1. Mr. Koch AP Psychology Forest Lake High School
Dreams
Mr. Koch
AP Psychology
Forest Lake High School

2. Dreams Most vivid dreams during REM sleep Questions to ponder:
Everyone dreams every night
Daytime activities/experiences may affect content
“lucid dreams” – aware of dreaming, can control
Some simplistic dreaming may occur in deeper sleep
Questions to ponder:
What is a dream?
How is a dream made?
Why do we dream?

3. What do we dream about? Have you ever dreamed of?...
(college students)
Falling 83%
Being attacked/pursued 77%
Trying repeatedly to do something 71%
Schools, teachers, studying 71%
Sexual experiences 66%
Arriving too late 64%
Eating 62%
Being frozen with fright 58%
A loved person dying 57%
Being locked up 56%
Finding money 56%
Swimming 52%
Snakes 49%
Being inappropriately dressed 46%
Being smothered, unable to breathe 44%
Being nude 43%
Fire 41%
Failing an exam 39%
Seeing oneself as dead 33%
Killing someone 26%
95% said remember some of dreams
68% report recurring dream
Falling or being chased was most common theme
Only 28% reported dying in a dream
College students only reported sexual content in 12% of dreams
Essentially no differences in content of dreams when compared students from 1950 to 1980

4. Sigmund Freud
Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
Believed all dreams possess meaning, should be interpreted
Dreams are unconscious wishes
(“Wish Fulfillment Theory”)

5. Sigmund Freud Dreams have 2 levels of meaning:
Manifest content – obvious dream event (the “storyline”) – often ridiculous
Latent content – symbolic meaning, reveals events in unconscious mind
Believed many had sexual meaning

6. Activation-Synthesis Theory
Hobson & McCarley
Extreme view – dreams are meaningless byproduct of REM sleep
Hindbrain is aroused, activating brain (esp. cortex) which uses memories/feelings to organize & make sense

7. Other perspectives Information Processing model
Dreaming helps organize, maintain memory & thinking
Lack of REM sleep hurts learning/memory
Physiological functioning
Stimulation may help neural development