"Experiencing and Healing Nightmares"

In the second talk in this series, Dr. Carr discussed her research path exploring neurocognitive, experiential, and therapeutic aspects of dream science, with a specific emphasis on nightmares and nightmare treatment. She outlined a theoretical model of nightmare disorder as associated with impaired emotion regulation at both neural and cognitive levels, across waking and sleeping states. Then she presented findings from her in-depth EVA-funded study on the neurophenomenology of nightmares, including novel evidence that nightmare-prone individuals are highly sensitive to a range of sensory and emotional experiences, which may underlie their intensified dreaming. Dr. Carr presented insights from phenomenological interviews with nightmare sufferers, and described intentional practices for healing nightmares by working with dreams in the waking and dreaming state. She also presented her current work on lucid dreaming – designed to bring agency and self-awareness into dreaming – as a promising treatment for nightmares.

Michelle Carr, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory (starting 2023) in the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, Montreal, and Adjunct Research Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Montreal. She studies the relationship between dreams and mental health, with particular interest in nightmares, lucid dreams, and new techniques in dream engineering.

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