Activation-Synthesis Essay: The Science Of Dreaming

Dreaming is defined as a series of thoughts, images, and sensations that occur in a person’s mind during sleep. Humans have speculated since the beginning of time why we dream and what they mean, and have always possessed a fascination with the topic. Early civilizations believed dreaming was a spiritual act; that dreaming was a medium between the earthly world and that of the gods, and the Greeks and Romans were convinced dreams held prophetic abilities. However, some of the first theories about dreaming rooted in legitimate psychology weren’t introduced until the early 1900s by Psychoanalysis’ founder Sigmund Freud and one of his students, Carl Jung. Sigmund Freud’s theories on dreaming highlighted the darker part of humanity; he believed that dreams were simply an

Many stand with the ‘Activation-synthesis hypothesis’ theory, the argument that dreams have no meaning and are just random thoughts and images pulled from one’s brain with no purpose nor explanation (Linden, “The Science Behind Dreaming”). This theory proposed by Alan Hobson and Robert McCarley states that ‘specific neurons in the brain stem fire during REM sleep and that the cortex struggles to ‘synthesize,’ or make sense of, this random stimulation by manufacturing dreams’ (Huffman, Sanderson, 133). In short, this theory suggests that dreaming is nothing but random imagery and thoughts being pulled from one’s brain for no reason or purpose.

Perhaps one of the best studies to combat the theory that dreaming is meaningless was conducted by the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at UC Berkley. Matthew Walker and his team discovered that less REM sleep (and, as a result, less dreaming) reduced one’s ability to comprehend complicated emotions, suggesting that dreams may have significant benefit, and maybe even purpose (Linden, “The Science Behind