1. Dream Theories

2. The Content of Dreams
Research shows that the content of dreams is usually familiar.
Common themes in dreams include things like falling, being pursued, trying repeatedly to do something, school, sex, being late, eating, being frightened, etc.
Negative Emotional Content: 8 out of 10 dreams have negative emotional content.
Failure Dreams: People commonly dream about failure, being attacked, pursued, rejected, or struck with misfortune.
Sexual Dreams: Contrary to our thinking, sexual dreams are sparse. Sexual dreams in men are 1 in 10; and in women 1 in 30.

3. Why Do We Dream? Five Theories The Information-Processing Theory
The Physiological Function Theory
The Cognitive Theory
The Activation-Synthesis Theory
The Wish Fulfillment Theory

4. 1) Information-Processing Theory
Dreams may help sift, sort, understand, and fix a day’s experiences in our memories.
They may also help us work out unsolved problems. We go to bed with a problem, and when we wake up the problem is solved (or forgotten, which may be a solution in itself).
When we are under stress or depressed, we sleep longer, and the amount of time spent in REM increases. This fact strongly suggests that we are working on the things that are worrying us while we dream.

5. Dreams are more likely to contain material related to a person’s current concerns than chance would predict.
Students dream about exams
Instructors dream of forgetting lecture notes
Males and females appear to dream about similar issues now that lives and concerns of the two sexes have become similar.
Women children, clothes, household objects
Men weapons, violence, sex, achievement

6. 2) Physiological Function Theory
Brain chemicals are used up during the day (notice how hard it is to study after a long, hard day).
Because the brain cannot remain completely inactive while it replenishes these chemicals, dreams keep the brain busy with old material (versus new material, which takes more chemicals to process) while it is being “recharged.”

7. Dreams provide the sleeping brain with periodic stimulation to develop and preserve neural pathways.
For example, the neural networks of newborns are quickly developing; therefore, they need more sleep.

8. 3) Cognitive Development Theory
Some researchers argue that we dream as a part of brain maturation and cognitive development.
Children’s dreams appear to differ from those of adults:
Preschool children report bland images with no story-lines when awoken from REM sleep (if they recall dreaming at all – children under the age of 9-11 report dreaming only 20-30% of the time when awoken from REM sleep, as opposed to an adult’s 80% of the time).
Between 5 and 8, children begin to report dream narratives, but these are not well developed.
Adult-like dreams develop at around 11-13, suggesting that dreaming is a cognitive ability that develops gradually.

9. 4) The Activation-Synthesis Theory
During the night, our brainstem releases random neural activity.
The brain tries to make sense of the random bits and pieces of information that are appearing, so it makes up a “story” to fit them.
At the same time, brain regions that handle logical thought and sensation from the external world are shut down. This would account for why we so often put odd things together in a dream.

10. 5) Wish Fulfillment
People in Western cultures pay little attention to dreams as meaningful messages in their lives, while people from many non-Western cultures are likely to view dreams as important information about themselves, the future, or the spiritual world.
First and foremost in dream theory is Sigmund Freud.
Considered the father of psychoanalysis
Revolutionized the study of dreams with his book The Interpretation Of Dreams
He called dreams “the royal road to the unconscious.”

11. BUT they get released in different ways by our unconscious
According to Freud…
We all have desires and urges that are not considered acceptable by society
We hold these back – repress them
BUT they get released in different ways by our unconscious
One way is through our dreams

12. Freud’s Dream Theory: Wish Fulfillment
Dreams function to virtually fulfill:
Your unexpressed wishes
Your ungratified needs
Dreams are combinations of early and recent experiences
involve childhood memories and early parental relationships

13. Freud’s View on How Our Minds Work:
Manifest
Your dreams have 2 levels:
MANIFEST – what you actually dream about
LATENT – what your dream really means ---- this is based on symbolism
Latent

14. So…What do Our Dreams Tell Us about Ourselves???
Dreams reveal what is going on in your unconscious
Your unconscious can act out your hidden desires because you are asleep
BUT – your desires can be so odd and disturbing that your mind might still “censor” them
This results in your dreams being symbolic
Your sleep isn’t disturbed and you don’t wake up as a result of being shocked about the images in your dreams
It results in cryptic and confusing dreams, though

15. Dream Theories
Summary