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A dream specimen is presented in which regression of the various perceptual functions of the ego in response to strong emotion can be observed in mid-process. The loss by regression into deeper sleep of the capabilities for perception of color, sound, and form is related to a depersonalizing process that occurs regularly in dreams as a precursor of the dream work. In certain instances which involve more regression and deeper sleep than usual this process may lead to clinical depersonalization and mania. Regression into deeper sleep in certain dreams is conceptualized in terms of deactivation of the reticular activating system and an attempt is made to relate this persistent deactivation to clinical syndromes. Evidence from the literature is presented indicating that in the sleep of depressed patients the reticular activating system is less inhibited than normally. Thus, before either a partially blank dream and its derivative, depersonalization, or a totally blank dream and its derivative, mania, can occur, a certain persistent degree of deactivation of
the reticular activating system must be achieved. Finally, a hypothesis is offered, utilizing the same data on control of depth of sleep and its effect on the body ego, to suggest that the reticular activating system might be responsible for the particular chronology of memories in dreams.