1. Dream Theories

2. Why do we dream?
Is there special meaning and information in our dreams?
Why do we have bad dreams?
Why do we dream at all?

3. Sleep & Inspiration
Dreaming, which occurs during REM sleep, is the one event during the hours of slumber that turns out to be more productive than it appears.
Paul McCartney claimed to have woken from a dream with the theme for The Beatles' hit "Yesterday" in his head.
Robert Louis Stevenson said the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to him while asleep
Dmitri Mendeleev reported that he "saw" a chart of all the elements ranged in front of him while dozing at his desk on 17 February Two weeks later, he published what has become the Periodic Table of the Elements.

4. History of Sleep
Aristotle = the first person to consider sleep in a methodical way.
argued that it was caused by the heart cooling down
Other Greek philosophers and physicians said its cause lay in the isolation of the body from its senses
they mistook the heart rather than the brain to be the center of the body's sensory perception.
2,000 years later it became possible to study the sleeping brain directly.
Nathaniel Kleitman
1925 opened the first sleep laboratory
team was the first to discover that sleep consisted of different stages
work laid the foundation for modern sleep research.

5. When/why do we dream? Most dreams = during REM sleep stage
Why? = you decide!

6. Three Major Theories of Dreams
Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Theory—
One of the oldest & most controversial explanations for why we dream is Freud’s psychoanalytic view
way of satisfying unconscious urges/conflict
Dreams represent disguised symbols of repressed desires and anxieties
Manifest Content: symbols used to disguise true meaning of dream
By analyzing the manifest content, Freud claimed it was possible to trace the desires underlying the dream that were too painful or distressing for the dreamer to acknowledge directly
Dreams became the "royal road to the unconscious"

7. Three Major Theories of Dreams
Activation-Synthesis Theory
The cerebral cortex is activated during REM
Cortex synthesizes information
Dreams = brain attempting to make sense of the info

8. Three Major Theories of Dreams
Cognitive View
Dreams give us a chance to review and address problems
supported by the fact that REM sleep increases following stress and intense learning periods
Ex: students often report “examination-anxiety” dreams. You can’t find your classroom, you’re running out of time, your pen doesn’t work, or you’ve completely forgotten to study.

9. Gender Diversity Do men and women dream about different things?
research shows that men and women tend to share many common dream themes
women are more likely to dream of children, family, and familiar people, household objects, and indoor events
Men more often dream about strangers, violence, weapons, sexual activity, achievement, an outdoor events.

10. Cultural Diversity
Are there differences between cultures in dream content?
Across cultures, research has found both similarities and differences in dream content.
Dreams involving basic human needs and fears (like sex, aggression, and death) seem to be found in all cultures.
And children around the world dream of falling, being chased, and being unable to do something they need to do.
Dreams around the world typically include more misfortune than good fortune, and the dreamer is more often the victim of aggression than the cause of it.