One day as I was waking up from my usual nap, and I told my roommate here at school that she wouldn't believe what I just had dreamed about. Then I told my roommate what happened and I do this often when I wake up from my naps. But this particular time she started questioning me about why I can remember my dreams and she can't. And I said that I don't know why I just do. She thought it was weird. Like when you are sleep you are just supposed to sleep and I guess not think about anything. But I realized that every time that I do go to sleep that I can wake up and tell someone about my dreams just like they were true stories.
This is how I first came about with the idea of dreams to do for my project through the fact that I didn't particularly understand exactly why we dream? Or why dreams are narratives? like they tell a story of their own. Also the fact that I remember my dreams just like they happened in real life and didn't understand why most people I talk to can't particularly remember what they dream about. Most of the responses I receive when I ask my friends do they remember their dreams were that they think that they don't dream at all, they just sleep. But is there a such thing as just sleeping?
I wanted to research more on dreams and the different types of dreams and what people who study dreams have to say on their meanings and how important dreams really are to us. I think this will be fascinating to learn more about.
Critical Period
Before the critical period, children can't recall their dreams as narratives because they don't have the ability to put into words what they dream, so that's why they forget dreams faster. On the other hand after the critical period people can recall their dreams well without forgetting them as fast.
Examples:
I talked with my friend Raymond and I asked him does he ever remember his dreams when he wakes up in the morning. His response was that he doesn't remember his dreams because he doesn't even think he dreams. He further told me that when he goes to sleep, he just sleeps.
I asked my roommate does she ever remember her dreams and she responded like in the same way that she doesn't remember her dreams either.
This further emphasizes the point that I made earlier about how some people just don't remember their dreams at all. This doesn't mean that they don't dream, this just says that either they forget or that their sleep pattern is indifferent.
According to Sigmund Freud, dreams are a completely valid psychological phenomenon, specifically the fulfillment of wishes; they can be classified in the continuity of comprehensible waking mental states; they are constructed through highly complicated intellectual activity. The main characteristic of the psychological state of a sleeper says Freud is therefore a withdrawal from reality and cessation of taking all interest in it. Sleep consumes one-third of our lifetimes.
When do we sleep and how do dreams come about?
He also said that “when we become tired of receiving and responding to stimuli from the environment we try to fall asleep. Furthermore these stimuli disturb us also during our sleep, and our mentality is forced to respond to them- with dreams.
What is REM in sleep?
A mentally active period during which sleep occurs and burst of rapid eye movement or (REM) in sleep and is also marked in humans by intense activity in the brain. During this state the body is paralyzed. Sleeping is a “complex activity, fundamentally different from walking, but just as active.” REM sleep and dreaming are triggered by the pons and neighboring structures in the brainstem. The pons sends signals to the thalamus and the cerebral cortex and also sends signals to shut off the neurons in the spinal cord.
What are the different types of dreams?
• Repetitive dreams According to Freud, repeated or recurring dreams are fairly common. They usually carry a message that's important. If it is a dream that you have had since you were young then, the dream probably has something to do with your personality that has been a problem to you for your whole lifetime and once you recognize the problem it will disappear. Or you recurring dream could be about a current fear you have about something in your life.
• Predictive dreams These are dreams in which we think predict our future. An example of this is dreaming about something that you may think is going to happen to you, but it just may be your fear of something or self-consciousness kicking in. Freud says to be cautious of these types of dreams and discover how they can help us because they may just be coincidental and have meaning instead of being life-threatening.
• Nightmares According to Freud, nightmares are the result of waking anxiety which is so acute that it bursts into dreams. Jungians would suggest that nightmares are the work of your shadow; instincts which for some reason you don't feel you can show to the world during your waking life break into your dream world and show their anger at being repressed.
• Lucid dreams This term was coined by Frederik van Eeden using the word “lucid” in the sense of mental clarity. These dreams are dreams in which the person knows that they are dreaming. According to Freud, this happens in the middle of dreams when the dreamer realizes that the experiences that are occurring are not that of the physical reality, but rather the creation of a dream.
As I finished researching dreams, I came to the conclusion that dreams are narratives based on the facts that I found out on the different types of dreams. Basically all of the types of dreams tied together in the fact that they were all pretty much dealing with our thoughts, fears, or insecurities while we are in our waking state. So dreams are narratives because our dreams are formed from what we already know in a sense, so our minds can configure them into the stories that we know as our dreams.
What are our chances of remembering our dreams?
Hobson's educated guess is that people probably forget 95%-99% of their dreams. People who never remember their dreams probably have a sleep pattern that puts too much time between their last REM/dream period and awakening, so even their last dream is forgotten.
Hi my name is Toni La'Saga Simmons and I am currently a freshman at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am majoring in political science and one day I hope to be a sucessful lawyer. I grew up in a very small town of Jamesville, NC. I love listening to music of all types and reading books. My favorite book is Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I have a little experience in the Spanish language.
When I heard about the first year seminar for Romance Languages, I thought it would be a great idea to be in this class. I've always wanted to understand the importance of language and communication among others. I hope to come out of this class with a different outlook on language and its many counterparts. I hope I get a chance to study abroad in Asia this summer. I believe this will be a once in a lifetime experience for me. I would like to thank my subject Raymond Koonce for cooperating with me so I could complete this project.
One day as I was waking up from my usual nap, and I told my roommate here at school that she wouldn't believe what I just had dreamed about. Then I told my roommate what happened and I do this often when I wake up from my naps. But this particular time she started questioning me about why I can remember my dreams and she can't. And I said that I don't know why I just do. She thought it was weird. Like when you are sleep you are just supposed to sleep and I guess not think about anything. But I realized that every time that I do go to sleep that I can wake up and tell someone about my dreams just like they were true stories.
What is REM in sleep?