Continuity Of Sleep

Studies have shown prominence of themes in typical dreams but whether or not they hold a personal meaning or simply reflect emotional apprehensions are still up for debate between researchers. Based on the knowledge of reoccurring themes for dreams, a Typical Dream Questionnaire, or TDQ, was created. In order to create the TDQ, researchers did extensive investigations on particular themes and then applied cross-cultural comparisons in order to make the questions for the questionnaire. Ever since it was used, researchers have found that the answers to the questionnaire are widely different between

Review of The Twenty-four Hour Mind: The Role of Sleep and Dreaming in Our Emotional Lives by Rosalind Cartwright 224 pages Oxford University Press, USA; * edition (June 24, 2010)

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

“The Sleep” by Caitlin Horrocks basically tell you about the people in the small town of Bounty. Protagonist Albert Rasmussen wife was killed by a drunk driver on an icy road. In this town the people looked up to Albert Rasmussen because he was smart and decided to stay in Bounty after graduation. Albert had gathered the whole town over in his family room to have a discussion. This discussion took place “…before the cameras, before the sleep, before the outsiders, and the plan sounded as strange to us as it would to anybody” (Horrocks 104). This literally means that they didn’t have anything much technology and before they actually decided to sleep. In this short story “The Sleep”

Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. In today’s society, the concept

Dreams are generally linked with rapid eye movement sleep, or REM sleep, which is a phase that happens near the end of a sleep cycle. REM sleep is characterized by the random movement of the eyes and heightened body and brain activity. One study proposed that there is a definitive link between dreams and emotions, where the reduction of REM sleep causes a reduction in the ability to comprehend the multifaceted emotions in everyday life (Gujar, 2011, p.117). This phase of the sleep cycle has the highest inclination of vivid dreams and studies of MRIs of the brain during REM sleep show that the amygdala and hippocampus play a key role (Gennaro, 2011, p.1458). The amygdale processes the memory of emotional reactions and the hippocampus stores information from short-term to long-term memory. These findings reveal the core mechanism and perhaps the reason that humans dream. Dreams seem to aid in processing emotions by linking them to a variety of memories. The experiences within dreams may not be real, but the emotions that accompany the images and events during REM sleep are unquestionably genuine. Without processing these emotions, the emotions build up and personal anxiety increases. With less REM sleep, people tend to be more agitated and mental disorders are more easily developed

The T-test looked at the null hypothesis that personality traits are not statistically significant when measuring peoples ability to recall their dreams. It was founded that from the sample Extraversion, Stability and Conscientiousness were not significant as all predictors were above the significance level of .05. Extraversion had had a moderate positive, non-significant correlation. Stability had a negative moderate non-significant correlation and Conscientiousness had a very peak positive non-significant correlation. The strongest predictor for the outcome variables was openness. The result is not surprising as hypothesized from previous literature if a person is open to the experience of dreaming they are more likely to remember their dreams.

The study's author states on page 113 that the overall objective of the study was to "test the continuity hypothesis by investigating the relationship between people's PWB (psychological well-being) and their everyday dreams". It seems as if the researcher wished to determine whether individuals who suffered from bad dreams and nightmares also suffered from low self-esteem and self-worth during their waking hours; or in other words their psychological state was one continuous state during both their waking hours, and during the time they were asleep. The study also attempted to test two hypothesis; the first was that the "proportion of negative to positive dream elements (e.g. aggressive versus friendly interactions, negative versus positive affect) reported by participants in their dream log at a given time would be related to their scores on measures of PWB". The second hypothesis tested by the researcher was that "changes in the content of participant's dream reports collected at two periods of their lives would be related to corresponding changes in PWB scores (eg participants who show decreases in PWB over time report increased negative dream content)".

The subtopic that I will be analyzing is the Continuity Hypothesis. This theory states that the content of our dreams reflects our everyday waking experiences. For example, the people we see on a daily basis such as our family, close friends, or coworkers are usually the main characters in our dreams. This theory suggests that since the recent experiences of your life are not yet ‘filed away’ deep in your brain yet, they are easy to manipulate into clear images and plot lines. In 1972, this hypothesis was presented by Calvin Hall, an American psychologist. He was the first dream researcher to suggest that the daily concerns and happenings of the dreamer’s life could be mirrored in their dreams as opposed to the popular belief that hidden libidinal (the instinctual energies and desires that are derived from the id) wishes or offsetting emotional strategies as proposed by psychodynamic theorists like Freud and Jung. Hall devised this theory through standardized dream content scoring inventories. He used this method to demonstrate that the most frequently occurring images or ideas were not peculiar events but rather routine social interactions between the dreamer and their most regular acquaintances.

Being able to control one’s dreams can be very empowering to individuals, as it can help them recover from hardships in their lives. The article deeply discusses the “crisis method,” and this theory involves having individuals recall their worst dreams, which are essentially called nightmares. After recalling these horrors from their memory, they are put through a certain therapeutic session used to transform these thoughts from the past into positivities to help empower them in the future. Other studies have also made similar conclusions about personality in regards to the benefits of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is different for every individual, and in this article, we are informed of how personality traits may affect the dreams, or potential nightmares, that an individual may experience in their sleep. There are certain factors that affect the lucid dreaming phenomenon, and one of the main ones seems to be related to the characteristics of certain people (Hess, 2017). Lucid dreaming may indeed be the answer to some theories related to dreaming. People often question whether they lose their self-awareness when engaging in an unconscious dream. Some lucid dreamers are able to remember

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

The state of sleeping begins in the womb, long before a baby is born. There are three sleep states which have been recognized in babies and are based on particular patterns of brain activity and changes in rate of the heart and movement of the eyes. The three states are known as active, quiet, and indeterminate sleep. Active sleep is the equivalent of REM sleep in. Quiet sleep is the equivalent of non-REM sleep. Indeterminate sleep is the state in which neither active nor quiet sleep, as well as wakefulness, are present. Indeterminate sleep is the result of the baby’s brain not being able to coordinate all periods of sleep and wakefulness all of the time. As the pregnancy progresses, the baby’s awake and asleep patterns develop and are more

The notion of this paper is to bring dream theory within the framework of cognitive psychology, by preserving the suggestion that dreams are the personification and extension of our waking thoughts. According to the Webster Dictionary, the definition of a dream is a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep. Dreams are a vehicle by which the psychological process of cognition is altered into a form that can be perceived by the dreamer. Although images are the only means by which ideas find practical expression in dreams, other methods such as conversations, numerals, movements, and representations are employed in waking life, for making an individual’s thoughts known. Dreams contrast from the vast media of waking life,

Thematic Claim: Dreams, in both the subconscious and physical world, are essential for one’s destiny and their character in the future.

Thesis: The occurrence of dreams is associated with our memories and experiences which can help us find out more about ourselves.