Dreams Essays (1694 words) - Dream, Rapid Eye Movement Sleep, Sleep

Dreams Someone once said, "Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country" (Nin, The Diaries of Anais). Dreams are the result of subconscious thoughts and desires. The other theory to dreams are random noises in the neurons of the brain without special meaning. Dreams are the mental activity that takes place during sleep. "Usually during REM sleep is when dreams occur" (Oxford University). Normally everyone dreams several times a night...some drugs and alcohol may impair the dream process. The inability to recall dreams is not abnormal though. Dreams are communication of the body, mind, and spirit in a symbolic state. The human brains are in constant activity when sleeping. Different states of conciseness cause different brain wave activity. The brain usually has ordinary sequences of imagination. For thousands of years dreams were regarded as "visions" or "prophesies." Dreams seem to be a way for the subconscious mind to sort out and process all the input that is encountered while people are awake. Dreams can also improve your emotional well being, reduce stress, improve creativity, and provide a "playground for your mind" while your body recovers and repairs itself. Contrary to the view that dreams server no function one theorist suggests that, "dreams are the brains way of ?unlearning' or removing certain or unneeded memories" (Kasschall, Richard). In other words dreams are a form of mental housecleaning. Such mental housecleaning might be necessary because it is not useful to remember every single detail of your life. There are two functions of dreams: to fulfill conscious wishes, to guard sleep. Most dreams also have been recorded as unpleasant. "As you begin to fall asleep your body temperature declines, your pulse rate drops, and your breathing begins to slow and even, this is called stage one sleep" (Kaschall Richard). A more active type of sleep is characterized by rapid eye movement is called REM sleep. Most humans spend at least one third of their lives sleeping, during that one third, people are usually dreaming also, some scientists characterize dreams as mass hallucinations. The four main categories of dreams are prophetic, standard, physical, and nightmare. The amount of sleep needed varies depending on the individual and on the different times of the day or night. Sigmund Freud was the first scientist to study dreams thoroughly. Although dreams contain elements of the ordinary...the elements are often jumbled in fantastic ways. Freud was also the first theorist in the modern era to argue that dreams are an important part of our emotional lives. Some scientists are skeptical of dream interpretations, Nathienal Kleiman, one of the pioneers who discovered REM sleep, wrote in 1960, " Dreaming may serve no function whatsoever" (Kasschall 32). Everybody dreams, not only all humans, but mammals are shown to have REM sleep, which is associated with dreams. With just a few exceptions, all mammals go through a dreaming cycle of rapid eye movement. Since (with pets at least) this coincides with movements of the animals all having some kind of dreaming experience. Students who get good REM sleep retain the information better and for longer periods of time. This is because the brain needs time to process information form a pattern out of it, and place it in long term memory. When people are randomly awakened during REM sleep and asked what they had just been dreaming about the reports are usually very dull or even boring, although most people do not remember what they were dreaming about. Theories about REM sleep and why we dreams are as "bountiful" and different as dreams themselves. Some reasons why we have REM sleep are, REM sleep aids the consolidation of long-term memory, cleans the brain of unneeded information, and is necessary to provide the brain with occasional stimulation during sleep. Some scientists also say REM sleep is necessary for brain growth. Sensual input while sleeping is incorporated into dreams. Most notably, while sleeping, you hear as well as while your awake-the ears are never turned off. This leads to the consequence that what you hear while your sleeping, you'll hear in your dreams. The sound is always coming from somewhere. Common experiences of this kind are a telephone ringing or music from a radio. It's not important how loud the noise is to get noticed when sleeping. Even an otherwise unnoticed sound, like a mouse running over your floor, can wake you up if it is uncommon, or otherwise alarming to you. On