Dreams And Its Effects On Dreams

Throughout history, numerous people have studied the human body and its many functions. One area of the body that causes much confusion and controversy is the mind. Many parts of the brain baffle scientists, but a specific aspect of the mind that is fascinating and puzzling is dreams and their functions. It is surprising that an average person dreams for at least six years of their life, but scientists still do not know the role of dreaming (Shaw). Several theories have been presented to provide a reason for dreaming, and attempt to explain what most do not understand. Although dream research has been prominent lately, no agreement has been reached on which theory is correct on the purpose of dreams. Some believe that dreams are only

Our dreams are objects of endless enchantment and mystery for mankind as far back as the beginning of time. The nocturnal

We spend six years of our lives in sleep and many of us do not think about what occurs while asleep. Everyone has experienced more than a few dreams while asleep, that is because, whether you know it or not, everyone dreams while asleep. Based off the Activation Information Mode Model theory, dreams are random neurological firings that have no particular meaning. The reason dreams feel so real and personal is because they are based from recent memories located in the brainstem. Although dreams are meaningless, our brain tries to make connections. Through the Activation Information Mode model people are able to analysis personal dreams.

To many people, dreams are the thoughts that occur while sleeping, having almost mystic qualities. For millennia the significance of dreams has escaped even the brightest of philosophers and intellectuals. Many people have speculated about why people dream and what meanings the dreams have but in recent times two theories have gained credibility in answering those questions. The first theory is Sigmund Freuds and the other is known as the cognitive theory of dreams also known as biological determinism.

The journal entry begins by introducing the concept of nightmares and the negative emotion that is followed by such occurrences. People who are experiencing negative emotions more frequently are often times more likely to having nightmares or other intolerable dreams. The journal also points out how many people who experience nightmares also experience frequent dreaming in general. All the data contrived from people who experience frequent nightmares found that these people experience a wide variety of dreams that are usually triggered by a state of severe emotion. Another form of dream experienced by such people is Day-dreaming. The journal explains that people with a higher occurrence of nightmares, experience dreams in many other forms. They also are more prone to letting their mind wander even when they are not fully asleep. These people may experience similar states of

As we lay ourselves down every night to put our bodies to rest, our brains begin doing something extraordinary. It begins piecing together images, creating scenarios, simulating sensory perception, and adding in emotions and fears. They can make us wake up with a smile on our face or in a cold sweat. Dreaming is such a strange and often inexplicable phenomenon, but something we all do just about every night. People have theorized the process and the utility of dreams for centuries. However, much of the accepted knowledge we have a bout dreams today is still only theory. In fact, hardly anything about the dreaming experience is concrete because it is an experience

Thesis Statement: Dreams are successions of images, emotions, and sensations that occur subconsciously during sleep.

Growing up everyone has experienced dreams, but in this exploratory essay I am going to break down dreams on many different levels to form a better understanding of why it is we have them. Throughout my years of dreaming I have always wondered why do I have dreams, why do I dream about certain people, and why do I have dreams some nights while other nights I don’t have any along with many other questions. How is it that our brains can make these very realistic depictions of our real life, and transfer them into a memory as we wake up? Another very peculiar aspect of dreaming is seeing people or places that do not look familiar to us at all. Throughout my research I have discovered the answers to these questions, and many other aspects of dreams. While I was searching for answers to my questions I found that there is a lot more to learn than I originally thought. I developed even more questions to feed my research along the way.

A dream, by definition, is a sequence of emotions, ideas, images, and sensations that involuntarily occur in the mind at various times; typically during the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep (American Heritage Dictionary, 2000). Throughout history, dreams have been the cause of much speculation; holding both philosophical and religious interests (Hobson, 2009). Before the days of scientific research, opinions varied regarding dreams, and their usefulness in psychotherapy. Dreams were often viewed as either being divinely inspired or having derived from a dark, evil source. Even in today’s scientifically advanced society; dreams are still not totally understood.

Holzinger, G. Klosch, and B. Saletu (2015) at the Institute for Consciousness and Dream Research involved an initial forty participants, thirty females and ten males, ranging in age from twenty to fifty-nine. All participants were volunteers recruited through unspecified media (Holzinger et al., 2015). The only pre-requirement, as stated in the advertisement, was for participants to be experiencing frequent nightmares at least twice a week (Holzinger 2014). In addition, participant’s nightmares had to fit the institutes definition as ‘recurrent awakening from sleep with recall of intensely disturbing dream mentation’s and were accompanied by dysphonic emotion’ (p. 355). Prior to acceptance to the study, all participants were required to go through a screening process to eliminate any person with additional sleep behavior disorders, excluding anyone experiencing sleepwalking or night terrors and anyone suffering from REM sleep behavior disorder, epileptic seizures, or psychotic symptoms. After passing all screenings, participants were randomly assigned to two groups; group A: Gestalt therapy group (GTG) and group B: Gestalt and lucid dreaming therapy group (LDG) where each group had twenty members.

I have always been interested in learning and interpreting dreams every since I was in high school. Out of everything I learned about dreams over the years, the one that really resonated with me the most was that dreaming is our way of dealing with problems from our waking state. For that reason, I chose an article called Relation of Dreams To Waking Concerns by Rosalind Cartwright, Mehmet Y. Agargun, Jennifer Kirkby, and Julie Kabat Friedman. It captured my interest because it goes into depth about how your waking concerns effects your dreaming state. It also goes into detail about Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) and Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and what they have to do with dreaming.

Many people are intrigued by dreams. They are constantly searching for answers, ‎wondering why certain events occurred and what they mean. Dreams are probably one of the ‎hardest things to study, which is why there’s nothing more than theories about them. Humans ‎are self-conscious individuals, and dreams are mysterious and unpredictable. If an individual ‎under a study has a dream that is embarrassing or ignominious, they may leave key parts of the ‎dream out, or even lie about having a dream at all! However, this doesn’t stop people from ‎searching for meaning to their most intimate thoughts. Dreams can be our subconscious’ way ‎of communicating with us about important details that have happened, and even those that have ‎yet to happen.

One of the most fascinating natural occurrences known to science is something everyone's body requires them to do, this strange phenomenon is sleep. Sleep is not fully understood by anyone, there are too many variables and unanswered questions to discover what sleep is for and why the human body stresses sleeping so much. Dreams are just as undiscovered as sleep. There are many observations made about dreams and what parts of the brain are utilized during these inter-sleep hallucinations. But like sleep, there is no official reason or meaning behind it. Sleep and dreams, although strange and without apparent purpose, reveal many things about an individual, his or her habits, and potentially innermost subconscious thoughts.

Many studies have been conducted on dreams; as a matter of fact, there are various examples that look at how gender and psychology contribute to this subject. Although there have been numerous studies conducted, there are still questions about whether gender has a strong contributing factor on how dreams are interpreted. Schredl, Götz and Wittmann (2004) suggested that typical dream themes are reliable and valid; however, the meaning of the themes and their relationship between real life experiences are still under investigation. The problem with the conflicting interpretations is that they can carry both negative and positive meanings. It is important that more individuals study this subject; mainly, to assure clarity within the interpretations.

Sleep is often accompanied by the hallucinogenic state of dreaming comprised of lucid thoughts which can often seem like real life. Recently recorded studies and experiments have exposed the world of dreaming to physiatrists. Dreaming parallels many life experiences and is unique to each individual person. With the recent observations of lucid dreams and the studies of the REM sleep, this field has vastly improved its understanding and knowledge.