FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DREAMS by: Lauren Schone, Bong Sok, Carrie Myers, Lauren Hollinger

INTRODUCTION DREAM: a sequence of images, etc. passing through a sleeping person’s mind

~ dreams intrigue because they have a mystical and illusive quality ~ but do certain factors cause specific dreams?

SLEEPING ~ essential part of human life ~ one quarter of sleep time is spent dreaming, that’s seven and a half years!!!

Sleep Stages

DREAM THEORISTS FREUD and JUNG

Freudian Function ~ tool for wish-fufillment ~ two occurrences during sleeping ~ dreams as “guardians”

Jungian Juxtaposition ~ worked closely with Freud and his ideas ~ believed in “spiritual” aspect of unconscious

WHY DREAM? ~ helps brain grow during young ages ~ strengthens connections between certain areas of brains

~ sleep deprivation and dream deprivation one night will result in lots of REM sleep the next night ~ this is why we believe that those who do not sleep well one night will have many dreams the next night

MEN vs. WOMEN ~women and men have different dream themes that relate to pleasantness, setting, sexuality, and stereotypical dreams

STRESS ~ we dream because the mind is still processing issues and concerns ~ tension and unresolved struggles follow into sleep

~ people incorporate their stress into dreams ~stress increases dream emotionality ~ more stress =more dreams (that means architect majors)

EXPERIMENT ~ based upon learned information we have chosen categories to examine in relation to dreams ~ comparison of these categories will hopefully expose dream patterns

~ sex / gender ~ stress ~ number of hours slept ~ number of dreams per night ~ academic major ~ residence hall ~ dream theme

RESULTS ~male vs. female ~dorm ~major ~Spearman Rank Test

OTHER OBSERVATIONS ~the number of hours slept did not appear to affect the number of dreams ~the greatest number of dreams recorded in one night was five

~sleep rating and stress levels both ranged from one to ten ~most stress appeared to be due to school, then friends, then family (which makes sense since we are in college)

FACTORS THAT AFFECT RESULTS ~the number of people surveyed ~honesty of participants ~limited dream type list

HOW WOULD WE DO IT DIFFERENTLY? ~survey more people and the same number of people in each category (sex, dorm, major) ~expand list of dream types

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