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short essay on lucid dreaming
The comparative investigation of sleep has led to an important conclusion: It has suggested that quizlet
short essay on lucid dreaming
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Most people think of sleep as a passive and relatively still and unchanging process; however, sleep is a very active state of consciousness. While asleep, we also have thoughts, visions, and feelings otherwise known as dreams. This assessment on sleep and dreams points out the alterations in the sleep cycle while focusing on REM sleep. It will also examine the history behind dream analysis, as well as introduce lucid dreams.
All about Dreams and Sleep
Sleep is our body’s way of restoring energy while resting. As humans, we need sleep in order to survive. Sleep can get rid of an illness, lower stress levels, and strengthen one’s awareness for the day. While we sleep, whether we remember it or not, we all have dreams. A dream, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2014), is a series of thoughts, visions, or feelings that happen during sleep. For years, psychologists and other researchers have been trying to decipher and interpret the meaning of dreams. When we sleep, we go through five different stages of sleep. The average dream occurs in REM sleep, or the fifth and final sleep stage (McEntarffer & Weseley 2012). Some common dreams are having one’s teeth fall out, being chased, or being back at school. But why do these dreams occur? To this day, we still do not know with one hundred percent certainty.
Contrary to common belief, sleep is considered one of the states of consciousness (Krieger 2011). The amount of sleep a person needs depends on a number of variables, most importantly age. Children under the age of four generally require more sleep than the average teenager or adult. Studies have shown that the majority of students from ages 15-23 are sleep deprived. This means that these students in high school...
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...re dreams interesting for philosophers? The example of minimal phenomenal selfhood, plus an agenda for future research. Frontiers in Psychology. Rev. 746. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3813926/.
Nightmares. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/nightmares.html.
Schenck C. (2005). Paradox Lost: Midnight in the Battleground of Sleep and Dreams. Minneapolis, MN: Extreme Nights, LLC.
Shibata S, Tsutou A, Shiotani H. (2014). Relation between Sleep Quality and Daily Physical Activity in Outpatients. PubMed. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24854994.
Stages of Sleep. (2008). Psychology World. Retrieved from http://web.mst.edu/~psyworld/sleep_stages.htm
Stumbrys, T. “Induction of lucid dreams: A systematic review of evidence.” Consciousness and Cognition 21 (2012):1456-1475. Research Gate.
However, not everyone gets the 7-9 hours of sleep they need on a regular basis. In a study done by the National Institute of Health, one-third of Americans get less than 7 hours of sleep and more than 70% of high school students are not getting enough sleep on a school night (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 2012). Sleep deprivation is slowly becoming a global issue that the general population, especially students, are not very concerned about. This lack of concern is worrisome because sleep deprivation can have negative effects on a person’s lifestyle, especially on their physical health and their performance in
Webb, W. B., & Cartwright, R. D. (1978). Sleep and Dreams. Annual Review of Psychology, 29(1), 223-252. doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.29.020178.001255
For some high school students, sleep is not considered a necessity – but rather, a luxury. Sports, extra-curricular activities, and Fine Arts programs play an important role in students’ lives and require a significant amount of commitment and dedication. Social life aside, some students have taken the additional endeavors of acquiring jobs, participating in volunteer activities, and taking extra Advanced Placement classes. With too many tasks to fulfill in a twenty-four hour day, high school students are forced to substitute for the most essential condition of all: sleep.
What is a dream? A dream is number of events and sensations that pass through the mind while sleeping. Sleep is not a break for your mind, but it is a state of consciousness (Turner, 2012, 1). People may lose their sensor skills when they are unconscious, yet the mind is running with full ability until the end of time. What is sleep? Sleep is a natural period in which one loses complete consciousness (Turner, 2012, 1). An average human spends one third of their life sleeping. Sleep is a basic need for the health of the human body, yet our mind does not truly rest like the rest of our body. Dreams have always been a mystery in the historical world, but it has been known dreams can be understood as events in another objective world. Dualism is
The average person spends over one-third of their life sleeping, and over this period of time he or she can have over 1,825 dreams (Wicklinski). By definition, dreams are mental images, thoughts, or emotions that are experienced while sleeping. In the beginning, dreams were thought to be messages sent from the gods or spirit world. Researchers now have many theories explaining why people dream. Many of these theories explain that dreams can resemble an individual’s sensory experiences or even secret wishes. All people dream, but only 42% of people can recall their dreams from the night before (“Dreams”). The study of dreams is a topic that is constantly being debated by researchers for many reasons. Dreaming is important because it can impact people’s health, provide insight into what they are feeling, and reveal information about their behavior.
The first question that is going to be addressed in this paper is “Why do you dream?” There are many reasons why people dream. There are many reasons why people dream. One theory as to why people dream is that “dreams help us sort and place the day’s experiences into our memories. Deep, slow-wave REM sleep stabilizes our memories and experiences, converting them into long-term learning” (Baird p.96). Another theory is that your brain is always firing neurons; even when you are unconscious. The neurons that are being fired are the ones that are responsible for creating images and the limbic system (emotions). This results in your brain weaving these signals together. Therefore creating dreams. The last theory is that dreams play a main part in cognitive development. According to Baird “The brain activity associated with dreaming may help to develop and preserve neural pathways… The way dreams change over time also seems to indicate a developmental role.” (Baird p.97) The older you are the more your dreams change. When you are an adult your dreams t...
