Writing 1 and 2—March 4, 2016 The phenomenon of sleep and dreams has caused humans to marvel for much of our history. Why is it that we sleep? Do some people need more sleep than others? What are our dreams trying to tell us? Is sleep different for different species? These questions and many others have created a lucrative market for scientists—and pseudo-scientists—to profit. Specifically, dreaming in humans has sparked many theories as to the purpose and even the meaning of dreams. Today’s Journal: What do you think? Why do humans dream? – I will collect Journals today.

Why Do We Dream? For centuries, scientists and psychologists have tried to figure out just why our brains play these nightly shows for us. Early civilizations thought dream worlds were real, physical worlds that they could enter only from their dream state. Researchers continue to toss around many theories about dreaming. Those theories essentially fall into two categories: 1. The idea that dreams are only physiological stimulations 2. The idea that dreams are psychologically necessary – Some researchers and scientists believe it may be a combination of the two theories.

Prominent Physiological Theory “More recently, around 1973, researchers Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley set forth another theory that threw out the old psychoanalytical ideas. Their research on what was going in the brain during sleep gave them the idea that dreams were simply the result of random electrical brain impulses that pulled imagery from traces of experience stored in the memory. They hypothesize that these images don't form the stories that we remember as our dreams. Instead, our waking minds, in trying to make sense of the imagery, create the stories without our even realizing it—simply because the brain wants to make sense of what it has experienced. While this theory, known as the activation-synthesis hypothesis, created a big rift in the dream research arena because of its leap away from the accepted theories, it has withstood the test of time and is still one of the more prominent dream theories.”

Prominent Psychological Theories “First and foremost in dream theory is Sigmund Freud. Falling into the psychological camp, Dr. Freud's theories are based on the idea of repressed longing—the desires that we aren't able to express in a social setting. Dreams allow the unconscious mind to act out those unacceptable thoughts and desires.” “Carl Jung studied under Freud but soon decided his own ideas differed from Freud's to the extent that he needed to go in his own direction. He agreed with the psychological origin of dreams, but rather than saying that dreams originated from our primal needs and repressed wishes, he felt that dreams allowed us to reflect on our waking selves and solve our problems or think through issues.”

Dream Facts Most dreams last anywhere from five to 20 minutes. Even though they may not remember them, everyone dreams several times a night. In fact, during a typical lifetime, we spend about six years dreaming. There's a time limit to how much you can remember about your dream. Only within five minutes since you are up from your sleep, an average person's dream is forgotten and in just 10 minutes, 90 percent of the dream is gone with the wind. However, if awakened at the REM (rapid eye movement sleep) stage, that person is more likely to remember the dream. People who have been blind from birth have dreams that are formed from their other senses (e.g., touch, smell, sound). Toddlers don't star in their own dreams till they are about 3-4 years old. When people are snoring, they're not dreaming. Elephants (and some other animals) sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep. The good part is that you can often control your dreams. You can manipulate, twist and turn the beginning and the ending of your dreams like it's a movie being shot in front of you. It is called the "Lucid dreaming" (one is aware that he/she is dreaming) phase. You might not remember the person in your dream. However, a person only dreams of people he/she has encountered in life but it's impossible to keep track of thousands of faces that you come across each day.

Dream Facts During the REM stage of your sleep, the body is paralysed through a mechanism that keeps your body from moving physically because of the dream. It is also possible for this mechanism to occur during, before and after your sleep when your brain is fully awakened. That is the mystery behind why you can't move so many times AFTER you're up and awake sometimes. Anxiety is the most common emotion that is experienced in dreams. Not only that, negative emotions are much more likely to occur than positive emotions in your dreams. So don't worry, you are not the only one getting nightmares frequently. On an average, you can dream for about one to two hours every night and you can have four to seven different dreams in one night. Meet Louisa Ball, 15, who can sleep for days together when she first shuts her eyes to sleep. She doesn't mess around with that. This british girl has a rare sleeping disorder - 'Sleeping beauty sickness'. No kind of shaking or prodding can wake Louisa up when she's fast asleep. The symptoms, causes or a cure for this disease are unknown to doctors. However, they say it only strikes teenagers and is likely to vanish by the age of years. In a survey, it was found that between 18-38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive (future sight - acquisition of future information) dream and 70% experienced déjà vu. Furthermore, 63-98% people believe that it's possible to have a precognitive dream.

Writing/Artistic Prompt Draw a picture of a very vivid dream that you had recently. Make sure to be as detailed in your drawing as possible. This could be a pleasant dream, a weird dream, or a nightmare. Then, write a brief description about the dream and explain what the dream possibly meant.