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Meta-awareness, mind wandering and negative mood in the context of the continuity hypothesis of dreaming

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Abstract

In the waking state, in the absence of meta-awareness, mind wandering with specific contents can lead to negative mood. Such negative mood can be incorporated into dreaming according to the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. In this paper we argue that in the presence of what we call ‘sustained phenomenal meta-awareness’, negative mood would not follow mind wandering in waking. Sustained phenomenal meta-awareness has a non-sensory, non-affective phenomenal character. It is essentially intransitive, prereflectively self-aware, non-propositional, non-conceptual and devoid of subject-object structure. In other words, this unique kind of meta-awareness is non-representational. Evidence is then provided that such sustained phenomenal meta-awareness can be incorporated into the subsequent dream state as non-dual lucid dreaming in which, again, no negative mood would arise. Based on the latter observation, we have coined the term ‘mindful mind wandering’ and defined it as mind wandering in the presence of sustained phenomenal meta-awareness. We argue that not only does mindful mind wandering not lead to negative mood in waking, but also its incorporation into dreaming, as non-dual lucid dreaming, result in a state that is free of negative affection.

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Change history

  • 05 August 2022

    Springer Nature’s version of this paper was updated to present the corrected Table 1.

Notes

  1. By ‘direction of the relationship’ we refer to the temporal priority between mind wandering and negative mood. However, temporal priority does not necessarily imply causality.

  2. This is not an uncommon approach toward the concepts of affect, emotion, and mood. Some scholars, such as Fox et al., (2018), Mason et al., (2013), and Mills et al., (2021), have adopted a similar stance in addressing the relationship between these concepts and mind wandering.

  3. The intensity and pervasiveness of waking emotions are among the most important factors that influence the incorporation of emotions into subsequent dreams. These factors can influence the time course of the incorporation of waking emotions into dreams so that not only can immediate pre-sleep emotions be incorporated into dreams, but also emotions experienced in a longer time interval (Schredl, 2018; Gilchrist et al., 2007; Hartmann, 2011b).

  4. In this article, we take ‘consciousness’ to be synonymous with ‘awareness’ and use the terms interchangeably where they are used as general terms. In this sense, they do not refer to any specific or ad hoc type of consciousness.

  5. By the statement ‘A-meta-awareness is a type of A-consciousness,’ we mean A-meta-awareness and A-consciousness share the same essential properties. It should be noted that any type of meta-awareness falls under the category of ‘consciousness’. Put another way, any higher order consciousness, such as A-meta-awareness, is still a type of consciousness.

  6. By the term ‘inaccessible’ in this context we mean that contents/processes of mind wandering cannot be accessed before my attendance toward them. As seen in what follows, it is my attendance that makes them available in the executive system. Otherwise, they are unavailable.

  7. In Tibetan Buddhism, this style of meditation is called ‘Mahāmudrā’.

  8. As opposed to ‘reflective self-awareness’ in which self-awareness requires conceptualization and higher-order representation of one’s ‘self’ as the subject of experiences.

  9. For further reading on the unitary, non-dual state of selflessness, see Farb et al., (2007); Siderits et al., (2013); Dahl et al., (2015); Dor-Ziderman et al., (2016); Metzinger (2020). Also note that some descriptions of the features of sustained P-meta-awareness, or non-dual awareness, will unavoidably seem paradoxical due to the feature of language which is inherently linear with dualistic subject-object structuring. Non-dual awareness, however, is inherently holistic (Josipovic, 2019). For example, while language demands for a statement to be expressed as ‘the meditator differentiates non-dual awareness from its objects,’ in such experiences there is no subject experiencing non-dual awareness as if it were an object differentiated from other objects. There is only awareness knowing its own being inherently and non-representationally.

  10. In Zen Buddhism, such an attitude toward mental experiences is called ‘Shoshin’ or ‘beginner’s mind’ (Suzuki, 1970). It refers to an attitude of openness and eagerness without having preconceptions.

  11. As we argue later in this section, such awareness can be dualistic and representational or non-dual without conceptualization or higher-order representation.

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  1. Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, 49069, Osnabrück, Germany

    Reza Maleeh

  2. School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland, 4072, Brisbane, St Lucia, QLD, Australia

    Reza Maleeh

  3. Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Shaghayegh Konjedi

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Maleeh, R., Konjedi, S. Meta-awareness, mind wandering and negative mood in the context of the continuity hypothesis of dreaming. Phenom Cogn Sci 23, 105–131 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-022-09835-5

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