A Brief Look at Dreams

The three types of dream theories are the psychodynamic, activation-synthesis, and neurocognitive dream theories. Each are a little different and interpret dreams in a separate way. The psychodynamic dream theory was made by Sigmund Freud and states that dreams are all about fulfilling wishes and come from internal forces and conflicts. He believed that dreams contain symbols that represent what someone may be aware of or may subconsciously want. On the other hand, he also thought that dreams could also just be over everyday experiences. The activation-synthesis hypothesis was made by Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley and this hypothesis is much more based on biological body functions. These two psychiatrists believed that during REM sleep brain centers are initiated but the messages made by these centers are stopped and the body makes no movements. The brain still receives these messages and tries to make sense of the random material by looking

To many people, dreams are the thoughts that occur while sleeping, having almost mystic qualities. For millennia the significance of dreams has escaped even the brightest of philosophers and intellectuals. Many people have speculated about why people dream and what meanings the dreams have but in recent times two theories have gained credibility in answering those questions. The first theory is Sigmund Freuds and the other is known as the cognitive theory of dreams also known as biological determinism.

Freud’s wish fulfillment theory began because he believed that the wishes in adult dreams were disguised in order to reduce their anxiety tendencies. Freud theorised that dreams are disguised by a “censor” of sorts, in four cognitive processes he collectively called the “dream-work” (Freud, 1900) these include; displacement, whereby highly charged thoughts are transferred to minor elements in the impending dream. Condensation then compresses several different dream thoughts. These two are then joined together by the regard for representability, which changes abstract thoughts into a form that is applicable for the sensor. Finally the dream is shaped by secondary revision which basically gives the dream content an understandable pattern. (Freud, 1900).

Sigmund Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis, once said that “most dreams are a sort of way for the unconscious mind to express its desire” (Freud). Sigmund Freud thought as dreams to be an idea that people strive for in life or the answer to a problem. He also concluded that dreams are “the fulfilment of a wish” (Freud). Freud thought as a dream to be something that people desire in life, or want to conquer in life. To him, dreams were something that could fulfill one’s life. However, Freud also noticed “punishment dreams and anxiety dreams” (Freud). Instead of these dreams doing something good for a person, they could be doing the opposite. Overall, one belief is that dreams can complete peoples lives, or deteriorate lives.

Thesis Statement: Dreams are successions of images, emotions, and sensations that occur subconsciously during sleep.

There are many theories as to why we dream. One of the most popular of theories being that of Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst from the eighteenth century. Freud theorised that dreams were how are unconscious minds would cope with repressed desires (Obringer, par 2). He stated

Dreams: Why do we dream By Hannah Nichols, is an article giving insight to why we dream. Why do we dream? Is a hard question to answer because no one knows for sure why we dream. Even though, we all dream, there has only been theories as to why we dream; However, studies have been conducted that tells us what triggers certain types of dream. As a person who often has vivid dreams I often wonder why I had these types of dream, and that is why I choose this article. This article explains what may cause certain types of dreams. Most of the information provided was tested through case studies. Nicole's broke her article up into several sections. Each section explained a different process of dreaming. However, she seemed to focus more on what dreams are, how Senses, and everyday life affect our dream, and dream lag.

We satisfy our wishes through dreaming. Dreams present a psychic protection valve that releases otherwise unacceptable feelings. If dreams are symbolic they

Dreams. We all have them. But why? What causes us to dream about the seemingly most random things? A dream, by definition, is a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. Therefore, the quality of a person’s sleep must somehow affect their dreaming patterns.

To figure out why dreaming occurs; you have to know what exactly is dreaming. Dreams are basically images or stories

Why do people dream? Sigmund Freud claims that one dreams to satisfy their own wishes. Some studies suggest that people dream to file away memories. To develop and preserve neural pathways is another theory. Yet some theories suggests that dreams occur because one's brain is trying to make sense of neural static.

Why do we dream? I see dreaming as benefiting humans by helping our conscious and subconscious minds shake hands and come to an agreement, so to speak. Our brains operate on conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels, and I believe there is a strong link between our subconscious minds and our dreams. Perhaps the information we store in our subconscious minds during waking hours manifest into these hallucinatory pictures while we sleep. The part of our brain which operates on a conscious level is significantly diminished when we are asleep, which gives the subconscious part of our brain more energy to process what it’s learned or stored.

In the novel, Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M Coetzee, the magistrate’s progressive, non-linear dreams are a parallel to his growing involvement with the barbarians and his growing distaste for the empire. The great psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud said, “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious.” In every dream there is a hidden meaning and when the reader starts analyzing the magistrate’s dreams he reveals that he is oddly attracted to the barbarians and knows he should not get involved and it will be a trial to get close to them.

My first mindful rest experience was new and kind of unexpected. I did not believe I would feel so comfortable in that position to fall asleep on the floor afterwards. I amazed myself that I didn 't want to get up. My dreams are generally very vivid and involve lots of action, however in my dream after this experience was completely dark. Not scary dark, but just the nothingness found in blackness. I took a fair bit of rearrangement to get into a comfortable position, but once I got to it, the hard tile floor actually didn 't feel as hard as I had thought it would. Surprisingly, my grandfather used to take naps on the floor lying flat with a pillow against his head, although his feet were not in the same position with knees pointing towards the sky, I felt connected to him through this activity. I found I had to really plan out a time to do it in the future, because this experience was completed at a random hour when I was working on my other homework and I realized I had mindful rest to complete today. I am planning on doing it for 7 days straight but am a little worried that I may miss a day because of timing.

Dreams are stories our mind creates while we are asleep. Dreams can be witty, cheerful, passionate, disturbing, horrific, and downright confusing. All my life I have always wondered what goes on in our brains when we dream. I also have wondered why our brains create dreams. Are dreams something the brain creates to make sense of what it views so it organizes images into coherent stories. Dream content also varies depending on life experience. A child will dream of candy and toys but an adult will dream of love and their future. Dreams are just random stories you get every now and then, does the brain make dreams to explain why traumatic experiences occur because our dreams are stories of what you fear in life, are dreams warnings of what