Dreams

Mental illness impacts all areas of a person's life, from social interactions to self-perception, from cognitive functioning to spiritual belief systems. Dreams are no exception. Every person spends a good deal of time in the dreaming state, whether or not dreams are recalled or valued upon awakening. A person's sleep state is impacted by a number of factors ranging from the biological to the emotional. When mental illness affects a person's life, it includes the large portion of life that takes place in the sleep state. Neurochemical processes, linked to emotionality, cognition, and behavior, may also have an effect on the content -- both manifest and latent -- of dreams. Similarly, the content of dreams could change a person's emotional state and subsequent neurochemistry. Generally, if mental illness affects waking life, then it must also impact dreams. The nature of the impact will be qualitatively different depending on the...
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