Dreams and contemporary stress: a disruption-avoidance-adaptation model

A disruption-avoidance-adaptation model is proposed to provide a framework for understanding the seemingly disparate findings from studies of dream function. The model is based on the notion that there is an oscillation between disruption of sleep caused by dreaming about a stressful stimulus followed by an avoidance of the stimulus in order to achieve homeostasis. The oscillation is postulated to continue until there is adaptation to the disruptive stimulus. Continuity is assumed to exist between waking and sleeping experience.