Psychology: Dreams Essay, Research Paper
Dreams When we sleep we do much more than just “rest our
weary bones”; we tap into our subconscious mind (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979).
The subconscious has much to offer about oneself. The average human being
spends one third of their life in sleep and during each sleep approximently two
hours is spent dreaming (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). These dreams are
important because they are the voice of our subconscious. Dreams and theories
on dreams go as far back as 2000 BC in Egypt. One of the first organized glimpses
into the diagnostics of a dream came in an Egyptian book called the Chester
Beatty Papyrus, its author is unknown. In ancient Greece dreams were believed to
be messages from the gods. In later centuries, Hippocrates (a Greek physician),
Aristotle (a Greek philosopher), and Galen (a Greek philosopher) believed that
dreams often contained physiological information that may be cause of future
illnesses. Artemeidorus documented and interpreted thousands of dream reports
in his book Oreiocritica (meaning “critical dreams” in Greek). His ideas were later
abandoned, and no further progress was made in the study of dreams until the late
1800s. That was until Sigmund Freud wrote his book The Interpretations of
Dreams in 1900. After its publishing, dreams became a popular topic once again.
The modern day idea that dreams come from our daily life is partially accurate.
When I say “partially” I mean only a specific aspect of dreams comes from daily
life interactions. The imagery in dreams comes from daily life (Freud 1900). You
must understand that the subconscious can only talk in a language that the
conscious can understand, therefore it uses imagery. So to put it in lay terms
“You’ll never see an object in dream that you haven’t seen in your daily life”
(Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). This statement raises an interesting question.
“What do blind people who never see anything dream about?” The answer to this
question is even more puzzling. The subconscious speaks to blind people using all
other sensory modalities such as hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Instead of
seeing things blind people will hear or smell things in their dreams. Helen Keller
talked of “seeing” in her dreams much as she saw when she was awake (let it be
stated that Helen Keller was blind). The subconscious is usually the right side of
the brain or the opposite side of persons writing hand. Within the subconscious lie
different types of things such as suppressed emotions, creativity, and basic human
instinct (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979. The conscious part of the mind works when
people are awake and is the part of the mind that handles things that people can
understand. No one truly knows why a person can’t interact with the
subconscious while awake, however studies show that dreams are a way in which
people can better comprehend its behavior. The condition of the body during
dreaming is interesting because the brain shuts off all sensory receptors thus,
canceling all somatic impulses (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). This puts the body
in an almost paraplegic state. The brain however continues to control all
autonomic functions such as blood flow, heart pulsation, and lung inflation. During
the sleep, homeostasis will fluctuate because sleep occurs on four stages
(Davidmann, 1998). The individual goes from awake to stage 1, then to 2, 3, and
finally 4, the deepest stage of sleep. After spending about twenty minutes in stage
4, they return to stage 1 and progress back to stage 4. The individual will continue
to make these cycles throughout their sleep. Most individuals will experience
about 4 to 5 cycles a night (Davidmann, 1998). This is why humans are more apt to
wake up at specific times in the night and not sporadically (most people do not
notice this however). During stage 1 the individual will experience what has been
named REM (Rapid Eye Movement), I will make further elaboration on REM
momentarily. For now I would like to point out that during REM the body will show
more signs of consciousness by spontaneous muscle contractions, flagellate
excretion, and oculomoter coordination (eye movement). The body will experience
these tensions and reactions because this is the active time of sleep in the
average human (Davidmann, 1998). I spoke earlier of REM (Rapid Eye Movement); it
is the time in which the individual will have their dreams. Nathaniel Kleitman
discovered it in 1953. It always occurs in the lightest stage of sleep, stage 1. It
has been given its name because of the muscle contractions in the eye motor
receptors. These electrical impulses originate from the brain stem and then travel
to the eyes to produce imagery. The catalysts for these impulses are triggered by
the subconscious mind and the emotions within it (Davidmann, 1998). The REM will
usually begin ninety minutes after sleep is initiated and will last roughly ten to
fifteen minutes (Davidmann, 1998). It is during the ten to fifteen minutes that
dreams occur. The REM will end and the individual will slip into deeper sleeps, until
the forth stage is reached. Once this occurs the mind begins to come out of the
deeper sleep stages until it reaches the REM once again. The interesting factor is
that each time the sleeper enters the REM phase of sleep the REM phase will
increase in length. This repeats four to five times in the average sleep. The
reason the dreams occur in the REM or the lightest stage is because this is the
only stage in which the conscious mind can interpret the imagery of the
subconscious. This is not to say that the subconscious doesn’t remain active in
deeper sleep stages but the conscious mind isn’t alert enough to decipher the
imagery the subconscious creates in deep sleep. A good personification
description of this is to say that the conscious simply can’t swim as deep as the
subconscious. The REM is also interesting because if a person does not
experience it they will suffer from various sleeping disorders because it is required
by the body just like sunlight is required. People who experience exaggerated REM
will suffer from fatigue and sleep depravation while they are awake. Usually, a
fully-grown person has about 4 to 5 cycles of REM sleep, consisting of about 25%
of a night’s sleep. A newborn child’s sleep can consist of as high as 50% REM type
sleep (Davidmann, 1998). As I previously stated, a person would go through the
sleep stage cycle four to five times a night, hence four to five dreams per night.
