...Week Six Sleeping and Dreaming PSY/240 Sleeping and Dreaming Sleep is considered a natural state in which there is reduced consciousness, reduced sensory activity, and inactivity of all muscles. Sleep is needed for the body to recharge, grow, and is essential for health and well-being. There are three standard psychophysiological measures of sleep and they define the stages of sleep. They are the electroencephalogram (EEG), the electrooculogram (EOG), and the neck electromyogram (EMG). There are four different stages of EEG sleep. Stage 1 EEG is a low-voltage, high-frequency signal slower than being awake. When going from stage to stage the EEG voltage increases and the EEG frequency decreases. Once a person goes from stage 1 to stage 4, the cycles of sleep go back and forth throughout the stages while a person is sleeping. Each cycle is about 90 minutes long. REM sleep is associated with stage 1 EEG while NREM sleep is a combination of all other stages. Stages 3 and 4 are considered slow-wave sleep or SWS due to the delta waves. During REM sleep people have rapid eye movements. Dreaming occurs during the REM stage of sleep. Some people believe that external stimuli can affect their dreams. Some people believe dreams are quick and only last a few minutes, while research suggests they last as long as the person is dreaming. Some people say they do not have any dreams, but more than likely they just do not remember their dreams. Penile erections...
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...Psychology of Dreams For my research project, I am investigating the abstract world of dreams and the theories behind those dreams. Why we dream what we dream, and how, and where dreams come from. There have been many different theories on where dreams come from and how to interpret the dreams of different people. I will be exploring the similarities and differences of those theories along with speculating which theories are the most accurate, taking into consideration recent research on the psychology of dreams and dream interpretation. My main focus will be the world-renowned psychologist, Sigmund Freud. His theories on dreams and the interpretation of dreams are the most widely known and socially accepted theories, but are those theories the most accurate? That is what my research paper will be discussing and examining. This paper will be objective, simply providing the facts about dreams and the different theories regarding dreams and the interpretation of them. I will go in depth with why we dream what we dream, some of the most common dreams that people have, and what the most popular theories are behind the psychology of dreams. My purpose of this paper is to inform my audience of the theories behind dreams and where they come from. I will provide information on the different interpretations of common dreams, the history of dreams, and the basics of the sleeping cycle. My readers are my class peers as well as my instructor. I think that many people know the basics...
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...lifetime is 229,961 hours. Part of those 229,961 hours sleeping is spent dreaming. What are dreams? This question has fascinated the human race throughout history. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans, to Sigmund Freud in the late 1800’s, till now, people have queried what the mystical stories that play out in the sleeping mind are and why we have them. The Sumerians in Mesopotamia left evidence of dreams dating back to 3100 BC. According to these stories, gods and kings, like the 7th century BC scholar-king Assurbanipal, paid close attention to dreams. In his archive of clay tablets, some accounts of the story of the legendary king Gilgamesh were found (Seligman). The Mesopotamians believed that the soul, or some part of it, moves out from the body of the sleeping person and actually visits the places and people the dreamer sees in their sleep. Sometimes the god of dreams is said to carry the dreamer. Babylonians and Assyrians divided dreams into "good," which were sent by the gods, and "bad," sent by demons. They also believed that their dreams were omens and prophecies. In ancient Egypt, as far back as 2000 BC, the Egyptians wrote down their dreams on papyrus. People with vivid and significant dreams were thought blessed and were considered special. Ancient Egyptians believed that dreams were like oracles, bringing messages from the gods. They thought that the best way to receive divine revelation was through dreaming and so they would induce dreams. Egyptians would...
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...Sleeping and Dreaming Rebecca Limon PSY 240 January 14, 2014 April Kindall Sleeping and Dreaming There are four stages of sleep. These stages are known as EEG: stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, and stage 4. When transitioning from alert wakefulness to stage 1, there are alpha waves that punctuate the low voltage, high frequency waves of alert wakefulness. The EEG voltage will increase gradually, while the EEG frequency will decrease gradually, as the individual progresses to stages 2, 3, and 4. According to Ch. 14 of Biopsychology, the stage 2 sleep EEG has a slightly higher amplitude and a lower frequency than the stage 1 EEG; in addition, it is punctuated by two characteristic wave forms: K complexes and sleep spindles. Each K complex is a single large negative wave (upward deflection) followed immediately by a single large positive wave (downward deflection)—see Cash and colleagues (2009). Each sleep spindle is a 1- to 2-second waxing and waning burst of 12- to 14-Hz waves. The stage 3 sleep EEG is defined by the occasional presence of delta waves—the largest and slowest EEG waves, with a frequency of 1 to 2 Hz—whereas the stage 4 sleep EEG is defined by a predominance of delta waves. Once sleepers reach stage 4 EEG sleep, they stay there for a time, and then they retreat back through the stages of sleep to stage 1. There are five common beliefs about dreaming. These beliefs include the following, the first belief is that there are some people who believe that dreams...
