Why the Characters in Your Dreams Do What They Do

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Have you ever woken from a dream and found yourself speaking or acting out part of the dream?

This is called a dream enacting behavior (DEB), which typically occurs during transitions from dreaming to wakefulness. The most common dream enacting behaviors include speaking out, crying/sobbing, smiling/laughing, expressing bodily fear (i.e., jolting or tension), and anger/defensive behavior. These behaviors occur especially after particularly intense dreams, such as nightmares, or very sad, angry, or even erotic dreams.

One interesting finding regarding dream enacting behaviors is that they may reflect the speech or actions of both the dreamed self, or another dreamed figure. For example, if you dream of fleeing from a growling monster, you could wake up trembling in fear, or you could wake up growling, as if you were the monster.

This is similar to prior experimental findings which used real-world sensory stimulation on the body during REM sleep, to see how it affected not only the dreaming self but also other dreamed characters (Nielsen et al. 1993). For example, application of pressure stimulation to the leg led one subject to dream that a horse had hurt its leg (see previous blog on this topic). Thus, both dream enacting behaviors and sensory stimulation on the body may be related to either the dreamed self or other characters.

This fascinating finding demonstrates a phenomenon inherent to dreaming that we often fail to acknowledge: All of the characters within a dream—be it your parents, your friends, an attractive stranger or a spiritual guru—all of them, along with your own dreamed self, are simultaneous creations of your mind. Your dreaming mind has the capacity to at once dream from a self-perspective, while also juggling a multitude of other characters and attributing each their own respective feelings, distinct voices and speech patterns. It even, at times, uses different languages or accents and allows independent actions for each of these characters.

This is quite a feat, to maintain and develop the narrative of several dreamed figures at once. How is it possible for the mind to orchestrate this multiplicity of dream figures?

One compelling argument is that the mirror neuron system is responsible for constructing distinct dream figures. Neuroimaging studies of the mirror neuron system have essentially shown us that the same brain areas activate both while performing a specific action oneself (e.g., grasping something), and while observing that action in another (e.g., seeing a friend grasp something). In fact, the same brain area even lights up when merely imagining performing an action, or imagining another person performing that same action. This may extend to other behaviors, including postural poses and emotional expression (e.g., smiling, laughing). In general, the mirror neuron system may allow us to understand the actions and emotions of others during wake, but perhaps also during dreaming.

While mirror neurons have typically been assessed through neuroimaging, the authors of one recent study (Nielsen and Kuiken, 2013) developed a Mirror Behaviors Questionnaire (MBQ; see below) in order to measure the most common behavioral manifestations of mirror neuron activity, such as contagious crying, laughing, motor mimicry, and others. They aimed to test whether mirror behaviors during waking were related to dream enacting behaviors during sleep.

In general, the authors found that individuals who expressed more mirror behaviors while awake also expressed more dream enacting behaviors during sleep (total scores on the MBQ and DEB were significantly correlated). The most striking relationship was for emotional contagion items, including crying, smiling, and laughing. For example, individuals who reported crying more frequently when observing others crying, also reported more crying upon awakening from a dream. The same relationship held true for smiling and laughing. Thus, the propensity to express certain mirror behaviors in wake is related to the propensity for dreamed characters to express these behaviors.

In general, the work suggests that the mirror neuron system may underlie our mental capacity to create and maintain multiple independent dream characters in a way that parallels how we interact, represent and understand our fellow human beings in real life. Those individuals who express more mirror behaviors in wake, also express more dream enacting behaviors during sleep.

Mirror Behaviors Questionnaire (modified from Nielsen and Kuiken, 2013)

Empathy/Emotional Contagion

• I experience a lot of empathy towards others, i.e., I am able to feel more or less what they are feeling.
• When you see someone else crying, are you likely to start crying as well?
• If someone smiles directly at you, are you likely to smile, too?
• If you see someone smiling at someone else, are you likely to smile, too?
• When you see another person’s terrified face, do you feel fear, too?
• Do you laugh out loud when you see someone else laughing?

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Behavioral Imitation

• When you are interacting with another person, do you tend to copy their body movements, e.g., gesturing with your face or hands, dramatizing by moving around, etc.?
• When you are interacting with another person, do you tend to copy their body posture, e.g., folded arms, hands on hips, crossed legs, etc.?
• When you are interacting with another person who has noticeable ‘nervous motor tics’ (e.g., playing with their hair, rubbing their nose, tapping their foot or fingers, pulling at their clothes), do you start to imitate some of these tics yourself?
• When you are speaking with someone who has a noticeable accent or dialect, do you tend to imitate features of this accent or dialect?

Sleepiness/Anger Contagion

• When you see someone else sleeping or falling asleep are you likely to feel sleepy yourself?
• When you see someone else yawning, are you likely to start yawning yourself?
• When you see someone expressing anger, are you likely to feel anger yourself?

Motor Skill Imitation

• Do you enjoy imitating the voices of famous people or cartoon characters?
• I easily learn a new action or skill (e.g., dance style, sports technique, use of a tool) simply by watching someone else performing it.
• Are you a ‘physically active’ spectator, i.e., when watching a favorite activity or sport do you get physically involved by copying movements that you see (or would like to see)?