Dreams and Sleep

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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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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.

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