Fiachra McDermott and Anthony Stanko

[Dreams discussion]

“Solms and others argue that dreams and REM sleep are doubly dissociable. Dreaming can occur within NREM sleep, and REM sleep can occur without dreams. Reports of conscious thought occur in 50% of NREM sleep awakenings” (191).
Should these thoughts be considered dreams?

Based on Freud’s theory that dreams are wish fulfillments, remember upon a time when you had a negative dream. Freud suggests that deep within the core of the dream there is some secret desire. A further understanding of the reasons comes after critically examining the dream.
Please share an experience with the class.

How often do you dream about a past experience?
Are these experiences generally from within the week prior to the dreams?
Are dreams for entertainment or for learning and reflection of the past?

PGO bursts during REM sleep suggest the brain is reacting to fear and anxiety while asleep, since PGO measures levels of chemicals that are produced while being afraid of something - Horne (194).

How often do you remember your scary or intense dreams as compared to the enjoyable ones? Do you believe there is a reason for this?

[Updated Discussion Questions]

Why do you think we dream?
The relationship between dreaming and dopamine is quite significant regarding reward motivation.
Discuss.
Why should researching lucid dreaming be a priority in dream research?
Based on Freud’s theory that dreams are wish fulfillments, remember upon a time when you had a negative dream. Freud suggests that deep within the core of the dream there is some secret desire. A further understanding of the reasons comes after critically examining the dream.

Please share an experience with the class.
How often do you dream about a past experience?
Are these experiences generally from within the week prior to the dreams?
How are dreams and memory related?
PGO bursts during REM sleep suggest the brain is reacting to fear and anxiety while asleep, since PGO measures levels of chemicals that are produced while being afraid of something - Horne (194).

How often do you remember your scary or intense dreams as compared to the enjoyable ones? Do you believe there is a reason for this?

[Nick Poulin and Dakota]

I found this topic extremely interesting because everyone dreams, therefore everyone can relate to this topic. I never really understood the reasoning behind my dreams. When a couple students in the class brought up experiences in which they had the same dream due to an event or feeling that was going on in their life, it made me think about my experiences with dreams. When i have stress in my life, i have the same nightmare which proves the fact that we have dreams that relate to our everyday lives. Some of my dreams even come true and that has to do with the idea of how dreams relate to our future. I really enjoyed getting a basic understanding of dreams and the reasoning behind them. I think it is really cool how we have the ability to control our dreams and use them to better us as human beings. I was a little surprised that the article does not mention anything about nightmares, but our discussion in class really made me understand that our dreams consist of our life experiences. I think this was a very difficult article to read and understand, but the discussion in class gave me a much better understanding behind why we dream.

[Nick Poulin]

The message above this was just mine. I was not aware that i put Dakota's name as well as mine.

-Nick Poulin

[Dakota Kaleck]

I believe that dreams are our unfulfilled wishes. Therefore I believe our dreams are controlled by our unconscious. The reason that we seem to experience the same dream more than once is because it is an unfulfilled wish that becomes store in our unconscious. I am really glad that you guys chose this topic because I feel that there are so many different perspectives and beliefs to why we dream. Last year in psychology class I learned that Sigmund Freud had a student by the name of Carl Jung. although Jung believed in the idea of dreams occurring because of the unconscious, he also believed that dreams are more spiritual rather than sexual like Freud believed. I believe that dreams are more spiritual as well because in my personal experience I honestly have had way more spiritual typed dreams than sexual dreams. To hit on the last question, I seem to remember way more scary dreams than enjoyable ones. This is because when I have an enjoyable dream and I wake up from it, I simply realize it was a dream and I forget about it. When I have a scary dream and I wake up, my heart continues to race and pound and I cannot seem to shake off that nightmare for a long time.

[Brittany Fischer]

Conscious thought in NREM sleep can definitely be considered dreams and should be researched. Though there is some conscious thought during this stage, the mind is often still suspended in the sub-reality world of unconsciousness, so these thoughts can still be warped and not fully controlled by one's self.

Lucid dreaming should also be studied and observed. It is very rare to find someone who can control and know when they are dreaming. This skill can offer a wonderful insight on the unconscious work and even help us define who and what we are. Wouldn't it be amazing to know why and how we came into existence and many other conundrums that remain unsolved? Maybe lucid dreaming would allow this. Some theories even suggest that lucid dreaming could allow us to access the other 70% of our brain that remains unused. There are so many possibilities, but like anything else we will not know unless we research it.

I personally believe that dreams do many different things,not just one or the other. They can calm one, cause a person to relive important or relevant memories, help a person see what they want, learning, general problem solving and much more. As humans we have a very active brain, dreams can be used to entertain us during this restful time. Some theories even suggest that they activate different emotions through pictures in order to remove the excess chemicals and waste that the brain produces.

My dreams often have to do with problem solving of all types. I may dream about different social situations that I know I might be put into and I figure out what is the best way to handle these different situations. It might be a math problem, that I do not quite get until I really do sleep on it. I rarely get past dreams or scary dreams unless they are needed to help me solve a problem, but I do occasionally. In fact I once had a dream that every one had really sharp teeth and knives and that they were chasing me. After waking up I thought about the dream and how my shot, which had been weighing on my mind, was coming up. I was afraid of my shots, and I just wanted them to go away along with my disease. So, from my experience I do feel like at the root of all scary dreams there is a want, but I do have a few questions like , what about night terrors?, falling dreams? or other dreams similar to these.