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Cartwright Dream Theory

Ever had a bad day? The idea of starting fresh every morning with a sunny outlook has some modern scientific backing. According to Rosalind Cartwright’s Dream Theory, dreamers sort through and accept emotions associated with yesterday's misfortunes. While biological researchers such as Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchison dismissed dreams as a disorganized scrap pile of recent experiences, Cartwright conducted studies linking dreaming to the emotional state of waking life.

  1. Mood Regulation

    • One of Cartwright's studies concluded that a good night's sleep can cause the dreamer to wake up on the right side of the bed. The study, which was published in the article “REM Sleep Reduction, Mood Regulation and Remission in Untreated Depression” by the journal "Psychiatry Research" in 2003, shows that Cartwright made headway with a somewhat general approach. She observed the dreams of 31 subjects who had major depression upon their first screening. Twenty-two of the 31 were found to be in remission upon followup with no need for treatment.

    Determining Factors

    • Upon arousal, Cartwright's study subjects who began dreaming earlier than others in their sleep cycle dreamed for longer time periods, woke up able to remember dreams and demonstrated a better mood. Adversely, Cartwright found that subjects who reported hardly any dreams felt even worse in the morning.

    Dreams as Therapy

    • In her study published in the 2006 article “Relation of Dreams to Waking Concerns” by "Psychiatry Research," Cartwright took a more direct approach. She demonstrated dreams as actual treatment to reach remission. She determined that the content of dreams was a product of the dreamer’s waking emotional state and that working through those dreams was therapeutic. As the study concluded, there were certain exceptions.

    Specification

    • In the study, Cartwright specified that “dream content is related to the ongoing emotional concerns of the dreamer and contributes to the down-regulation of disturbed mood, when affect is within a defined range.” If affect was too high, dreaming would not fully resolve such conflict and the cause of distress would likely require treatment. If affect was too low, emotional assimilation through dreaming could be unnecessary; the feelings could simply be addressed and resolved in waking hours.

    Self-help and Dreaming

    • Cartwright also has provided tips on how to use raw material from dreams, as detailed in the 1992 book she co-wrote with Lynne Lamberg, “Crisis Dreaming: Using Your Dreams to Help Solve Your Problems.” The book offers insight on how to interpret dreams to help cope with symptoms of depression and anxiety brought on by drastic life changes such as divorce or death of a loved one.

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