For other uses, see Dream (disambiguation).

Dreaming is the subjective experience of remembered and imaginary images, sounds/voices, words, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. The scientific discipline of dream research is oneirology. Dreaming has been associated with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a lighter form of sleep that occurs during the latter portion of the sleep cycle, characterized by rapid horizontal eye movements, stimulation of the pons, increased respiratory and heart rate, and temporary paralysis of the body. However, this association has been questioned since it may be that dream recall after REM sleep is common and because dreams are more easily recalled after waking from light REM sleep.

It also occurs in other phases of sleep, though dream recall is more difficult. Hypnogogia, which occurs spontaneously during the approach to sleep, is thought to be related to dreaming. Dreams are also associated with male erection about as frequently as with REM sleep.

Dreams are full of imagery. This imagery ranges from the banal to the surreal; in fact, dreams often provoke artistic and other forms of inspiration. Forms of dreams include the frightening or upsetting nightmare, and erotic dreams with sexual images and nocturnal emission.

Most scientists believe that dreams occur in all humans with about equal frequency per amount of sleep. Therefore, if individuals feel that they did not dream or that they only had one dream in any given night, it is because their memory of the dream has faded. This "memory erasure" aspect of the dream state is mostly found when a person naturally awakes via a smooth transition from REM sleep through delta sleep to the awake state.

If an individual proceeds through the delta state after REM sleep, forgetting the dream that accompanied REM sleep is more likely. On the other hand, if a person is awoken directly from REM sleep (e.g. by an alarm clock), they are much more likely to remember the dream from that REM cycle. Still, it is most likely that not all dreams will be remembered because they occur in REM cycles, which are interrupted by periods of delta sleep which in turn have a tendency to cause the memory of previous dreams to fade.

For a long time true dreaming had only been positively confirmed in humans, but recently there have been research reports supporting a view that dreaming occurs in other animals as well. Animals certainly undergo REM sleep, but their subjective experience is difficult to determine. The animal with the longest average periods of REM sleep is the armadillo. It would appear that mammals and birds are the only, or at least most frequent, dreamers in nature, which is perhaps related to their sleep patterns. Many animals such as frogs probably do not sleep at all (except when in hibernaculum, which is a different kind of state). Some researchers have managed to deter the function of brain mechanism that locks body and limb movements during dreams. With this method it has been discovered that a cat seems to dream mostly about chasing prey and playing with it. On a more basic level, many dog owners have also noted that their pets sometimes move their legs as if running or even make weak barking noises while asleep, or that their pets suddenly wake up and appear to think that a character from a nightmare is actually real.

Neurology of dreams

There are many competing theories as to the neurological cause of the dreaming experience. The state of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is commonly associated with dreams, though it is not known whether dreams actually occur more frequently during this light sleep stage or are simply recalled more easily. REM sleep is known to be produced by a brain region known as the pons.

The activation synthesis theory developed by Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley state that the brain tries to interpret random impulses from the pons as sensory input. Memory, attention and the other features lacking in a dream state depend on the lack of norepinephrine and serotonin, producing a psychotic state, as well as a lack of orientation to time, place and person.

Research by Mark Solms seems to suggest that dreams are generated in the forebrain, and that REM sleep and dreaming are two different brain systems.

Tarnow suggests that dreams are ever present excitations of the long term memory system (even during waking life - McCarley also observes that when asked to recall the last thought, people often report thoughts that are somewhat hallucinatory). The strangeness of dreams is then due to long term memories being stored in dream format (reminiscent of the Penfield & Rasmussen’s findings that electrical excitations of cortex give rise to experiences similar to dreams). During waking life an executive function interprets long term memory consistent with reality checking.

The debate between these and other theories is ongoing.

Supernatural interpretation of dreams

Oneiromancy is the art of divination by interpreting dreams. In the Bible people such as Joseph and Daniel are given the ability to interpret dreams by Yahweh. Others such as Jacob and Saint Joseph the husband of Mary are given divinely inspired dreams. Many Christians to this day experience dreams they believe are sent by God, often this can be a factor in conversion from another religion. Some people even believe the material and physical world are an illusion, and dreams are reality.

Psychodynamic interpretation of dreams

In his book, "The Interpretation of Dreams", Sigmund Freud argued that dream content was unconscious "wish fulfilment." These desires came from the "id," the childlike portion of the unconscious, and as such often contained material that would be unacceptable to the ego. For this reason, dreams were often disguised, and only by understanding the symbolism of the dream can you discover the true meaning. Freud used dream interpretation often to treat his patients, and called dreams "The royal road to the unconscious". Critics would point out that this hypothesis cannot explain nightmares, though many case studies, such as the Rat Man, show this method to be successful.

Archetypes

The idea of Archetypes was first coined by Carl Jung, who believed in a "collective unconscious", an unconcious layer that was common to all humanity. Archetypes are recurring themes and images that we all have. In his own words, they are "mythological motifs". One example is the old man, who represents wisdom. One is the shadow, that represents all that we fear and dislike about ourselves. Others include:

• The "hero",
• The "trickster",
• The "great mother",
• The "anima",
• The "animus",
• The "omnipotent",
• The "Divine couple",
• The "child"

These are universal themes, ideas that we all relate to, and thus they crop up commonly in dreams. They can also be found in religion and mythology. For example, the Norse god Loki is an example of "the trickster". Often the Earth is seen as "Mother Earth" or "Mother Nature". Archetypes even penetrate contempory film and stories. Wise old men feature prominently in the martial arts genre of films, and Bugs Bunny could easily be another example of the trickster. These Archetypes appear mostly in our "grand" dreams, which are dreams that are longer or more epic than usual. These dreams will stay in the memory for longer periods of time.