With this in mind it can be calculated the average human being will have 136,000
dreams in a lifetime, spending about six total years in the REM stage dreaming.
Mentally retarded individuals or people with low IQs tend to spend less time in the
REM type sleep, but other mental disorders are capable of initiating more REM
type sleep. The reason for this is unknown. Now that the diagnostics of dreams
has been covered I would like to focus on the origin of dreams from a medical
standpoint. As a consequence, memory, sensory, muscle-control, and cognitive
areas of the brain are randomly stimulated, resulting in the higher cortical brain
attempting to make some sense of it. The reason for these stimulations is
unknown but various medical researchers believe they are the after effects of
certain chemical reactions in the brain. This, according to the research, gives rise
to the experience of a dream, but there is controversy of the question of whether
dreams have intentional meaning. Many psychotherapists agree that dreams are
stimulated by impulses from the brain stem but they have actual meaning and are
not just hallucinations. Thus far, I have established that dreams have both a
metaphysical existence and a physical. The metaphysical is the imagery within in
them and their relation to the subconscious. The physical aspect is the chemical
reactions occur within the brain during dreams and the REM. The tie between
physical and metaphysical cannot be established but it safe to say that one does
exist. Thoughts are not physical in nature, we can’t touch and see them but in
order for them to occur the brain must go through chemical and hormonal
changes, dreams are the same in character. “The dream uses collective figures
because it has to express an eternal human problem that repeats itself endlessly,
and not just a disturbance of personal balance”, (Jung, 1945). Carl Jung is very
right on that point. The act of learning what dreams encompass and occupy has
become known as Dream Interpretation. There are many methods used for
understanding dreams but the two most popular and practiced methods are the
Freud method and the Jung method. The other is always the personal method of
dream interpretation but it can sometimes be misleading. Once an individual
establishes a method of dream analysis they must decide what type of dream they
are analyzing. There seven types of dreams according to the facts I have
researched. The superconscious dream, lucid dream, nightmares, night terrors,
sexual dreams, repetitive dreams, and the plain subconscious dream. Freud
believed in the superconscious dream, the repetitive dream, the sexual dream, and
the regular subconscious dream. Ullman and Zimmerman believe in all seven types
of dreams. The first type of dream known as the superconscious dream isn’t well
known. The superconscious is often referred to as the sixth sense, the ability to
perceive things that haven’t yet occurred. Sometimes the dreams act as
warnings and other times they act as messengers. An ever-growing trend is the
idea of being psychic; the idea of this is false because futuristic visions can’t
occur in the conscious mind (Ullman and Zimmerman, 1979). It is however possible
in the subconscious mind. When someone dreams of a future experience this
would display a superconscious dream. It’s prophetic in a way and this type of
dream was extremely promoted in biblical times. Daniel, form the bible, many times
had superconscious dreams as he dealt with Nebuchadnezzar II (king of Babylon).
There were many prophets who saw visions of Jesus several hundred years before
his birth. These visions had to have been dream imagery because it’s not possible
to have an actual prophetic vision in the conscious. The reason its impossible is
because the mind can’t justifiable vision the future while conscious, the individual
cannot perceive events of that nature accurately (Freud, 1900). The main problem
with superconscious dreaming is that the individual has no way to distinguish
between a regular subconscious image and a prophetic image. Only the dreamer
can remedy this problem. Constituting the imagery and significance of the dream
can do this. The dreamer must also find relations between current events and the
dream to make sound decisions on whether it is a superconscious dream or a plain
subconscious dream. The idea of having prophetic dreams is somewhat bogus
however you must understand the subconscious works in mystique forms (Freud
1900). The second class of dreams is the lucid dreams. Lucid dreaming transpires
only if the individual is aware that they are dreaming (Ullman and Zimmerman
1979). Lucid dreams are paradoxes; the individual will be asleep and dreaming but
will be awake in their dream. This form of dreaming often puzzles the dreamer into
believing they are actual awake they however are not. The main differential factor
for lucid dreaming is that the imagery is sharper and the content is more realistic.
