Affective experiences are central not only to our waking life
but also to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreams. Despite our increasing
understanding of the neural correlates of dreaming, we know little about the
neural correlates of dream affect. Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) is considered
a marker of affective states and traits as well as affect regulation in the
waking state. Here, we explored whether FAA during REM sleep and during evening
resting wakefulness is related to affective experiences in REM sleep dreams.
EEG recordings were obtained from 17 human participants (7men) who spent 2
nights in the sleep laboratory. Participants were awakened 5minafter the onset
of every REM stage after which they provided a dream report and rated their
dream affect. Two-minute preawakening EEG segments were analyzed. Additionally,
8 min of evening presleep and morning postsleep EEG were recorded during
resting wakefulness. Mean spectral power in the alpha band (8 –13 Hz) and
corresponding FAA were calculated over the frontal (F4-F3) sites. Results
showed that FAA during REM sleep, and during evening resting wakefulness, predicted
ratings of dream anger. This suggests that individuals with greater alpha power
in the right frontal hemisphere may be less able to regulate (i.e., inhibit)
strong affective states, such as anger, in dreams. Additionally, FAA was
positively correlated across wakefulness and REM sleep. Together, these
findings imply that FAA may serve as a neural correlate of affect regulation
not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state.