Dreams

States of Consciousness AP students in psychology should be able to do the following: • Describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior. • Discuss aspects of sleep and dreaming: — stages and characteristics of the sleep cycle; — theories of sleep and dreaming; — symptoms and treatments of sleep disorders. • Describe historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis (e.g., pain control, psychotherapy). • Explain hypnotic phenomena (e.g., suggestibility, dissociation). • Identify the major psychoactive drug categories (e.g., depressants, stimulants) and classify specific drugs, including their psychological and physiological effects. • Discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal. • Identify the major figures in consciousness research (e.g., William James, Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hilgard).

Contents of Dreams Dreams aren’t normally that exciting and are generally mundane They tend to be filled with familiar characters, dominated by friends, and colleagues and places This is probably why dreams seem more exotic and we remember the weird ones!

Some dreams are more common than others People often dream of sex, aggression, and misfortune Center around classic sources of internal conflict Dreams are self-centered (much like we are)

Gender Differences Women More likely to dream of children More likely to dream about being the target of aggression More likely to dream about sex with boyfriends and their husbands Men More likely to dream about acting aggressively More likely to dream about strangers More likely to dream about liaisons with attractive female strangers

Links Between Dreams and Waking Life

What people dream about is affected by what is going on in their lives Themes in your life may show up in your dreams “Day residue” Trauma- nightmares Tetris- falling blocks Hunter-gatherers-animals

We also may pick up on things from the environment Smell, sound, etc *anything that that happens during the 5 minutes before we fall asleep is typically lost from memory

The content of dreams can also be affected by stimuli experienced while asleep

Culture and Dreams-Western Culture In Western society, we understand the distinction between the “real” world and the “imaginary” world Dreams are largely written off as being insignificant, meaningless meanderings of the unconscious

To satisfy our own wishes “Wish Fulfillment Theory” Discharge otherwise unacceptable feelings Manifest content: remembered story line of a dream Latent content- underlying meaning of a dream

Dreams understand our inner conflicts- according to Freud Today- no thanks, Dr. Freud No scientific support, many interpretations

To File Away Memories Information-processing perspective Dreams sift, sort, and fix the things that are in our memory from the day Confirmed link between REM sleep and memory Learning areas also buzz during REM **important for students How can we dream about things we haven’t experienced?

To develop and preserve neural pathways Dreams provide the sleeping brain with periodic stimulation Stimulation expands neural pathways Doesn’t explain why we have meaningful dreams

To make sense of static Neural Activation Theory Brain’s attempt to make sense of the random neural activity Internal stimuli activate brain areas that deal with images, but not the visual cortex which deals with raw input Frontal lobes less active-act less inhibited? Limbic System- emotions! Dreams  Individual’s brain is telling stories, which tells us something about the dreamer

To reflect cognitive development Brain maturation process (knowledge and understanding) Engage a variety of neural networks Doesn’t address the neuroscience of the dreams

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