According to new psychology findings, the strategies we used to regulate our emotions can influence our dream experiences. The study, published in the journal Dreaming, found that cognitive reappraisal appeared to reduce dream intensity by lowering negative state and trait emotions.

Negative emotions from our waking lives seem to make their way into our dreams. Some researchers have proposed that dreaming might serve to downregulate our negative emotions. More recently, scholars have noted that dreams tend to contain not just negative emotions, but other intense emotions from our waking lives, including positive ones.

Study authors Sam Siu-Sing Wong and Calvin Kai-Ching Yu wondered how our emotion regulation tendencies might influence dreaming. Presumably, if dreaming helps us regulate emotions from our waking lives, there should be some link between our dreaming and our emotion regulation tendencies. There is indeed some evidence that the coping strategies we use can influence our dreams. For example, research suggests that suppressing unwanted thoughts while awake can cause these thoughts to “rebound” during dreaming.

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-87423-001