What Does Science Know About Dreams

Dreaming is yet another state of consciousness. A dream is simply an unfolding episode of mental images that involve characters and events. Dreams usually tend to occur during REM sleep but can occur during NREM sleep as well. We dream on a variety of topics, subjects, and individuals. No dream can be exactly interpreted or defined, therefore people have always been fascinated with what, why, and how we dream. An unpleasant and almost terrifying type of dream is a nightmare. This is a very vivid, almost real

Why do we dream? What do our dreams mean? Dreams are a sequence of images, ideas, and feelings that involuntarily occur most commonly during the REM stage of sleep. They come in a wide variety of types, from the peculiar to the downright terrifying; the dreamer has no control over what they experience in their dreams. Though neurologists have been studying the human brain for decades, we still don’t fully know why we dream or what their significance is. Some psychologists theorize that dreams are closely linked to our subconscious mind, expressing our deepest fears or desires, allowing us to be what we cannot be. Others believe that dreams serve no function at all and are simply our imaginations running wild. In the words of Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, “The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter.” (The Interpretation of Dreams)

Dreams are something that occur within our mind as we sleep. They play a crucial role in the mood we carry out through the day or the thoughts that we may have, but have you ever stopped to think about how much dreams truly affect you? As of now, our theories of dreams are very different than the first two theories. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, had a theory that "centered around the notion of repressed longing, the idea that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved, repressed wishing." Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who had a theory that “dreams were a way of communicating and acquainting yourself with the unconscious.” There are many different theories that describe dreams on all sides of the spectrum. They include wish fulfillment, encoding short-term memories into long-term storage, garbage collection, and solidifying what we've learned. Other theories take more imaginative routes of explanation including that of the

Everyone in the world has had at least one dream in their lifetime. Most people do not think much about the dreams that they have, unless they are recurring. Dreaming is “a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during REM sleep.” Most people today wake up from a dream or nightmare saying, “thank god that was a dream,” or “too bad that was just a dream.” Many times these dreams or nightmares have more meaning than we may think. If people took more time to consider the meaning behind the dreams they have, then dream interpretation could be used as a means to help resolve issues in our awaken lives, including helping to

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.

Dreams, one of the many dimensions in our mind, gives a lot of different information then we are use to having in the day. The subconscious mind that takes control when we sleep, takes care of our passive memories and holds the key to our lives. Dreams are what lead us to this key which unlocks the door to another type of wisdom. The farther we get

“Dreams are a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.” This is the true definition of what dreams are according to Free Dictionary.com. Although many people are unaware of how dreams actually work there are two psychologists that have been able to pinpoint the true meaning of dreams. These two men are Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. There are many different perceptions on how people dream, what dreams mean, and why people dream.

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.

Dreams have been around as long as the first civilization came to be and have been a normal part of human existence. One third of your life is spent sleeping, and of that third, on average you will have spent a total of about six years of it dreaming. Most people dream on average two hours every night, but you can have anywhere from four to seven dreams in one night. According to research, the most common setting for a dream is in your own house. In our dreams we can do anything we want and be whoever we want to be. Our dreams are an escape from reality. While we dream we are unable to control our actions and choose our surroundings. We let our minds take over. Sometimes dreams can be understood in the context of repressed thoughts. Dreaming serves as an outlet for those thoughts and impulses we repress during the day. When we go to sleep at night and slip into our dream state, we feel liberated and behave in a manner that we do not allow ourselves to in our everyday life. Visions and ides can come from your dreams. Often, authors, screenwriters, and even poets turn to their dreams for inspiration. The think quest oracle library goes on to tell about the most well-known of the modern dream

Our dreams are created by our cerebral cortex, the part of our brain in charge of interpreting and organizing the information we receive from the environment during consciousness. Sleep is divided into many different cycles, one such cycle, REM sleep, involves rapid eye movement and very high brain activity similar to when we are conscious. Scientist believe that our brain receives “random signals from the pons during REM sleep” which our cortex interpret as well and thus the cortex ends up putting together a “story” out of pieces of brain activity. Of course, this all means that if a person were to skip the REM cycle of sleep by not sleeping enough or by altering their sleeping habits to wake up before these periods of time happen, then they wouldn’t have the opportunity to dream. Even so, this has proven that everyone dreams with this in mind, scientists have also proven that lucid dreaming is possible. Experiments done by Stephen LaBerge, leader in the scientific study of lucid

Are your dreams really meaningful, or are they just an appearance in your sleep? This is a common question that many of us tend to overlook. “Are dreams really meaningful?” by Kelly Bulkeley and “Why dreams mean less than we think.” by John cloud, are two insights that will help in gaining knowledge about the meanings of our dreams. The scientists around the globe have been researching our meanings behind our dreams for quite some time now, “The findings from these studies provide compelling evidence that dreaming is not meaningless “noise” but rather a coherent and sophisticated mode of psychological functioning.” (Bulkeley). Although many researchers claim that dreams are just our imagination going to sleep, or our brain replaying past and

By definition dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occurs involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. When we dream many there are many different events, people and even animals involved. Although this may seem that we are dreaming we are actually in REM sleep. REM sleep is “a kind of sleep that occurs at intervals during the night and is characterized by rapid eye movements, more dreaming and bodily movement, and faster pulse and breathing.” This is why all these extraordinary events happen to us when we are dreaming because we are in a REM sleep.

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 study of dreams began in 1953 after Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman discovered REM sleep - a period of rapid eye movement that corresponded with vivid dream recollections (Aserinskiy and Kleitman). Since that time, psychologists have sought out what the biological purpose of dreams was. Dream psychology can be a difficult field of study due to the fact that we have not found an accurate way to record dreams, relying on the subjective recollections of the subject upon waking them up. There are some questions that we can currently answer, such as What is the content of dreams? To begin, we know that dreams vary greatly in length, from a few seconds to twenty minutes and that humans tend

Dreams can often be mysterious and quite questionable at times. It can leave us wondering what a particular dream means to the dreamer, and we can argue about what causes dreams in the first place. Science can explain how dreams are related to brain functioning, but only a psychological understanding of the unconscious can explain why a dream happens at a particular time of your life and what it means psychologically. So what exactly are dreams? Strictly speaking, dreams are a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a persons mind during sleep. This can include people you know, people you have never met, places you’ve been, or places you’ve never heard of. Sometimes they can even be your deepest, darkest fears and secrets, and most private fantasies. There’s really no limit to what the mind can experience during a dream and no reason to what you end up dreaming about.