Studies conducted over a nearly 30 year span have consistently shown only a small fraction of adolescents get the 9 or more hours of sleep they require to function at their best. While teenagers are notorious for causing their own sleep difficulties, sleep loss among adolescents is confined primarily to school nights. “Sleep deprivation is epidemic among adolescents, with potentially serious impacts on mental and physical health, safety, and learning. Most teenagers undergo a biological shift to a later sleep-wake cycle, which can make early school start times particularly challenging.” says
It’s seven thirty in the morning, the time that most American high schools begin class. Instead of being chipper and ready to learn, most teenagers, at this time of the morning, can barely remain awake. These puffy eyed pupils are by no means ready to learn. Sixty percent children under 18 reported being sleepy during the day, with another fifteen percent reporting that they had fallen asleep during the school day within the past year (National Sleep Foundation, Dozing). Though adolescents require a larger amount of sleep than younger children, they usually receive much less (Indiana University Center for Adolescent Studies). The amount of sleep a teenager receives affects him or her both physically and mentally. Sleep deprived teenagers are more likely to be irritable, be depressed, not perform up to their capabilities in school, and have a decreased ability to handle complex tasks (National Parent Information Network). Though teenage sleep deprivation is a big problem, some simple solutions such as rescheduling the school day to fit teenagers’ biological needs, setting consistent sleep schedules, and teaching children the importance of proper sleep habits can easily remedy this problem.
Sleep is one of the unavoidable daily-living activities and it is one of the most important factors contributing to a person’s health. A quality sleep is essential for the physical, cognitive and psychological well-being of a person. Learning, memory processing and maintenance of the brain are among the most important functions of sleep. In addition to maintaining the brain, sleep has important roles in controlling the functions of many other body systems. Sleep-related issues are common in today’s society, especially in high school and college students’ populations. “In recent surveys, nearly 75% of university students reported occasional sleep problems such as difficulty in falling asleep, sleep disturbances, delayed sleep phase syndrome and excessive daytime sleepiness” (Altun, Insaf, et al.). These sleep
Sleep is a behavioral state characterized by little physical activity and almost no awareness of the outside world. Sleep is actually made up of two separate and distinctly different states called REM sleep (rapid eye movement) and NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement). With NREM sleep it is further divided into stage 1-4 based on the size and the speed of the brain waves. Step one is the stage when you drift off to sleep or doze off. For example people doze off in class because you are bored and have nothing to do but listen to the teacher talk. Some parents may call it a cat nape when their kids go to sleep for about ten minutes or so. The second stage is called an intermediate stage of sleep. That is when
Despite the large amount of time we spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however. Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of (sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased. The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely as well. The Ancient Greeks had surprise dream encounters with their gods. Native Americans turned to their dreams for guidance in life. Shamans dreamed in order to gather information from the spirits.
In this paper I hope to open a window to the vast and mysterious world of dreaming. To most people, information about dreams isn’t common knowledge. In researching this subject though, I found that everybody has and reacts to dreams, which are vital to your mental health. You will also find how you can affect your dreams and how they affect you.
What is a dream? Why do we have dreams? Do dreams have deeper meaning in our lives? The answers to these questions have eluded and intrigued many psychologists throughout history and have sparked my interest as well. As an avid and vivid dreamer I have often found myself wondering what the true meanings to my dreams were. So what are dreams? “Strictly speaking, dreams are images and imagery, thoughts, sounds and voices, and subjective sensations experienced when we sleep.”1 Even after thousands of years of research, psychologists have still not come to an agreed answer on why we dream. There are as many opinions out there as there are individual dreams. Some psychologists believe dreaming is simply the minds way of distracting itself from outside information during sleep to allow people to get deep rest. Others such as Dr. Eric Hartman suggest dreams serve almost as a psychotherapy in which the brain can make connections between different emotions and thoughts in a safe protected environment. Do dreams have any direct correlation to everyday events and experiences? Are they meant to aid individuals in understanding and interpreting their world around them?
Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to understand the different functions of the human body, how we move, talk, act, and for the most part many of these physiological behaviors have been explained on some level. However, one area of the human body that has had researchers and scientist confused for a long time is the mind. Many things go on inside the mind that don’t make sense and so far have no tangible explanation of why it occurs and how. One of the most fascinating and mysterious sections of psychology is that of dreaming. We dream thousands of dreams every night, but why and what do they mean?
As the body sleeps, reality becomes replaced with the dream world, a fanciful place where the innermost being is found cowering like a creature vying to be freed. Some people have vivid dreams that are life-like; others cannot recall having dreamed. One concept is for sure, the dream world is one where the mind runs a free course. Images buried deep inside, thoughts avoided throughout the day, and unrealistic situations take hold. These images may turn into a peaceful dream of amazement and wonder, or they may take a frightening turn, dragging the mind into a state of horror and dread. The situations can become all too real, grasping at the outer edges of the mind, pushing the dream over the boundaries the body normally allows.