Imagine you have come home from a long night of work. You have not been sleeping well lately, so you practically collapse into the bed. In an instant, the world has changed into a world of wonder and magic. Suddenly, the sky darkens and your worst fears, snakes, spiders, your loved ones being hurt, begin to appear right before you.
You bolt upright in your bed and scream. As you calm down, you realize that it was only a nightmare.
This phenomenon happens to many people every night. In fact, it is one of the most common occurrences of sleep. These visions, these dreams, appear to everyone each time they sleep, yet few understand the science of their sleep and the meaning of their dreams.
Webster's Dictionary defines sleep as “the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored.” Brynie writes that the human body is controlled by a cycle known as the Circadian Clock. It corresponds to a twenty-four hour day and coordinates all biological activities in a life.(74-75).
The sleep cycle is one of the most complex biological cycles the body carries out. It goes through five stages. Stages one through four last for around seventy minutes(Brynie 14). In stage one, the senses begin to shut down(Kallen 14) and the brain begins “to send slow amplitude signals,” . A person's eyes still move, and any disruption will cause the sleeper to become startled.(Brynie 12). In stage two of sleep “brain waves slow and become theta waves,” which cycle 4-8 times per second. The sleeper in this stage is still easily startled.(Brynie 12). In stage three, the sleeper begins to become harder to wake. Delta rhythms occur.(Byrnie 13). In stage four, delta waves take over entirely and the ...
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...by very distinct waves. These waves also reflect actions within the dream. Climbing a ladder or staircase is reflected in sharp vertical waves and walking across plains are characterized by long wavelength waves with low amplitude(Kallen 24).
Researchers believe that dreams serve a very distinct purpose. They are necessary to the brains process of “housecleaning.” It is through dreams that researchers believe that the brain sorts, disposes of, and stores memories. Experts say that it is not harmful to remember some dreams, but the majority of dreams are often forgotten by morning(Byrnie 16).
In fact, those vivid images that are remembered have sparked incredible folklore about dreams. There are three overwhelming beliefs about dreams in popular culture. Most dreams seen in stories today are represented as either telepathic, prophetic,or inspirational.
So for an average sleep time of eight to ten hours, we go through this sleep cycle four to five times a night. In stage one of the sleep phases, we are in a light sleep that lasts anywhere from five to ten minutes. In this stage, our eyes are still moving slowly and our muscles are slowing down, but may still have sudden muscle contractions like as if we were being startled or as if we were falling down. People in this phase may not feel rested if they are awakened, and might not of felt like they were even asleep at all. In stage two of the sleep cycle, you have successfully fallen into a light sleep. During this cycle your heart rate has slowed down, and your body temperature has dropped. You no longer have eye movement, and your body is finally resting the parts it has used through out the day. The next stage, which is stage three is also combined with stage four of the sleep cycle. These two cycles together are known as the delta sleep or the deep sleep stage, and is a very important part of the sleep cycle. During these cycles your body repairs and re-grows tissue, strengthens the immune system and builds bone and muscle. In these cycle it may be very hard to wake a person up, and if woken they may feel droggy or “out of it” for several minutes. In these stages is when most people have night terrors, experience sleep walking, or sleep talking occurs. In an adults average time of sleep this takes up about fifteen to twenty five percent of the time of sleep. Lastly, there is the REM cycle, which is also known as paradoxical sleep. During this cycle is when most of your muscles are paralyzed, your eyes are moving rapidly, and your breathing, heart rate and body temperature are not regulated. Vital signs show that during this stage, the arousal and oxygen levels
The sleep-cycle is what makes everyone sleep and wake up every night and morning. The basic mechanisms of the sleep-wake cycle consist of approximately 8 hours of nocturnal sleep and 16 hours of being awake. This cycle is controlled by combination internal influences of both sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythms. Homeostasis is “the process by which the body maintains a steady state of internal conditions such as blood pressure, body temperature, and acid-base balance”, and Circadian rhythms “refer to the cyclical changes-like fluctuations in body temperature, hormone levels, and sleep that occurs over a 24 hour-period”. (NSF)
Have you ever wondered why you dream and how you can sometimes direct it? Maybe you have wondered if your dream has any true meaning to it. You are not the only person who has these questions. These questions come up a lot when psychologists discuss the topic of dreaming. The topic of dreams and lucid dreaming has been around for hundreds of years. There have been many books and journals solely devoted to dreams and how they affect people today. The goal for this paper is to answer and explain the questions (Why do you dream? Can you direct your dreams? And do dreams have meanings?) using journals, books, and other resources written by widely known psychologists such as Sigmund Freud.
