Dream Theories

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYSX51xBkos

Why do we dream?Is there special meaning and information

in our dreams? Why do we have bad dreams? Why do we dream at all?

Sleep & InspirationDreaming, which occurs during REM sleep, is the

one event during the hours of slumber that turns out to be more productive than it appears. Paul McCartney claimed to have woken from a

dream with the theme for The Beatles' hit "Yesterday" in his head.

Robert Louis Stevenson said the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to him while asleep

Dmitri Mendeleev reported that he "saw" a chart of all the elements ranged in front of him while dozing at his desk on 17 February 1869. Two weeks later, he published what has become the Periodic Table of the Elements.

History of SleepAristotle = the first person to consider sleep in a

methodical way. argued that it was caused by the heart cooling down

Other Greek philosophers and physicians said its cause lay in the isolation of the body from its senses they mistook the heart rather than the brain to be the

center of the body's sensory perception. 2,000 years later it became possible to study the

sleeping brain directly. Nathaniel Kleitman

1925 opened the first sleep laboratory team was the first to discover that sleep consisted of

different stageswork laid the foundation for modern sleep research.

When/why do we dream?Most dreams = during REM sleep stageWhy? = you decide!http://

education-portal.com/academy/lesson/why-do-we-sleep-and-dream.html#lesson

Three Major Theories of Dreams

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Theory— One of the oldest & most controversial

explanations for why we dream is Freud’s psychoanalytic view

way of satisfying unconscious urges/conflict

Dreams represent disguised symbols of repressed desires and anxieties

Manifest Content: symbols used to disguise true meaning of dream By analyzing the manifest content,

Freud claimed it was possible to trace the desires underlying the dream that were too painful or distressing for the dreamer to acknowledge directly

Dreams became the "royal road to the unconscious"

Three Major Theories of DreamsActivation-Synthesis Theory

The cerebral cortex is activated during REM

Cortex synthesizes information

Dreams = brain attempting to make sense of the info

Three Major Theories of Dreams

Cognitive ViewDreams give us a chance to

review and address problems

supported by the fact that REM sleep increases following stress and intense learning periods Ex: students often report

“examination-anxiety” dreams. You can’t find your classroom, you’re running out of time, your pen doesn’t work, or you’ve completely forgotten to study.

Gender DiversityDo men and women dream about

different things? research shows that men and women tend to

share many common dream themeswomen are more likely to dream of children,

family, and familiar people, household objects, and indoor events

Men more often dream about strangers, violence, weapons, sexual activity, achievement, an outdoor events.

Cultural DiversityAre there differences between cultures in dream

content?Across cultures, research has found both similarities

and differences in dream content. Dreams involving basic human needs and fears (like

sex, aggression, and death) seem to be found in all cultures.

And children around the world dream of falling, being chased, and being unable to do something they need to do.

Dreams around the world typically include more misfortune than good fortune, and the dreamer is more often the victim of aggression than the cause of it.