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...those without the disorder? Kristin Staub Brookfield High School Dreaming is a vital part in sleeping, yet in some individuals it interferes in their waking state. For example, schizophrenics have hallucinatory images while they’re not sleeping causing some psychologists to speculate why this happens. People without the disorder and other people with other disorders have been found to dream while they’re in REM sleep which is a major mental process that allows people to dream. The following articles, “Sleep Fantasy in Normal and Schizophrenic Persons,” “An Extension of Freud and Jung’s Theory of Relation of Dream States to Schizophrenia,” “The Neurochemistry of Waking and Sleeping Mental Activity: The Disinhibition-Dopamine Hypothesis,” “Dream Content of Schizophrenics, Nonschizophrenic Mentally Ill, and community Control Adolescents,” “Sleep Disturbance in Schizophrenia” “Rorschach Responses Subsequent to REM Deprivation in Schizophrenic and Nonschizophrenic Patients,” attempt to explain the problem statement: How do dreams differ in people with schizophrenia to those without the disorder, through REM sleep in normal individuals and schizophrenics. Dream content will also be investigated to answer the problem statement and certain sleep habits. In addition Jung’s and Freud’s theory attempt to explain how dreaming is connected with schizophrenia in their conscious state rather than in their sleeping state through thought processes and verbal patterns. Another article...
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...are falling asleep, they interpret a completely different meaning. Falling can mean you are insecure, you are losing grip, or you simply have fears that need to be faced. Patricia Garfield, the author of Creative Dreaming states: “there is some problem that is making you feel helpless like you have no support, so next time when you wake up startled from a falling dream, ask yourself what upcoming events do I fear I will fail?” II. (Introduce Topic) Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to understand the different functions of the human body, how we move, talk, and even act. Many of these physiological behaviors have been explained to some extent. However, one area of the human body that has baffled researchers, is that of the mind. Many things that go on inside the mind that don’t make sense, and serves no real explanation as to why or how things happen. One of the most fascinating and mysterious sections of psychology is that of dreaming. Even though there are numerous theories about dreams; whomever you are, wherever you live, you will dream. Whether it's a good dream or a nightmare is up to your mind, but there must be some reasoning behind dreams, right? III. (Establish Credibility) I have always been fascinated with the mechanisms of dreaming, and I thought it’d be...
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...com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm Many different theories have emerged to help explain the mystery of why we dream. "Dreams are the touchstones of our characters." - Henry David Thoreau Dreams have fascinated philosophers for thousands of years, but only recently have dreams been subjected to empirical research and concentrated scientific study. Chances are that you’ve often found yourself puzzling over the mysterious content of a dream, or perhaps you’ve wondered why you dream at all. First, let’s start by answering a basic question – What is a dream? A dream can include any of the images, thoughts and emotions that are experienced during sleep. Dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or frightening imagery; focused and understandable or unclear and confusing. Ads Do You Have Sleep Apnea? sleepapnea.com It's a very common sleep disorder. Are you at risk? Answer 9 questions "Shocking" 2014 Horoscope astrologyanswers.com/Zodiac Enter Your Zodiac Sign to Find Out Your Future. So accurate it’s Scary! Silva Mind Control www.silvalifesystem.com Learn How To Control Your Mind Get The Famous Silva Guide... Free * Psychology Psychotherapy * Sleep Disorders * Sleep Apnea Sleep Study * Sleep Center * Study Psychology So why do we dream? What purpose do dreams serve? While many theories have been proposed, no single consensus has emerged. Considering the enormous amount of time we spend in a dreaming state, the fact that researchers...
