Dream :: essays research papers

DREAMSTheories attempting to explain the origin and functions of REM sleep complicate (1) thatREM sleep provides stimulation for the development of the brain (2) that it performs a chemicalrestoration function, since during REM pipe dream neuro-protein synthesis occurs along with therestoration of other depleted brain chemicals (3) that it provides oculomotor (eye movement)coordination, since during non-REM sleep the eyes move on an individual basis of each other (4) that itprovides a vigilance function, since REM sleep (stage I) is characterized by a level ofconsciousness close to the awakened state (5) in a more recent and controversial theory, REM ambition performs a neurological erasure function, eliminating extraneous information build-up inthe memory corpse and (6) that, in a more cognitive psychological explanation, REM dreamingenhances memory storage and reorganization.Contrary to popular belief, dreaming is not caused by eating certain foods beforebedtime, nor by envi ronmental stimuli during sleeping. Dreaming is caused by internal biologicalprocess. Some exploreers have proposed the activation-synthesis hypothesis. Theirneurological research indicates that too large brain cells in the primitive brain stem spontaneously plan of attackabout every 90 minutes, sending random stimuli to cortical areas of the BRAIN. As aconsequence, memory, sensory, muscle-control, and cognitive areas of the brain are randomlystimulated, resulting in the high cortical brain attempting to make some sense of it. This,according to the research, gives full to the experience of a dream.Now, as in the past, the most significant literary argument centers on the question of whether dreamshave intentional, or actual personal, meaning. Many psychotherapists plead that while theneurological impulses from the brain stem may activate the dreaming process, the content or significant representations in dreams are caused by unconscious needs, wishes, desires, andeveryday con cerns of the dreamer. Thus, such psychotherapists subscribe to thephenomenological-clinical, or "top-down," explanation, which holds that dreams are intentionallymeaningful messages from the unconscious. The neurological, or "bottom-up," explanationmaintains that dreams have no intentional meaning. In in the midst of these two positions is anapproach called content analysis. Content analysis simply describes and classifies the unhomogeneousrepresentations in dreams, such as people, houses, cars, trees, animals, and color, though nodeep adaptation is attributed to the content. Differences in content have been discoveredbetween the dreams of males and females, and between dreams and occurring in differentdevelopmental stages of life. What these differences mean is under investigation.Some recent research seems to indicate that dream content reflects problems that thedreamer experiences in life, and that the function of such dreams is to facilitate the emotionalreso lution of the problems.