Dream Recall, Nightmare Frequency, And Spirituality

Dreaming, although a substantial component of our nighttime lives, remains somewhat of an enigma due to the fact that it occurs while we are unconscious. The inaccessibility of the unconscious mind weakens full analysis and comprehension of dreaming which researchers have been attempting to accomplish. However, over the years many researchers have elucidated many mysteries about dreams, such as when we dream, why we dream, and what we dream about, in order to bring forth an understanding of dreams as well as identify

A series of thoughts, images, and sensations that occur during a person’s mind during the time that they sleep is known as a dream. Dreams go way back until the beginning of mankind, even to the BC era during the time that Egyptians and Greeks were the leading force! The Egyptians examined the meanings behind the dreams we have and analyzed the symbols. There are a numerous amount of reasons behind our dreams. People must ask all the time, what is the reasoning behind dreaming? Why do we dream? What is the meaning behind the dream I had? In an average lifetime, approximately six years is spent dreaming. Every single person on this planet dreams and just because one might not remember doing so, it was still done. One might have several dreams occur throughout a normal night of sleep that lasts from about seven to eight hours. Everyone has dreams and each experience is distinctive and personal. Some can contain vivid pictures or memorable illustrations of reality and others can be unreal or abstract. In a way, they all have certain meanings to them and there can be messages hidden that are trying to tell someone something. An abundant amount of people are always curious as to why they dreamed what they did and spend time looking for those answers.

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.

Dr. Ishaad Ebrahim is an MD, MRCPsych, and Neuropsychiatric Specialist in Sleep Disorders at the Constanta Sleep Centre. An MD is any type of medical doctor. An MRCPsych is a “Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.” A neuropsychologist specialist essentially has a scientific aspect and a medical aspect. Dr. Ebrahim believes that almost anyone is capable of having a nightmare during the REM stage of sleep. He said, “If we consider only attack dreams, which are one of the most common nightmare themes, the lifetime prevalence varies from 67% to 90%. Pursuit, a closely related, highly disturbing theme, has a lifetime prevalence of 92% among women and 85% among men.”

This research analyzed the effects that traumatic events in life have on our dreams. Two pieces of research were reviewed for this paper. One is a study in which children examine their own dreams and interpret the meanings; the other is about people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who experience nightmares after experiencing emotional trauma. These two journals suggest that significant events and feelings people experience in the past have a direct effect on the content of our dreams.

Amber Pethke CST 11, Section 11 Informative Speech 10.10.14 Title: Evolution of Nightmares Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the evolution of nightmares from childhood to adulthood.

In (Spoormaker, V.I. et al., 2003), it was their primary goal to investigate the effects of lucid dreaming on nightmares. Therefore, their hypotheses states that lucid dreaming would decrease nightmare frequency along with their other variables, trait/state anxiety, and improve quality of the participants sleep. In this experiment it was found at the 2-month follow up that nightmare frequency had indeed decreased, while quality of sleep had increased only slightly. As for state and trait anxiety, there were no changes. Within this study lucid dreaming seemed to be effective in reducing nightmares however, how effective it was is not clear since it did not change the other variables quite as significantly. Interestingly, the effect of lucid dreaming as a treatment for nightmares was conducted once more three years later by

To test the hypothesis, ANOVAs were administered on the levels of anxiety and fear in the participants’ dreams, and to determine if the frequent nightmare sufferers differed in mood and stress before and after sleep. The results of the ANOVA on fear and anxiety showed that the frequent nightmare sufferers scored higher. An ANOVA also showed that the frequent nightmare sufferers experienced higher stress levels than the participants who didn’t have frequent nightmares, both in the morning and before bedtime. The researchers from the study learned that frequent nightmare sufferers have much more worry and stress the morning following a dream, and much more worry, fear, anxiety, and stress the night before a

Dr. Robert Stickgold believes that an individual’s dream is formulated in a web of memories; memories that individual’s do not have clear access to during wakeful times and therefore, dreams can be a view of our unconscious. Dreams contain more of what the brain finds most essential, which could be something an individual spent the majority of a day thinking about, or something meaningful happening just prior to going to bed according to Dr. Stickgold. Moreover, Dr. Stickgold admits that our dream’s may also be the brain’s way of searching for ways to connect the complex webs of an individual’s memory, but it is not likely that our dream’s content actually fits with an individual’s beliefs or feelings. Dreams can definitely help an individual

