A vicious circle occurs due to a lack of research on the use of dreams in CBT, and there is a very little knowledge about dream analysis in this therapeutic approach therefore, therapists do not want to elaborate on this topic during therapy sessions. Working with nightmares in CBT is developed and often applied, but working with dreams, in general, in CBT is barely elaborated and rarely used. This topic has been addressed in other reviews and meta-analyses.

Treatment of recurrent frightening dreams within the framework of CBT is well elaborated. Such dreams (usually nightmares) are very likely to be recurrent, as they are an attempt to complete the assimilation of negative waking experiences. These processes are possible in the case of dreams that do not reflect powerful emotional traumatic events.

Dreams are one way of assimilating waking experiences into the schemata because they help to classify emotional experiences from the waking state, compare them with memories, and plan future actions. During this process, waking life events are contextualized through the formation of connections between previous cognitive and emotional experiences and present circumstances. Dreaming is also related to assimilation of personal experiences into one’s existing memory system. Dreaming includes such cognitive processes as: accumulating content in both semantic and autobiographical memory representing these elements in a visual and auditory manner and in other modalities combining the above representations into a dream scene creating a narrative sequence for the dream scene and focusing on dream content. Referring to dreams in CBT is fully justified if the cognitive processes that are involved in the dreaming process are considered. However, in recent years, cognitive therapists have found a new interest in work with dreams. Within the framework of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), very few dream analysis concepts have been elaborated on.

Since the birth of psychotherapy, work with dreams has been mainly developed in the realms of psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy, and less commonly within humanistic or existential therapy.

A Dream of Waking Life by E.S. Fein