The Mood Regulatory Function:
There are other connections that exist between waking life and dreams. This connection is a built in mood regulator system. It is has been tested that our pre-dream time mood and thought influence the emotional state of our dreams. As we slumber the chemicals of our daily lives rest until REM still occurs: the dream. Here the chemicals of seratonin and dopamine flow back in. Your mind awakes, but at a different brain wave state, while your body continues to rest. And the nature of your mind before sleep continues on into your dreams. The reasons behind this function is still not certain, but speculations are many. Once again, the reason may lie behind how the brain networks and creates connections between one’s outer and inner world. It seems that therefore, these connections are not constructed randomly but are associative, guided and organized through our emotional states between wake and sleep. An example of this idea is how post traumatic stress come up in dreams as an attempt to psychologically resolve and create connections via explanatory metaphor. A new, growing belief amongst researchers is that the dream serves as a function for the Protection of Sleep, and belief is that nightmares may be the disruption or "overload" of this process.