Dreams and fear have an odd and slightly unintuitive relationship. When we are anxious and awake the amygdala is active and norepinephrine (the “fight or flight” neurotransmitter) is high.
During REM sleep, surprisingly the amygdala is inactive and norepinephrine is 85% lower than base waking levels (not high anxious levels). So the brain is in a super relaxed state!
I wrote a paper on the implications for dream content and interpretation (I’m a psychotherapist in training).
During REM sleep, surprisingly the amygdala is inactive and norepinephrine is 85% lower than base waking levels (not high anxious levels). So the brain is in a super relaxed state!
I wrote a paper on the implications for dream content and interpretation (I’m a psychotherapist in training).
If you’re interested you can find the paper here:
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/k6trz
And it was discussed on HN here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19143590