Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

Dreams are an essential part of our sleep. They are a series of thoughts, images and sensations occurring in a person’s mind while they are asleep. Often when we have dreams whether good or bad and when we wake up it’s hard to remember what the dream was about. Scientists define dreams as hallucinatory images. According to Myers, REM dreams are “hallucinations of the sleeping mind and are vivid, emotional and bizarre, so vivid that we can confuse them with reality.” For example, if we dream…

the young man, who couldn't move a muscle, his eyes plastered open in fright… an oppressive weight compressed his rib cage. Breathing became difficult, and Hufford felt a pair of hands encircle his neck and start to squeeze” (Bower). Our conscious brain slips into unconsciousness as we fall asleep or transitioning into wakefulness. Fantasy and reality blur and people often report hearing or seeing things that are not there. During rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, where dreaming occurs. We become…

For your brain to be awake yet your body asleep can be a terrifying experience that many people must live with. The average person sleeps for around a third of their lifetime, thus, to have that time disturbed by sleep paralysis can run people’s lives both mentally and physically. The three main parts of sleep paralysis include, visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations. All three factors are quite scarring and feel extremely realistic. The overall sensation of sleep paralysis can cause people…

Dreams can sometimes feel so real and when they do; boy, it can be very scary. A few nights ago I was having a really bad dream - a nightmare you could say. I don't remember exactly what was happening in the dream but what I do recall is being aware that I was dreaming. That alone was very strange because I've never had a dream where I knew it wasn't real while it was happening. My dreams have always felt very real and I’ve always been helplessly trying to figure out an escape. I wanted to…

but the blanket seems to have become mine slowly and now it's my home. Even though I don't think fish make sounds, I can hear their cry ringing out. It makes my soul heavy as I walk closer to the shore. I am staring at the horizon with heavy, intense eyes. I don't realize Alex is next to me until I see small tears running down his porcelain face. I don't understand how he remains so pale, we live off of sunshine here and no matter how much sunscreen you wear you simply just end up tanned.…

Why Do We Dream? Every night, dreams flow through the human mind. Dreams of fast paced adventure, dreams of vivid fantasies, and even dreams of a dark, creepy fears. Scientists yearn to know more about this phenomenon, something that humans have been doing since their very existence. Although people don’t know exactly why we dream, some people think it’s for religious reasons, while others think that it’s for scientific purposes. There are a few theories behind dreaming. One theory explains…

Dreams are a very controversial subject in psychology. Psychologists have not come to agreement on what dreams may signify, mean, or what their purpose might be, however, they do have several theories. The three most popular dream theories are psychoanalytic, activation-synthesis, and information processing (White, 2017). Each theory is unique and offers different ways of looking at the way the brain works. Sigmund Freud wrote the book The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 and created the…

What is a dream? The scientific definition of a dream is when there is a very small amount of brain activity and there is no sense of self-awareness. Most dreaming occurs in the REM (rapid eye movement) stage. This is the stage during which accelerated respiration and heart rate, muscle relaxation, and increased brain activity occurs. This stage is also called paradoxical sleep. During a dream, the dreamer experiences an incredibly lifelike ordeal, and the shutting down of the self-awareness…

Have you ever thought about where dreams come from? We have all been there in the middle of the night, where a dream seems so real that you wake up thinking you have actually experienced it. Some people think dreams happen because we are recalling events that occurred earlier in the day, or maybe because we are able to have visions from the future, but do we really know their main origin? Aristotle once defined dreams as a perceptionless state where our senses of our outside stimulus are shut…

Scientists have argued whether or not dreams have a true purpose when it comes to humans. In chapter four of, “The Storytelling Animal,” Jonathan Gottschall argues that indeed dreams do have a true function. However, he also claims that “a function for dreams or pretend play or fiction doesn’t mean that we’ve identified the function.” (Page 86). I agree with Gottshchall pertaining to his outlook on dreams having a purpose. Through his varied research, Gottschall concludes that dreams are simply…