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...is a dream? A researcher by the name of Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams gives us a good insight about dreams. His theory is one of the best-known models of dream interpretation. There are also other types of theories that suggest to us what a dream is. Some say that dreams are simply random firing of memory neurons. Others say differently. I will try to show both sides of this controversy. This paper will examine what a dream is and what people interpret a dream to mean. It should also give you a broader perspective of dreams, go into detail of different theories regarding dreams and give you more insight of such a fascinating but complicated topic. There is also the case of nightmares which will be discussed briefly and why they occur when we dream. What are dreams and what do they mean There have numerous studies on what is a dream. A lot of controversy has happened because of this. Some people say it could be just simply random firing of memory neurons as stated earlier but not everyone thinks the same way. Others say there is a lot of detail that could go into finding out more about this topic so they begin to do more research to come up with different ideas about such a debating issue to study. To simply put it, dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. This paper will examine all the different ideas and theories from researchers that should give us a better insight about...
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...tired or bored, one will eventually dream in one way or another. Lucid dreaming is a term created by Frederik van Eeden that is used to describe a dream in which one is aware that he/she is dreaming. This type of dreaming is considered by many as a higher level of consciousness. Most people do not know what lucid dreaming is and those who do rarely are aware of how to realize that they are dreaming, let alone actually manipulate their dreams. Lucid dreaming can have many benefits in one’s life, whether it’s relieving stress, learning or studying, having fun, etc. Also, there is little risk in dreaming lucidly, since dreams do not take place in the physical world. Anything that can benefit many people with little risk should be readily available and encouraged. Dreaming lucidly fits this description yet is not studied often, and on top of that, is not taken very seriously within the scientific community. Lucid dreaming should be a topic that is taught and discussed more often than is currently in everyday life. To understand lucid dreaming, one must understand the two different types of “life”. One of which is waking life, which you probably can guess, refers to one’s life while they are awake. The other of which, is dreaming life, which refers to one’s life while asleep. The special thing about lucid dreaming is that it encompasses both of these ideas into one. That is to say, that you are dreaming and consciously aware of that fact simultaneously. This all sounds simple...
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...body uses 2/3 of the energy it uses in the day while you're asleep. You know why? Dreaming. We can't remember more than 9/10 of our dreams, but we spend hours dreaming each night. It serves a number of pursoses, and there is a huge variety of studies detailing each of the theories on the purpose of sleep and dreaming. Dreaming helps us sort through our days experience. It's a filer that puts things in the right categories and makes our mind organised so we can access the data easily to carry on with our lives. Do you recall how confused and slow you can feel when sleep deprived? Sleeping is also a way to work through unconscious conflicts, fears and desires. If your unconscious and your instincts are craving something or you have fear or anxiety or some conflict, your dreaming mind can work through it to make you feel a lot better when you wake up. This explains why we can hardly ever remember our dreams, and trying to do so is like trying to cup water in your hands - they're not supposed to be remembered, it could freak you out! It's for your unconscious to deal with. Some people think that dreaming is used to 'test' the body before waking up, as well. It goes through different areas of the brain and makes sure it is all working and warmed up before we wake. This would explain how we often remember dreaming if we are suddenly woken. No energy drink or food can make up for dreaming, you really do need to get a good amount of sleep to keep your mind ticking. ...
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...Derrick Dunker Justin Hampton English 102 February 12, 2013 Lucid Dreaming Not many people know exactly what this phenomenon consists of or even is. Lucid dreaming, just like regular dreaming, is a very fascinating and misunderstood occurrence. Supposedly you can harness it and use it to open up new doorways that you’ve never been able to imagine in your lifetime. Lucid dreaming is a very good way to escape and can actually be very eye opening. Why do I believe this? Let me explain through the research I’ve gathered. First things first, for those who don’t know what I’m talking about. Lucid dreaming is a phenomenon that occurs when the dreamer is in a dream and realizes that they are in fact in the dream state. Typically the reaction is as follows, the dreamer freaks out and feels as if they will be trapped in the dream for a prolonged amount of time. This is followed by an attempt to recall when they passed out and where they were when they did. Most of the time unless this person is an experienced lucid dreamer they won’t be able to recall these things. For those adventurous ones the next step is to begin creating. The universe is the limit, you can create anything you want, build giant skyscrapers from nothing, fly around like Neo from the matrix, turn into the hulk, etc. Their really is no limit to what a person can do while in the lucid dreaming state. Some of this I take from research and some from personal experience, the idea may seem far fetched but training can...
