You may assume that children have nightmares about monsters under the bed, while adults dream about stressful events like deadlines. But is there any scientific evidence showing that dreams change as we age?
Although there are plausible mechanisms for how aging could cause dreams to change over time, very little research has explored the topic.
"Dreaming depends on neural systems involved in imagination, memory and emotion, all of which develop and reorganize with age," Dr. Giulio Bernardi, head of the Sleep, Plasticity, and Conscious Experience (SPACE) research group at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca in Italy, told Live Science. However, "surprisingly few studies have systematically examined how dreams change across the lifespan."
The studies that have investigated this idea have shown that people tend to report their dreams differently at various stages of their lives. While younger dreamers tend to see and feel more vividly, older people recall more complicated and less-emotional situations.
One of the simplest, and perhaps most common, explanations for the way our dreams adapt and evolve is called the "continuity hypothesis," first put forward in 1971.
According to that theory, our dreams tend to mirror what we're experiencing in our waking lives — if we're lounging on vacation, we may see sun and sand when we fall asleep, but if we're anxious about work, we may be transported to the office. But ultimately, the parallels between sleep and reality reveal very little about why our dreams might change as we grow up.
"Changes in dreaming across life reflect the complex interaction between brain development, sleep architecture, and cognitive-emotional maturation," Bernardi said. Everything from memory to sleep quality can influence how we experience both dreams and their aftermath: "These factors determine not only how vividly dreams are produced during sleep but also how likely they are to be remembered upon awakening."
How dreams change with age
The foundational research on how children dream was done by sleep researcher David Foulkes from the 1970s to the 1990s. According to his research, young people's dreams tend to be relatively straightforward — they feature animals, static objects and simple interactions. (However, research on children's dreams involves complications because the results depend on each child's ability to understand what dreams are and how to relay them to others.)
In adolescence, dreams tend to become more frequent and more vivid than they were in childhood, reflecting the many changes we're experiencing in our waking lives. While younger adolescents report dreaming about falling, being chased, and confronting monsters or animals, older teens reexperience the stresses of school and new relationships.
In adult life, dreams usually become a bit more mundane. One study found that adults and older adults dream about arriving somewhere late and "trying again and again to do something" more often than other age groups. Odd dreams and nightmares still occur, but the aggression of adolescence starts to fade and the complexity of dreams starts to reflect our waking life even more.
Studies show that in old age, people don't tend to report having as many dreams. Many also experience "white dreams," in which they recall having a dream but aren't quite sure what happened during it. While some of this can be explained by the lower quality of sleep that older adults tend to experience, much of this change — as is the case with dreams at all ages — has to do with the ability to accurately and descriptively remember what we saw in our sleep.
"Dreaming is defined as subjective experiences that occur during sleep," Michael Schredl, head of the sleep laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Germany, told Live Science. "What we get is only the dream or dream report, the recollection of those experiences that occurred during sleep."
At the end of life, and during the dying process, people often report seeing departed loved ones and recall visions of packing and preparing to go on a trip in their dreams. Studies of hospice patients have found that these dreams are often comforting and put people at ease, mirroring the reflection that often occurs at the end of life.
Sleep quiz: How much do you know about sleep and dreams?
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