Everybody dreams, but not equally. That’s one thing neurologist Patrick McNamara discovered in 2001 when he began working on the idea that social relationships affect dreams. His team tested 300 university students who were rated based on their attachment status—how comfortable they were with intimacy and how likely they were to avoid a relationship. Attachment status was separated by “secure” and “insecure.”McNamara found that the students who were high on the insecure attachment scale would—without fail—report more dreams every night, and in greater detail than the secure students. Interestingly, the dreams of the insecure group were also rated as much more morbid and intense than the other group.Since the area of the brain known as the anterior temporal cortex is important for both attachment and REM sleep, what might be happening is that increased dreaming sort of fills in the gap for people who aren’t attached. Either way, you end up with a lot of activity at night.