Typical Dreams

Typical Dreams

I . Introduction

One way to study dreams is to study their content . This can be done by laboratory studies in which sleepers are awakened during REM sleep and their reports are tape recorded . Subjects can also keep a dream diary in which they write all they can remember about their dreams . These different methods have revealed some interesting facts about the nature of dream content

What causes you to dream the things you dream ? That question cannot be answered as yet (see Rados Cartwright , 1999 . Research can point to

br individual cases where the dream content is obviously related to immediate events in a person 's life , but the reason why a lot of dreams occur is something of a mystery . One explanation of dream content proposes that during REM sleep specific brain neurons are activated such as those involved in running or laughing or hearing . In an attempt to make sense of this specific neural activation , the brain produces a dream based on a synthesis of the stimulation present . Called the activation-synthesis hypothesis of dreaming , this view does not account for the seemingly random dream content that often occurs , and it is consistent with the neurological changes known to accompany REM sleep (Hobson McCarley , 2001 . However , it does not explain the coherence detail , and purposefulness common to many dreams . Studies of dream content must now recognize that dreamers may alter their content while they are actually dreaming

For most people , the content of their dreams is beyond their control How often have you gone to bed wishing you could dream about a particular someone , or afraid you might dream about an especially distressing subject ? Sometimes in dreaming we think ourselves that this is a dream ' Yet in the morning if we remember the dream and recall thinking that we knew it was a dream at the time , we find that we still accepted the content as plausible , even if events in the dream would be unlikely or impossible in real life . Some people are able to carry this awareness during dreaming a step further : they claim the ability to know when they dreaming and to actually control some or all of the content of their dreams . This is called lucid dreaming . In the past such claims have attracted little interest from dream researchers because there seemed no way to test these assertions . However , working with the sleep research lab at Stanford University , Stephen LaBerge , a lucid dreamer , was able to demonstrate his special ability . LaBerge told the researchers that during the dreams he would suddenly become aware that he was dreaming and that he could signal the researchers of this awareness by a prearranged pattern of eye movements . They agreed on a mixture of horizontal and vertical eye movements that he would use when he knew he was dreaming . The probability that the particular eye movement pattern would appear by chance was infinitesimally small During the night the researchers watched the EEG records , and in one of the...