There are five stages of sleep. The first stage is when one prepares to drift off. During this stage, one experiences Alpha and Theta waves. This stage generally lasts five to ten minutes. The second stage lasts about twenty minutes. The brain begins to produce short periods of rhythmic brain waves known as Sleep Spindles. Body temperature begins to drop and the heart rates slows down. During stage three, slow waves
Freud’s theory however, is only one of many such as Francis Crick’s. He believed that dreams were a way of mental “house cleaning” or getting rid of unneeded memories. He thought them useful because you don’t have to remember every small minute detail of your life.
the sleeper will gradually descend deeper into sleep, becoming more and more detached from the outside world and progressively more difficult to awaken. Stage three is the beginning of deep sleep, occurring about thirty to forty five minutes after you first fall asleep. The deepest sleep occurs in Stage four. Stage three and four has the biggest and slowest brain wave. REM sleep, a mentally active period during which dreaming occurs, provided a biological explanation for this phenomenon. Scientists found that brain activity during REM sleep begins in the pons, a structure in the brainstem, and neighboring midbrain regions. The pons sends signals to the thalamus and to the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for most thought processes. There are several myths about sleep. For one, how much sleep a person should get? According to our text book people should sleep for at least eight hours to maintain sound mental and physical health. But every one doesn’t get the chance to sleep for that amount of time. There is no normal amount of time you should sleep. Everyone is not the same. For one I might sleep for five hours and feel refreshed enough to work another shift. Other hand my cousin might need more then eight hours of sleep to feel refreshed.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, dream is defined by a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring involuntarily in a person’s mind during certain stages of sleep. Dreams have fascinated humans since the beginning of time. The recorded history of dream interpretation dates back to 3000-4000 B.C. with the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. They documented their dreams on clay tablets. People back then saw the dream world as an extension of reality, but that it was a more powerful realm. Furthermore, they believed that when they dream, their souls would leave their body during sleep and travel to the dream world.
Many people dream, but most do not know what they mean and why. One dictionary definition says dreams are a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. But there is more to dreams than one phrase. Some studies have shown that
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?
The Psychodynamic view of dreaming suggests that the content in our dream is symbolic of something. Also, that the content in our dreams are based on unconscious desires as well as internal conflict.
During prescientific days, dreams were interpreted as ‘manifestations’ of a ‘higher power’. Since the introduction of psychology, dreams have had 4 distinct interpretations. The first interprets dreams as a “liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature”. The second interprets dreams as “accidental disturbances from ‘internal organs’. The third interprets dreams as a foretelling of the future. The last interpretation is Freud’s. He interprets dream as an expression of subconscious desires.
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.
There are many perceptions of what a dream actually is. Some view dreams as the subconscious trying to speak to people, and others see it as religious visions of the future. Over the years, physicians and psychologists have collected countless amounts of research and evidence to support their viewpoints on dreams. I have always believed that dreaming is a time when the brain develops and analyzes important information (Bernstein 149). Dreams do not mean anything specific, and everyone has their own cultural perspectives of dreams. In reality, no one has the power to analyze and tell people the meanings of their dreams. According to Bernstein’s psychology book, dreaming is a time when the brain experiences story-like perceptions and sensations.
All in all, whether we dream to talk to our ancestors, or just to deal with problems we can’t fix in our waking state one thing is certain; dreams are an important part of our lives. Without dreams the mind and body would surely suffer. Dreams allow a necessary outlet of our darkest fears and frustrations as well as our greatest hopes and wishes. In dreams you can be anything or anyone and if you can interpret your dream correctly you can have in insightful view of your soul. “Dreams unify the body, mind and spirit and provide you with insights about yourself and are a means for self exploration. When you understand your dreams you will have the ability to further understand and discover the true you.”(4)
Dreaming is very different than everyday life, yet somehow still relates to it in some way. In everyday life we have stress and happiness along with many other emotions. Yet in someway when we drift off into a deep sleep this emotions come right back. Dalai Lama once said that “sleep is the best meditation.” Sleep may be the one thing that people turn to, a place where your mind is totally set free to do what it wants and think what it wants. An idea or vision that is created in your imagination that when suddenly when you awake, feels so real.Dream reflect reality because most peoples dreams are in fact related to past, and recent experiences, or events that have happened in a person’s life. Dreams are more than just a method of entertainment, They should be taken more seriously because of the fact that with dreams imitating own reality, you can then learn more about yourself.