The T-test looked at the null hypothesis that personality traits are not statistically significant when measuring peoples ability to recall their dreams. It was founded that from the sample Extraversion, Stability and Conscientiousness were not significant as all predictors were above the significance level of .05. Extraversion had had a moderate positive, non-significant correlation. Stability had a negative moderate non-significant correlation and Conscientiousness had a very peak positive non-significant correlation. The strongest predictor for the outcome variables was openness. The result is not surprising as hypothesized from previous literature if a person is open to the experience of dreaming they are more likely to remember their dreams.

As defined in the article “Intensified daydreams and nap dreams in frequent nightmare sufferers”, a nightmare is a terrifying dream that occurs in the REM sleep stage and wakes up the person experiencing the dream. The two types of nightmares that occur are idiopathic and frequent. Idiopathic nightmares only occur occasionally and have no known cause as to why people experience them. Although the cause is unknown, idiopathic nightmares seem to respond to ongoing stress and related concerns. The second type, a frequent nightmare, can occur once a week or more, and is linked with distress and bad psychological health. According to the article, people who experience frequent nightmares are more susceptible to suffer from anxiety and depression

Dreams are very unique and many people have theorized about what a dream 's meaning or purpose is, and what affects them. In most present day studies, more vivid dreams have been linked to the stage of sleep called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. REM dreams are emotional, bizarre, and sometimes so vivid we may confuse them with reality. Most commonly, a dream’s story line incorporates traces of previous day’s experiences and preoccupations. Unless a person is awakened during REM stage of sleep or the dream is exceedingly vivid or intense, most people don’t remember anything about their dreams during REM sleep. This is likely due to the fact that during REM sleep, our brain essentially turns off the ability to encode,or create, new memories.

Nightmares are universally defined as dreams that bring about feelings of fear, terror and anxiety which causes one to awake from their sleep cycle during REM sleep. The cause of nightmares is a highly conflicted area of study amongst many fields including psychology, neuroscience and biology. With the different views and areas of knowledge, the explanation for their causation is diverse while also sharing similar beliefs which then come together to make more complex and factual theories. One of the more accepted theory of the causation of nightmares amongst varying fields of study is the effect environmental factors have on nightmares. Experiences and events, especially those that are extreme and traumatic to an individual, can be found to induce nightmares that can be re-occurring and psychologically strenuous. A mental disorder such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), which is induced by a traumatic event, is symptomatic to very vivid nightmares that can cause the individual to re-experience the event and also develop a nightmare disorder. Psychologists have found that exploring these nightmares allows them to get a better look at one’s internal conflict or cause of anxiety over a certain event. Analyzing one’s nightmares can be used as a psychological tool for psychologist to further explore one’s mind and their intern struggles. Nightmares are complex and enigmatic brain experiences induced by past and present experiences and can often be a window into

    Everybody dreams during his lifetime. It is a part of human nature that we experience almost everyday. Dreams can be lost memories, past events and even fantasies that we relive during our unconscious hours of the day. As we sleep at night, a new world shifts into focus that seems to erase the physical and moral reality of our own. It is an individual's free mind that is privately exposed, allowing a person to roam freely in his own universe. As we dream, it seems that we cannot distinguish right from wrong or normal from abnormal and, therefore, commit acts that we would not have done in a realistic society. Perhaps Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,

Sometimes, I could wake up from nightmares in a cold sweat because of my body responding to what was happening in the dream. I realized it was all in my head and there was truly nothing to be worried about since when we wake up, we quickly return to reality. Instead of finding nightmares scary, I found them interesting. I began to keep a dream journal, chronicling the details of nightly dreams, I learned how to control what was happening in my dreams by lucid dreaming and how to pull myself out of a bad situation in a dream. One of the many theories about dreaming is that when we dream, part of the images and themes that are dreamt about is our subconscious communicating with our consciousness. I analyzed the themes and symbols I found in my dreams to try to understand what was happening inside my head.