labile sleep—wake cycles may promote the intrusion of dreamlike experiences into waking consciousness that can lead to DRC and foster the feeling of depersonalization, which is a dissociative symptom.
They also have an adverse effect on memory, thus favoring the creation of false memories van der Kloet et al. Individuals who report sleep disturbances score high on dissociative scales, fantasy proneness a tendency for deep and long-standing involvement in fantasy and imagination; Lynn and Rhue, , p. Taken together, the above relationships appear to support our hypothesis that BPD patients are likely to experience DRC.
Persons diagnosed with BPD have a stronger tendency toward dissociative symptoms than non-clinical population and individuals who suffer from depression or schizophrenia Merckelbach et al.
The occurrence of dissociative symptoms during the course of BPD may be associated with childhood traumatic events. According to one of the theories of the etiology of BPD, this personality disorder develops in individuals who report that traumatic events were a characteristic of their early lives, mainly physical abuse and emotional neglect.
A study of patients with BPD found that those who had high scores on the Dissociative Experience Scale DES , which measures the frequency of dissociative symptoms, such as autobiographical amnesia, derealization, depersonalization, absorption, and identity alteration Bernstein and Putnam, , experienced significantly more severe emotional and physical neglect and emotional and physical abuse but not sexual abuse during childhood than those who had low scores on the DES Watson et al.
The results suggest that individuals exposed to severe traumatic events during childhood are more likely to develop dissociative symptoms. Traumatic experiences also often interfere with the integration of mental functions, thus, leading to their dysfunction Vermetten and Spiegel, Moreover, dissociative symptoms involve automatic avoidance strategies that defend consciousness from traumatic memories Briere, It is noteworthy that dissociative symptoms are one of the correlates of DRC Rassin et al.
Levitan , p. It seems that frequent experiences of dissociative symptoms or their intensification may produce frequent intrusions of dreams into experiences during the waking state. Dissociative symptoms and proneness to fantasy — characteristics linked to DRC — are correlated, and it appears this correlation can be mediated by experiences during sleep Giesbrecht and Merckelbach, High fantasy-prone students report more dissociative symptoms than their friends who score low or medium on fantasy-proneness Rauschenberger and Lynn, ; Waldo and Merritt, Furthermore, individuals who find it difficult to discriminate between dreams and reality score higher on scales that measure dissociative symptoms and fantasy proneness than individuals who do not confuse dream content with experiences during the waking state Rassin et al.
A study of 51 women from the general population found that fantasy proneness is linked to both dissociative symptoms and everyday cognitive failures Merckelbach et al.
Moreover, dissociative symptoms, fantasy proneness, cognitive failures, and sleep disturbances are correlated van Heugten — van der Kloet et al. Later in the current paper, we present data indicating that disturbances in cognitive functioning are among the variables that increase proneness to DRC.
The relationship between dissociative symptoms and fantasy proneness also has been observed in clinical populations. Merckelbach et al. In addition, Steiger et al. To summarize, the above findings support our hypothesis that individuals with diagnosed BPD are more likely to experience DRC because of their tendency to experience dissociative symptoms and related phenomena, such as fantasy proneness, sleep disturbances, and cognitive problems.
Individuals suffering from BPD experience more negative life events than other individuals — even those with other personality disorder s Pagano et al. The quantitative analysis of a group of 27 individuals diagnosed with BPD and a non-clinical group of 20 individuals showed that the BPD group had dreams with more negative affect than those in the non-clinical group.
Generally, individuals suffering from BPD experience negative dreams, including nightmares, more often than individuals who do not have any of the characteristic symptoms of this personality disorder Schredl et al. Nightmares are sleep disturbances that are related to sleep disorders. They are defined as vivid dreams, charged with negative emotions that awaken the dreamer from sleep DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association, The higher frequency of nightmares among BPD patients compared to the non-clinical population is related to greater emotional instability and heightened neuroticism in this clinical group Simor et al.
The intensity of BPD symptoms is positively correlated with the frequency of nightmares Semiz et al. To try to explain the prevalence of nightmares in persons with BPD, we present two theories: a nightmare model proposed by Levin and Nielsen , and the Emotional Cascade Model developed by Selby et al.
Levin and Nielsen proposed a theory to explain the occurrence of dysphoric dreaming, which is based on two major assumptions: cross-state continuity and multilevel explanation. The first, cross-state continuity , assumes that some structures and processes implicated in nightmare production are also engaged during the expression of pathological signs and symptoms such as dissociative symptoms during the waking state Levin and Nielsen, , p. The second, the multilevel explanation , refers to the idea that nightmare formation can be explained at two different levels: the cognitive—emotional level and the neuronal level.
At the cognitive—emotional level, there are imagery processes that represent emotional dream imagery, whereas the neuronal level contains a network of brain regions responsible for imagistic and emotional processes. This model was created to explain the occurrence of nightmares in the course of posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD ; however, it may also be used in an attempt to describe experiences related both to nightmares and cross-state continuity in patients diagnosed with BPD.
We will not discuss the concept of neuronal correlates of DRC and BPD, as this is beyond the scope of the present article. Instead, we will focus on the notion of cross-state continuity with reference to BPD. Other factors include high degrees of physiological and psychological reactivity, maladaptive coping, fantasy proneness, imagery vividness, and thin boundaries.
Numerous studies suggest that almost all of these factors are usually present during the course of BPD, however more recent studies indicate that there is no heightened physiological reactivity in BPD e. Persons diagnosed with this personality disorder are characterized by emotional dysregulation, which is the inability to flexibly respond to and manage emotions, entailing emotional sensitivity, heightened and labile negative affect, a deficit of appropriate regulation strategies, and a surplus of maladaptive regulation strategies Carpenter and Trull, In addition, BPD entails affective instability and a low level of emotion recognition Cole et al.
Studies confirm that BPD patients display a negative distortion in the identification of their own emotional states and the emotional states of other persons e. The inability to accurately recognize emotional states may intensify negative affect, emotional instability, and emotional reactivity in everyday life.
Furthermore, patients with BPD are unable to tolerate distress and they usually use maladaptive regulation strategies to cope with distress and the negative emotions they experience, such as ruminations, impulsive behaviors, or cognitive avoidance Carpenter and Trull, Disorders of emotional processes in patients with BPD seem to occur not only in the waking state, but also during dreaming, as in the case of nightmares Simor et al.
The effects of nightmares and other bad dreams, apart from the fear they produce, can involve deficits in appropriate emotion-regulation skills, and decrease ability to cope with distress during the subsequent day, according to the ECM.
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