More theories

There are hundreds of theories that attempt to explain dreaming. Aside from Freud's psychodynamic explanation and the activation-synthesis theory (both described above), another theory is Francis Crick and G. Mitchinson's "Reverse learning theory", adumbrated on in their piece 'The function of dream sleep'.

The basic hypothesis of Crick & Mitchinson is that the brain sorts through the day's information and uses dreams to rid the mind of unwanted information. 'Parasitic' memories result from the vast and various amounts of information we consume that we our memory is the recipient of. Delusions, and other disturbances are expelled through dreaming. As a consequence, Crick & Mitchinson stated that "we dream to forget," and reverse learning disburses information through dreaming, and revitalises the dreamer. The revitalization comes by making certain memories more significant, since there is no more existing erroneous or anomalous information to check through.

Crick and Mitchinson's hypothesis predicts that lack of REM sleep would lead to hallucinations, and interestingly, case studies such as that of Peter Tripp seem to concur with this view. This also explains why we find it hard to recall our dreams. However, it also predicts that dream recall will lead to dysfunction, and there is much empirical evidence to suggest that dream recall does not lead to dysfunction, but rather enhances well-being.

Cartwright's "Problem Solving Theory" simply states that we are sorting out information that is useful for our immediate survival. As such, our dreams should be able to give us useful insights into how to solve problems. In this theory, a recurring dream is an example of an unsolved problem. Some people will actively ask for a dream regarding a particular problem before they fall asleep.

Lucid dreaming

Main article: Lucid dreaming

Researchers often define lucid dreaming as simply "being aware in a dream that one is dreaming". Many others define a lucid dream as a dream in which the dreamer has full awareness that the situation he is in is a construct of his mind, and thus can analyse the situation logically and react accordingly. Such full awareness adds numerous extra abilities to the dreamer. The dreamer usually has control of the direction of the dream and can thus explore the dream world. This control is particularly helpful during nightmares, when the dream self can turn round and face the attacker to confront or destroy it. When lucid, the dreamer usually has direct control of the dream environment, and hence can do things impossible in real life, such as making new objects appear, polymorphing, or flying. Lucid dreams can occur spontaneously, especially during youth, but for lucid dreams to occur more frequently, dedication and practice is almost always necessary.

Lucid dreams can be categorized into Dream-Initiated Lucid Dreams (DILDs) and Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams (WILDs). DILDs start as non-lucid dreams, but at some point in the dream the dreamer realizes they are dreaming. In a WILD, conscious logic and reasoning is preserved while the dreamer transitions from waking to dreaming, and the dreamer is lucid from the beginning of the dream. These uses of "WILD" and "DILD" have mostly fallen into disuse (or rather they mostly never came into use), though "WILD" is often used to refer to any technique in general that happens to induce a wake-initiated lucid dream, by moving directly from conscious wakefulness to conscious dreaming.

Lucid dreamers are those who practice lucid dreaming frequently for personal or spiritual gain. They usually induce lucid dreams through the use of one of many induction techniques. A common technique, known as MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams) and developed by Stephen LaBerge, consists of remembering to recognize that they are dreaming the next time they have a dream.

Books on Dreams

• Artemidorus, The Oneirocritica of Artemidorus, University Microfilms, New Haven (1971).
• Gerolamo Cardano, Sul sonno e sul sognare , Marsilio, Venezia (1989).
• Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming, Rayo, (1994).
• Jayne Gackenbach, Stephen LaBerge, Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain: Perspectives on Lucid Dreaming, Plenum Publishing Corporation, New York (1988).
• Carl Gustav Jung, Dreams, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey (1974).
• Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York (1992).
• Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams , Avon, (1980).
• Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York (1998).
• Creative Dreaming (1974) ISBN 0-671-21903-0 by Patricia L Garfield

References

• Crick, F. & Mitchinson, G. (1983) The function of dream sleep. Nature 304, 111-114.
• Tarnow, E. (2003) How Dreams And Memory May Be Related. Neuro-Psychoanalysis 5(2), 177-182 and also http://cogprints.org/2068/

See also

• Hallucination
• Dream art
• Sleep
• Nocturnal emission (wet dream)

External links

• How Dream Works
• Dreams and Premonitons A book about the psychic nature of dreams. Published in 1916.
• Lucid.tv A video based artistic/teaching site that explores how to have lucid dreams. Also talks about the Nova Dreamer, a mask to help achieve lucidty.
• Brilliant Dreams Supplement claimed to improve dream recall and enhance dream vividness.
• DREAMMOODS .com Information, community, and an online dream dictionary.
• AboutMyDream.com Free Dream Interpretations and Discussion Forums
• Dreams Dictionary (The Meaning of Dreams)
• Abraham Lincoln's Presentient Dream About the Assassination
• Newsweek Article exploring dreams
• Psychological and biological aspects of dreaming
• DreamGate offers an exhaustive list of dream related sites
• The Interpretation of Dreams (alternative ideas)
• Dream Views has a large, friendly community willing to interpret dreams, lucid dream tutorials, dream/lucid dream advice, and more.
• www.crystalinks.com/dreams teaches how to remember and interpret dreams and also has brief perspectives of dreaming of different cultures of the world.ca:Somni

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