Dreams
The Science of Dreams A dream is a display, usually visual, that occurs during the night while we sleep in order to deal with and asses the things that we have dealt with during the day. A dream is a remembered residue in the form of creatively assembled visual metaphors(Guiley). In 1900 Sigmund Freud wrote in the The Interpretation of Dreams that dreams are disguised wishes arising from ones unconscious mind. Having been suppressed by the conscious mind, the wishes sneak into the sleeping brain in the form of dreams. Due to electoencephalograph machine that recorded the rapid eye movement during sleep and research into the physical nature of dreaming, Freud's theory has been for the most part proven wrong. There is no definitive answer as to what a dream is. There is a raging debate over the neuroscientific point of view and the psychoanalytical point of view about what it is that actually causes dreams. In the next few paragraphs I will look at the proposed answers from both! the neuroscientific and psychoanalytical The process of dreaming starts in the brain stem and is controlled by two neurotransmitters that in affect turn the dreams on and of. The one that turns the dreams on uses acetylcholine to begin the dream, and the
that usually carry information from the world around us shut down(Guiley). If the dream happens during the REM phase of sleep, the person sleeping will experience an increased heart rate and a temporary paralysis. To prevent the sleeper from acting out the dream, the brain freezes the muscular activity. Experiments have been done on cats where the nueral fibers that freeze the movement during REM sleep were removed. This resulted in the cats walking around and acting out there dreams. Some people do act out there dreams. This disorder can be treated by a drug called Clonazepam which is also used to treat epilepsy. Dreams are different according to when the dream occurs in relation to the period of sleep. During the REM stage of sleep and at other times or non-REM sleep. There are four stages of sleep. As the sleeper goes through the stages of sleep the brain waves decrease in frequency. After the sleeper goes through the four stages of sleep, the sleeper goes back through the ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ illness to come. Some scientists suggest that the dreams that we have during REM sleep are used to keep the brain from falling into a permanent unconsciousness or even death. They also suggest that during sleep the brain is in a coma like state and REM dreams keep it activated and keep it from going into a complete state of a coma. What we dream about is controlled partly by what sex we are. Men are more likely to have dreams about outdoors kind of things and unfamiliar settings and also physical activity. Men are not as observant and do not remember things like color and clothing. Men also dream of other men more than women. Women are very observant about their dreams and remember things like facial expressions, colors, and clothing. When aggressive is present it is usually more verbal than physical. Women's dreams usually take place in area that is familiar to them and is usually inside. Women also dream of men and women about the same percent of the time. Pregnant women's ! dreams contain a great number of references to animals, water, buildings, and their mothers(guiley). Women in their second trimester are likely to dream of amphibians like frogs and turtles. The sex difference is also evident in childrens dreams. Boys tend to show more anger in their dr
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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