The dreamer discovers or concludes that he is in a dream and is able to identify
some realistic details are missing. This is often shocking to the dreamer because
dream reality does not apply to the physical laws therefore dreams will have a
disillusioned appearance (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). Once lucidity sets in the
dreamer may attempt to control the future course of the dream. The lucid stage
occurs between being awake and the REM, with this reason in mind the dreamer
can assume that if they are having a lucid dream that they are about to awaken
(Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). The next genus of dreams is nightmares.
Nightmares are very simple in nature but there is much contained within them.
Nightmares come from highly surpressed negative emotion. This negative emotion
can be directed toward oneself or an opposing party. The imagery in nightmares is
often intense and fearful. The body goes through unusual occurrences, the heart
rate will increase, the oculomotor effectors receive impulses at a high rate, and
the body temperature climbs due to the nervousness from the nightmare. An
interesting fact on nightmares is that they all end with awakening. The reason for
this is simple; the nature of the nightmare is so emotionally overwhelming that
the mind is virtually “shaken” out if sleep (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). Some
people often state how they never have nightmares; this is a good thing to be able
to say. A person who lacks nightmares is obviously an emotionally stable person.
Nightmares can be relaxed by take prescribe drugs that slow down the mind
functions, downers if you will. Another type of dreams is the night terror. Not
much is known about night terrors except they are extremely frightening. “It’s
frightening but is not unusual or dangerous to a child,” says Harry Abram, M.D., a
neurologist with The Nemours Children’s Clinic. Night terrors occur mostly in
young children, typically between the ages of 3 to 5 years. Two to 3% of all
children will experience episodes of night terrors and children who wet the bed are
more likely to have night terrors. The fascinating attribute of night terrors is that
they occur in the non-REM sleep and in the deepest sleep possible. They can last
any from ten minutes to an hour. A person experiencing a night terror customarily
doesn’t wake up until it’s over. The eyes can sometimes remain open during the
entire episode and regularly the body suffers from many excited spasms. Once the
victim awakens they cannot recollect any of the nights experiences
(Kidshealth.com 1999). The next two species of dream are very frank in their
description. The first one being the sexual dream and the second being the
repetitive dream. The sexual dream was analyzed greatly by Sigmund Freud he
theorized that sexual dreams came from sexual tension. He felt that sexual
tension came from the compelling urge to engage in sexual intercourse. Sexual
symbols such as long rod shapes symbolizing the male penis and hollow round
shapes symbolizing the female vagina (Freud 1900). Freud thought if either of
these symbols appeared in a dream that the individual had surpressed sexual
tension within their emotions. The repetitive dream is best defined as a dream
that occurs twice within different REMs. The only reasonable explanation for
repetitive dreams is that they are indications of a troublesome but often ignored
emotion. They are the way in which the subconscious keeps the individual from
suffering complete denial. Repetitive dreams cease once the problem is resolved
in daily life or in the dream (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). Lastly, the plain
subconscious dream, this is the dream doesn’t fit in to any other dream
categories. To put in lay terms it is the “average” dream. They occur with the
REM and are usually not remembered because of the ordinariness. They however
are the hardest dreams to understand and interpret because they can’t be
categorized specifically. Most of them don’t have much significant evidence to
offer because they are just based upon present daily life and some acute
emotions. There are exceptions to this rule. An often-pondered aspect on dreams
is sleepwalking and talking. Popular belief thinks that sleepwalking and talking are
just individuals acting out what they see in their dreams. Actually neither of these
seems directly linked to dreaming. They occur in the nondreaming phase of sleep
and represent transitory releases of speech and motor mechanisms. There is no
evidence to why this occurs. Also, a sleepwalker, contrary to popular belief, can
injure himself (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). There are many subsidiary facts
about dreams that most people do not know. One of these is that the older a
person gets the less dreams they will have and the vaguer they appear. It has also
been proven through research that using drugs such as stimulates increases the
possibility of nightmares and other intense dreams. The reason for this is the