We sleep for about a third of our lives, babies for up to 20 hours a day, adolescents up to 12, even adults 7 to 8 hrs. We are finding out more and more about the structure of sleep. The most puzzling aspect of sleep is dreaming. Why does the brain generate images and action while we sleep, even when most of the brain’s activity decreases? You’re at a party and everyone seems to be having a good time except you, because they’re all talking in a foreign language. The person who is…
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…
First, I am going to start out with the definition of Psychology. Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions. Speaking of the human mind and its functions, dreams, what are they? Dreams are a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. Dreams are very mysterious, they are the “royal road to… the unconscious,” a famed psychologist once said (Sigmund Freud). Still, what is the meaning behind dreams? Some believe that dreams have…
Throughout our existence, we have more than likely found ourselves wondering about the meaning of our dreams. Dreams have fascinated philosophers for thousands of years, and have been subjected to empirical research and scientific studies. Scientists have been performing sleep and dream studies for decades now. Dreams can be extremely vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or scary imagery; focused and understandable or unclear and rather confusing (Cherry). Dreams are so…
brain will get approximately four hours of sleep. There is also evidence that dolphins undergo light rapid eye movement or REM sleep cycles, which suggests a possibility that dolphins may be able to dream as you do during REM sleep. This finding contradicts unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, also known as asymmetric slow-wave sleep, when one half of the brain is in deep sleep, which is a form of non-rapid eye movement…
Consciousness is the state of being aware of oneself and environment, during sleep this awareness fades, but does not shut out completely. Licht, Hull & Ballantyne (2014).Consciousness is sometimes equated to being awake and unconsciousness equated to being passed out. There are several different levels of consciousness. These states include wakefulness, sleepiness and dreaming. These are only a few names of the altered states of consciousness. Sleep needs can range from 4 hours to 11 hours per…