Have you ever woken from a dream, emotionally laden with anxiety, fear, or a sense of unpreparedness? Typically, these kinds of dreams are associated with content like losing one’s voice, teeth falling out, or being chased by a threatening being.
One question I’ve always been interested in is whether or not these kinds of dreams are experienced globally across many cultures.
If some features of dreaming are universal, could they have enhanced the likelihood of our ancestors surviving the evolutionary game of life?
We wanted to explore how the content and emotional function of dreams might vary across different cultural contexts.
By comparing dreams from forager communities in Africa to those from Western societies, we wanted to understand how cultural and environmental factors shape the way people dream.
As part of this research, published in Nature Scientific Reports, my colleagues and I worked closely for several months with the BaYaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Hadza in Tanzania to record their dreams.
For Western dreamers, we recorded dream journals and detailed dream accounts, collected between 2014 and 2022, from people living in Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada.
The Hadza of Tanzania and the BaYaka of Congo fill a crucial, underexplored gap for dream research due to their distinct lifestyle.
We could model these statistically to test scientific hypotheses as to the nature of dreams.
The dreams of the BaYaka and Hadza were rich in community-oriented content, reflecting the strong social bonds inherent in their societies.
Interestingly, while dreams from these forager communities often began with threats reflecting the real dangers they face daily, they frequently concluded with resolutions involving social support.
This pattern suggests that dreams might play a crucial role in emotional regulation, transforming threats into manageable situations and reducing anxiety.
Specifically, we found they had higher levels of dream content with negative emotions compared to the “Normal” controls.
Conversely, the Hadza exhibited significantly fewer negative emotions in their dreams.
What if one of the keys to humanity’s success as a species rests in our dreams? What if something was happening in our dreams that improved the survival and reproductive efforts of our Paleolithic ancestors?
Our research supports previous notions that dreams are not just random firings of a sleeping brain but may play a functional role in our emotional well-being and social cognition.
In forager societies, dreams often conclude with resolutions involving social support, suggesting that dreams might serve as a psychological mechanism for reinforcing social bonds and community values.
The ultimate purpose of dreaming is still a subject of ongoing research and debate.
Some theories suggest that dreaming acts like a kind of virtual reality that serves to simulate threatening or social situations, helping individuals prepare for real-life challenges.
If this is indeed the case, then it’s possible that the dreams of our ancestors, who roamed the world in the distant Paleolithic era, played a crucial role in enhancing the cooperation that contributed to their survival.