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...seconds, or approximately 20–30 minutes.[3] People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase. The average person has three to five dreams per night, but some may have up to seven dreams in one night.[4] The dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses. During a full eight-hour night sleep, most dreams occur in the typical two hours of REM.[5] In modern times, dreams have been seen as a connection to the unconscious mind. They range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre. Dreams can have varying natures, such as frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual. The events in dreams are generally outside the control of the dreamer, with the exception of lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is self-aware. Dreams can at times make a creative thought occur to the person or give a sense of inspiration.[6] Opinions about the meaning of dreams have varied and shifted through time and culture. The earliest recorded dreams were acquired from materials dating back approximately 5000 years, in Mesopotamia, where they were...
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...Dreams are very different from waking life, but it is extremely difficult clearly to define in what the difference consists. When we are dreaming, we are nearly always convinced that we are awake, and in some cases real experiences have been mistaken for dreams. The latter mistake forms the subject of a celebrated Spanish play called Life a Dream, and of an amusing story in the Arabian Nights, in which a poor man is for a jest treated as a mighty monarch, and it is contrived that he should afterwards think that all the honourable treatment he had actually received was merely a vivid dream. Sometimes even after waking, we may be doubtful whether our dream was a reality or not, especially if we happen to fall asleep in our chair and do not remember the circumstance of having fallen to sleep. Of course this doubt can only arise when there has been nothing in our dream that seems impossible to our wakened mind. It is, however, only in rare cases that a dream exactly copies the experience of our waking hours. As a rule, in our sleep all kinds of events seem to happen which in our waking hours we should know to be impossible. In our dreams we see and converse with friends who are at the other side of the world or have been long dead. We may even meet historical or fictitious characters that we have read about in books. We often lose our identity and dreams that we are someone else, and in the course of a single dream may be in turn several different persons. Space and time to the dreamer...
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...Sleeping and Dreaming CheckPoint PSY 240 The Brain, The Body, and The Mind January 18, 2012 Windy Baker Kuntz There are two main types of sleep; first you have Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep or NREM (also known as quiet sleep and Rapid Eye Movement Sleep or REM (also known as active sleep or paradoxical sleep. This is broken down into five stages. The first stage is the beginning of the sleep cycle. It is considered to be a light stage of sleep. It is a transition period between wakefulness and sleep. Stage one lasts only a brief time (around 5-10 minutes). The second stage is when the brain begins to produce bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity known as sleep spindles. This only lasts for about 20 minutes and your body tempiture begins to decrease and the heart rate begins to slow down. The third stage is a transition between light and deep sleep. Your brain develops slow deep brain waves known as delta waves. The fourth stage is a very deep sleep that lasts for about 30 minutes, this is where delta sleep occurs and bed wetting as well as sleep walking is most likely to occur. Stage five is where most of our dreaming occurs. This is where we have our REM sleep. Respiration increases and so does brain activity. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because while the brain and other body systems become more active, muscles become more relaxed. Dreaming occurs due because of increased brain activity, but voluntary muscles become paralyzed. Our text...
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...close your eyes, but then you may fall asleep. I would prefer you guys didn't do that so you will listen to me, but if you were to, you might just experience the very thing I am going to inform you of today. Dream Dreams are something we all experience every night, whether we remember them or not. 1/3 of your life is spent sleeping, and in an average life time you would have spent about 5 years of it dreaming and in that time, you all will experience thousands of dreams. In the next five or so minutes I'm going to tell you the most I can about dreams. . There are numerous theories about dreams, but whomever you are, where ever you live, you will dream. Whether it's a good dream or a nightmare is up to your mind, but there must be some reasoning behind dreams, right? Everyone may know the main idea of a dream, but few may know that the explanations behind dreams are far more intricate than it just being a simple random thought in your mind. Can you remember the last dream you had? Maybe you could fly or were falling down an endless dark tunnel. Perhaps you were awakened by a horrific dream in the middle of the night Sigmund Freud’s Theory 1 - Finding an unused room What it means: The rooms in a house represent different aspects of your character, so finding an unused room suggests that you’re discovering a talent that you were previously unaware of 2 - Out-of-control vehicle The vehicle represents your ability to make consistent progress toward a specific...
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