Understanding Dreams: The Science and Significance of REM Sleep, Slides of Sociology

Download Understanding Dreams: The Science and Significance of REM Sleep and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Are they a product of your subconscious?  Dream is a word used to describe the subconscious experience of a sequence of images, sounds, ideas, emotions, or other sensations usually during sleep, especially REM sleep  There is no neurologically agreed upon, biological definition for dreaming  It is known that dreams are strongly associated with REM sleep  But there is a lot that is unknown about dreams and the purpose of dreams is interpreted in many different ways  What is the purpose of dreams? Do we need to dream? Are dreams an interaction between your subconscious and conscious?  Lucid dreaming occurs when dreamers realize that they are dreaming (lucid dreaming can occur with varying levels of awareness and dream control)  The dreamers are sometimes capable of changing their dream environment and controlling various aspects of their dream.  The dream environment is often much more realistic in a lucid dream, and the senses heightened  The realization is usually triggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in the dream  Two types of lucid dreaming: dream-initiated lucid dreaming and wake-initiated lucid dreaming  Dream-initiated lucid dreaming: Starts off as a normal dream until the dreamer realizes that they’re dreaming  Wake-initiated lucid dreaming: The dreamer goes from a normal waking state directly into a dream state with no apparent lapse in conscousness  Time passage appears to be the same during lucid dreaming as when awake  There are “How to” books on lucid dreaming, websites focused on teaching people the “art and science” of lucid dreaming, advertisements stating- "Now instead of wasting up to Eight Hours Every Single Day with normal sleep, by mastering the art of lucid dreaming I am now able to enjoy truly mind blowing experiences every night!” ( www.lucid-dreamer.info)  Lucid dreaming is very appealing to people and many try to learn how to become lucid dreamers and “control” their dreams  Is this possible?  Dreams provide clues to the nature of more serious mental illness  Schizophrenics, for example, have poor-quality dreams, usually about objects rather than people  According to one study, "good dreamers," people who have vivid dreams with strong story lines, are less likely to remain depressed  It is thought that dreaming helps diffuse strong emotions. Dreaming is believed to be a “mental-health activity“  However, no one has yet been able to say that REM sleep or dreaming are essential to life or even sanity  MAO inhibitors, an older class of antidepressants, essentially block REM sleep without any detectable effects, although people do get a "REM rebound"—extra REM—if they stop the medication. That's also true of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac, which reduce dreaming by a third to a half  Dreams may also regulate mood. Hartmann says dreams may function like psychotherapy, by "making connections in a safe place" and allowing the dreamer to integrate thoughts that may be dissociated during waking life  Both Freud and Jung identify dreams as an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious  Dreams are seen as projections of parts of the self that have been ignored, rejected, or suppressed  It is believed that people resolve issues in their sleep and use dreams to reorganize thoughts – are dreams used to deal with traumatic events?  Another idea is that dreams helps the mind run tests of its Emergency Broadcast System, a way to prepare for potential disaster. For example, when new mothers dream about losing their babies, they may actually be rehearsing what they would do or how they would react if their worst fears were realized.  There's also evidence that dreaming helps certain kinds of learning. Some researchers have found that dreaming about physical tasks, like a gymnast's floor routine, enhances performance. Dreaming can also help people find solutions to elusive problems. "Anything that is very visual may get extra help from dreams," says Deirdre Barrett, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and editor of the journal Dreaming.  Barrett has found that even ordinary people can solve simple problems in their lives (like how to fit old furniture into a new apartment) if they focus on the dilemma before they fall asleep  Humans spend about 6 years dreaming  Dreams are generated in the forebrain  Most common emotion experienced during dreaming is anxiety  The U.S. ranks the highest amongst industrialized nations for aggression in dreams with 50% of U.S. males reporting aggression in dreams, compared to 32% for Dutch men  Men generally have more aggressive feelings in their dreams than women, and children's dreams do not have very much aggression until they reach teen age  This parallel much of the current research on gender and gender role comparisons in aggressive behavior  This supports the view that there is a continuity between our conscious and unconscious styles and personalities  In men's dreams 70 percent of the characters are other men, while a female's dreams contain an equal number of men and women  Sexual dreams show up about 10% of the time and are more prevalent in young to mid-teens  Approximately 70% of women have recurring dreams and 65% of men  The most common themes are: situations relating to school, being chased, sexual experiences, falling, arriving too late, a person now alive being dead, flying, failing an examination, or a car accident  Twelve percent of people dream only in black and white  In general, more introverted, psychologically oriented people naturally remember their dreams and practical, concrete thinkers don’t