Discuss the nature of dreams

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Nature of Dreams

Discuss the nature of dreams (25 marks)

Dreaming mainly occurs during REM sleep and takes the form of vivid, dramatic stories of a highly visual nature. Participants woken during REM sleep reported dreaming 80% of the time. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. Content of dreams may be linked to real events before or even during sleep and sex differences have been found: Men are more likely to dream about sexual content and outdoor events than women. REM sleep is a physiological sate of the brain and body, defined using measures of the EEG (Electro Encephalogram), eye movements, muscle tone etc. New born babies are said to spend about 9 hours per day in REM sleep compared to adults who spend about 2 hours, this is to process all the new information that is received during the day. We only remember 5% of our dreams because during REM sleep a part of the hindbrain is inactive and this structure is important in helping us form memories.

Dement and Kleitman studied 9 participants, 7 of which were male and 2 female adults. These 9 participants reported to the labs just before bedtime and were told to eat normally but avoid caffeine or alcohol. An EEG was attached to the face and scalp to amplify and record signals. Two or more were attached near the eye to record electrical changes caused by eye movement and three or more were attached to the scalp to indicate the depth of sleep. During REM sleep and non-REM sleep, participants were asked to wake up to test their dream recall. They were woken up by a loud doorbell ringing and had to speak into a tape recorder near their bed. Firstly, whether or not they were dreaming and then the content. Different participants were woken to different schedules. To eliminate experimenter effects, there was no communication with experimenter at night.  The findings are that all participants went into REM sleep every night. REM EEG was characterised by low voltage, fast pattern. In between REM, EEG patterns were either high voltage, slow activity which suggested a deeper sleep. REM periods occurred at regular intervals. REM is associated with dreaming. All dream recall in non-REM was 8 minutes after REM sleep which showed that it was recalled from previous REM. Estimation of length of dreams were correct. This study provides scientific evidence to show that dreaming occurs during REM sleep. However, it is an artificial setting which could interrupt the natural sleep cycle which reduces ecological validity. There is a high level of control of lab experiments and they are easy to replicate and technical equipment can also be used. It may be well-controlled but it relies on subjective reports of participants who may lie about their dream content.

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The storyline of the dream is known as the manifest content. Freud believed that dreams have a hidden meaning and the actual meaning of the dream if known as the latent content for example dreaming of climbing stairs means you are dreaming of sexual intercourse. However, sometimes a ‘cigar is just a cigar’. Dreams are an attempt to fulfil our wishes. According to Freud most people dream about forbidden and unacceptable wishes and that dreams are rarely straight forward. Dreams are designed to protect the dreamer and they are ‘the royal road to the unconscious’.

Some recent biological evidence ...

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