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

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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?

 Physiologically, certain neurons in the brain step, known as REM sleep-on cells, (located in the pontine tegmentum), are particularly active during REM sleep, and are probably responsible for its occurrence. The release of certain neurotransmitters, the monoamines are completely shut down during REM. This causes REM atonia , a state in which the motor neurons are not stimulated and thus the body's muscles don't move. Lack of such REM atonia causes REM Behavior Disorder where sufferers act out the movements occurring in their dreams.  Heart rate and breathing rate are irregular during REM sleep  (^) Body temperature is not well regulated during REM sleep

 (^) 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

 (^) 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

 The Ontogenetic Hypothesis of REM sleep states that

this sleep phase is particularly important to the

developing brain, possibly because it provides the

neural stimulation that newborns need to form mature

neural connections and for proper nervous system

development.

 Studies investigating the effects of Active Sleep

deprivation have shown that deprivation early in life

can result in behavioral problems, permanent sleep

disruption, decreased brain mass (Mirmiran et al.

1983), and result in an abnormal amount of neuronal

cell death (Morrissey, Duntley & Anch, 2004).



REM sleep is necessary for proper central nervous

system development (Marks et al. 1995). Further

supporting this theory is the fact that the amount of

REM sleep decreases with age, as well as the data

from other species

 (^) 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



Almost the entire state of being before we're born is

REM sleep

 Researchers believe children have to reach a certain

level of intellectual maturity, around the age of 8 or

9, before their dreams resemble adults‘



Research has shown that children dream about

animals more often than adults and are more likely

to report being victims than aggressors



Children are also more likely to have "fantastic"

dreams, while adults' dreams tend to contain more

elements of reality



A typical fantastic dream from a 10-year-old studied

included a cat asking for directions to the "cat

bathroom." Similarly, an 11-year-old boy dreamed

that a snake wanted to go up a ski lift

 All night long, Jared is drunk and talking in his

incoherent mumbly monotone. Finally, I have enough

and tell him off. I call him a boring bastard. Then I

notice a baby girl standing inside a flaming fireplace. I

go up to her and say sympathetically, "You must be

very hot and uncomfortable." She agrees. I pick her up

and I hold her, taking her away from the fire. (A Junior

in High School)

 “I was in school and at a play. There were three new

boys. The oldest one gave me presents. They kept

coming out of this box. There was a witch. She locked

the old one in a cage. Suddenly there was a gust of

wind. I struggled for the key and unlocked it. Then I

went to some movie with the 5th grade. I went down

to sit. Some people sat five rows behind us.” (A Fifth

Grader)

 Taken from dreambank.net