Heightened dream recall ability linked to increased creativity and functional brain connectivity Digest
People who frequently recall their dreams tend to be more creative.
Dreams are a state of consciousness that occurs during sleep. Typically characterized by sensory, cognitive, and emotional experiences, dreams share many similarities with hallucinations. Scientists formerly believed that dreams only occurred during the rapid eye movement, or REM, stage of sleep, but recent research indicates that they can occur at any time during sleep. Findings from a recent study suggest that people who frequently recall their dreams tend to be more creative and exhibit increased functional connectivity in the brain’s default mode network.
The default mode network is a collection of interconnected neural structures that demonstrate low activity when a person is engaged in a particular task but high activity when not. It also demonstrates activity when a person tries to remember past events or imagine future events. Although some evidence suggests that the default mode network is involved in self-focused, ruminative thought, other evidence suggests it is involved in creativity and spontaneous thought processes.
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The study involved 55 healthy adults (19 to 29 years old) who had normal sleep patterns. Roughly half of the participants reported that they frequently recalled their dreams, recalling about six dreams per week, and the other half reported that they rarely recalled their dreams, recalling fewer than one dream per week. All participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans while sleeping. Before their scans, they answered questions about their personality, anxiety levels, cognitive ability, and sleep quality. They also completed a battery of tests to gauge memory and creativity.
They found that both groups of participants had similar personalities, anxiety levels, sleep quality, and cognitive abilities. But participants who frequently recalled their dreams performed better on creativity tests than those who rarely recalled their dreams, suggesting they had greater creative skills. The fMRIs revealed that frequent recallers also exhibited enhanced functional connectivity within the default mode network of their brains than infrequent recallers.
These findings suggest that high recall of dreams is associated with greater creativity and functional connectivity in the default mode network of the brain, and this connectivity promotes creative thinking during both wakefulness and sleep. Learn more about the roles of dreams in creativity in this clip featuring Dr. Matthew Walker.