by Dimitra Bella-Velidi Teacher: Zafi Mandali

Dream A mental activity (thoughts, images, emotions) occurring during sleep. During a typical lifespan, a human spends a total of about six years dreaming about 2 hours each night The contents and purpose of dreams are not fully understood and they have been a topic of discussion for many years. There is no universally agreed definition of dreaming. It is unknown where in the brain dreams originate, if there is a single origin for dreams or what the purpose of dreaming is for the body or mind.

There are many hypotheses about the function of dreams.  Freud suggested that bad dreams let the brain learn to gain control over emotions resulting from distressing experiences.  Dreams also let the mind express things that would normally be suppressed in the real world and keeping itself in harmony.  Dreams may also allow a person to see some future events or prepare for them, for example: a work presentation, a job interview, or a first date.

 Dreams may also create new ideas which are not real. Some of these may be rejected by the mind as useless, while others may be seen as valuable and remain.  Dreams may also “change” the mood. Hartmann says dreams may function like psychotherapy, by "making connections in a safe place" and allowing the dreamer to connect thoughts that may be irrelevant while the person is awake.  Recent research suggest that dreaming metaphorically completes patterns of emotional expectation and lowers stress levels.

NREM-sleep non-REM Dreams occurring during non-REM periods are said to happen during NREM- sleep. Dreams during non-REM sleep are usually more “colorless” in comparison. REM-sleep rapid eye movements Most dreams occur in connection with rapid eye movements, and are said to happen during REM-sleep, during which there is a lot brain activity to be most like that of a sleepless person. The REM period takes up 20-25% of sleep time. Babies and little children are believed to dream during about 50% of their sleep time.

thebrain waves into an electroencephalograph (EEG) Sleep researchers divide up sleep time into stages, usually by seeing the brain waves into an electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG records electrical activity in the brain by connecting some electrodes to the scalp. five REMperiods REM- sleep Typically, a person will have four or five REM periods a night, each one lasting from 5 to 45 minutes. There is some evidence, however, that REM- sleep happens before dreaming and that these two are completely different from each other.

REM-dream about per second The REM-dream state is a neurologically and physiologically active state. In this state the waves come at a rate of about per second and the brain generates about five times as much electricity as when awake. Blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, etc. can change dramatically during REM-sleep. Since there is generally no external physical cause of these states, the stimuli must be internal, i.e., in the brain, or external and non-physical. deep sleep about 3 per second When a person is in deep sleep there is no dreaming and the waves (called delta waves) come at a high vibration about 3 per second. An EEG showing brainwaves during REM sleep

 Brain stem mechanisms protect us during sleep from activities  Brain stem mechanisms protect us during sleep from activities that could have as a result self-injury or injury to others. That is, most of us are paralyzed during sleep. However, some people suffer from sleep disorders where those activities are not prevented. People who suffer from this disorder flail, sleepwalk, etc., and can be a danger to themselves or others. Such people often leave their beds during sleep. dream amnesia  Another curious quality of brain activity during dreaming is that almost all dreams are forgotten. We call this dream amnesia. This is not due to anything paranormal or supernatural, but to weak encoding. we most of the time are not aware that we are dreaming  Perhaps the most curious quality of dreams is that we most of the time are not aware that we are dreaming while we are dreaming. This may account for time distortion, lack of reflection on one's plight, and the amnesia that often follows waking.

Nowadays, hardly anyone believes that dreams are messages from the gods. But some parapsychologists, believe that dreams offer an opening to another universe. Others have studied the subject of whether the mind is open to telepathic input during sleep and have failed to find evidence of psychic ability while dreaming. They seem to think that brain waves represent states of consciousness and that sleep is an altered state of consciousness. However, sleep is not a state of consciousness, but unconsciousness.

lucid dream A lucid dream, also known as a conscious dream, is a dream in which the person is aware that he/she is dreaming while the dream is in progress. During lucid dreams, it is possible to gain control of the dream characters and environment, as well as to other impossible feats. Lucid dreaming has been researched scientifically, and its existence is well established. Allan Hobson, with his neurophysiological approach, has helped to understand the lucid dream into a less complicated way.

clairvoyant dream The prophetic or clairvoyant dream is perhaps the strongest reason for believing that dreaming is a gateway to another world. Some dreams seem bizarre. They seem to foretell events. If a significant number of dreams of just a single person corresponded to future events, this would be a great benefit to humankind and we should try to find out how does it work. However, no such person has been found yet. content of dreams However, most parapsychologists are not interested in the physiology of dreaming. They focus instead on the content of dreams, which they believe reveals a passage to the paranormal or the supernatural.

nightmare A nightmare is a dream which causes fear or horror, or the feelings of pain, falling, drowning or dying. Such dreams can be related to physical causes such as a high fever, or psychological ones such as psychological trauma or stress in that persons life. If a person has experienced a psychologically traumatic situation in life, for example, a person who may have been captured and tortured, the experience may come back to haunt them in their nightmares. Sleepers may stay awake and be unable to get back to sleep for some time.

Dream interpretation is the process of giving a meaning to dreams. In many of the ancient societies, including Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication, whose message could be made clear by those with certain powers. In modern times, various schools of psychology have offered theories about the meaning of dreams. success, values obedience love, romance If you want to learn more about dream interpretation and what each thing symbolizes, simply go to

We assume dreaming has a purpose, but that purpose is more likely to be rooted in this life than in some other one. Most dream themes, such as being chased or falling are said to have a connection with our hunter-gatherer days. We have these dreams because our ancestors were chased by sharp-toothed tigers and slept in trees. The evidence for such beliefs is minimum. If the dream-state is a gateway to anything, it is probably a gateway to personal fears and desires, rather than to ancient ones of other people. We assume dreaming has a purpose, but that purpose is more likely to be rooted in this life than in some other one. Explanations in terms of the paranormal and supernatural are not as likely to have a connection with those that limit themselves to biological and emotional mechanisms linked to brain activity. It is most likely that dreams are a result of electrical energy stimulating memories located in various regions of the brain. Why does the brain keeps memories, remains a mystery, though there are several explanations. Explanations in terms of the paranormal and supernatural are not as likely to have a connection with those that limit themselves to biological and emotional mechanisms linked to brain activity.