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Dreams

Occur most often in REM sleep. A story like episode of unfolding mental imagery

during sleep. No one really knows why we dream.

Brain structures

• Brain stem• Amygdala• Hippocampus

Dreams

Purpose of dreams according to….• Bio= necessary for healthy brain functioning• Cognitive= dreams are meaningful mental

events, reflecting on important events or fantasies.

• Others= dreams have no real meaning

Remembering and Forgetting

Why can’t we remember our dreams?• Frontal lobe is inactive during the REM stage• Serotonin and dopamine are greatly reduced during

REM sleepWhy do we remember?• If you wake up during the dream• People who are good at visual details when they are

awaken…higher rate of remembering their dreams• bizarre, vivid, or emotionally intense

What do we dream about?(Hall, 1966, collected data about 10,000 dreams)

• Most are in color• Research shows:

– Children dream about large animals more than adults– Women dream about children, family, and home– Men dream about aggression, weapons, tools, cars– Men dream more about other men, women dream about women

and men equally– Men have more sexual dreams, usually with unknown and

attractive partners– American’s dreams are more aggressive compared to other

cultures– Falling and being naked are common in dreams

5 Theories of Dreaming

• 1 – Freud• 2 – REM Cycle• 3 – Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis• 4 – Crick Mitchinson View• 5 – Memory Consolidation Theory

#1 Freud• 1900 – The Interpretation of Dreams• Conflicts, events, and desires of the past are represented in

symbolic forms in a dream• Manifest Content – story line of dream

– Vs.• Latent Content – symbolic meaning of dreams – according to

Freud the true meaning.• Freud believed that we must analyze dreams to discover the

latent content.• No solid scientific support for Freudian dream interpretation.

#2 REM Cycle

• First REM period, dreams deal with recent experiences (everyday issues)

• Second REM period, dream may be based on a theme from the first dream

• Final REM period, dream may have a remote connection to the first and second dream

#3 Activation-synthesis hypothesis

• Dreams represent an attempt by the cerebral cortex to make sense of the random discharges of electrical activity that occur during REM sleep.

• Cerebral cortex creates a story line based on the individual’s store of knowledge and memories to explain these random signals and the emotions/sensory experiences they generate.

A-S hypothesis

• Supporters: • Dreams often make no sense and are

disjointed.• Arguments against:• No direct evidence and sometimes dreams do

make sense

#4 Crick-Mitchison View

• Theory: we dream to forget, unravel those neural nets…dreams’ function is to take out the mental trash.

• “get rid of our stress”

• Supporters: we cannot always remember our dreams

• Arguments against: no direct evidence and sometimes we do remember events

Memory Consolidation Theory #5

• Dreams help us remember and process events of the day.

Supporters:• We wake up with problems solved and events

are sorted out. “sleep on it” expressionArguments against:• No direct evidence and sometimes we wake

up with nothing resolved.

• So, there is not much evidence to support any theory about why we dream.

• Writing prompt: In no less than a half page and no more than one page explain:– which of these 5 theories makes the

most sense to you and why.– Which of these 5 theories makes

the least sense to you and why.– Use evidence from your own

personal experiences with dreams to support your argument.