Hepworth 1

Mat Hepworth
Marci Campbell
Psychology 1010
February 7th 2016
Introduction: Sleeping and Dreaming.
What is something you spend one third of your life doing, and yet probably hardly
remember doing at all? (If you were a cat you would spend 70% of your life doing this). Experts
say that its just as important as diet and exercise. If you havent guessed it yet Ill tell you, its
sleep! My topic of interest is actually dreaming, but I think its important to first understand what
is going on with our bodies while we are asleep in general before we jump into dreams.
Literature Review:
So what exactly is sleep? Commonly it has been referred to an altered state of
consciousness a form of experience that is significantly different than the usual experience of
the mind and world that we might be use to consciously. Some of these altered states may
include, but are not limited to: feelings of loss of control, disturbances in the sense of time,
changes in emotion, and change in the sense of self-worth, as well as perceptual distortions.
(Ludwig, 1966).
Again, before we can begin to understand dreams (well never fully be able to understand
them), we first must understand the sleep cycle, or the Circadian Rhythm that every single one
of us go through during the night. The circadian rhythm is a naturally occurring 24-hour cycle
that we all go through. This sleep cycle isnt just a simple on/off switch; there is a lot of ebb and

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flow in this rhythm (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, 2011). This discovery was made in 1929 thanks
to a EEG (electroencephalograph) which makes recordings of the human brain (Berger, 1929).
The EEG recordings revealed a regular pattern of changes in electrical activity in the brain
accompanying the circadian cycle. During waking, these changes involve alternation between
high-frequency activity (called beta waves) during alertness and lower-frequency activity (alpha
waves) during relaxation. The largest changes in the EEG happen during sleep, and these
changes show a pattern that occurs each night that researchers call the five sleep stages
These five stages are as follows:
1. EEG moves to frequency patterns even lower than alpha waves (theta waves.)
2. Patterns are interrupted by short bursts of activity called sleep spindles and K
complexes, and the sleeper becomes somewhat more difficult to awaken.
3. And 4, are known as slow-wave sleep, in which the EEG patterns show activity called
delta waves. (This is the deepest stages of sleep)
*5. The fifth stage of sleep is the REM sleep stage, a stage of sleep characterized by
rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner,
2011). The EEG patterns become high frequency saw tooth like waves that are similar to
beta waves, suggesting that the mind at this times is as active as it is during waking (see
below graph). This high activity in the brain is associated with blood pressure rising, and
even signs of sexual arousal, all while the muscle movements show that the sleeper is
very still. *REM sleep is a stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a
high level of brain activity, and is the time during the sleep cycle when we dream!

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How cool is that? Through modern technology we are able to trace the brain activity cycles we
go through every night, and track when dreams occur. 80% of people who are woken up during
REM periods report having dreams. (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, 2011).
So what are dreams? Dreams depart dramatically from reality. You may experience
extraordinary things such as flying, or falling. Your greatest fears my come to light in dreams of
leaving your house and realizing you forgot to get dressed, or something like missing a really
important appointment. Whatever it may be, there are five major characteristics of dream
consciousness that distinguish it from the waking state.
1. We feel intense emotion, such as bliss, terror, love, or awe.
2. Dream thought is illogical: time, place, and person dont apply in dreams. You or another
person may play multiple characters in your dreams, and switch between different people
throughout the dream.
3. Sensation: Visual perception is the most common, but sound, touch, movement, and even
pain can be sensed in dreams.
4. Dreaming has uncritical acceptance, meaning that the images and events seem perfectly
normal rather than bizarre.
5. Difficulty remembering the dream when it is over. Most people have forgotten important
details of their dream within minutes of waking up (Hobson, 1988)

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But why? Why do we dream?? This is an age old question dating back to the beginning of the
world itself. There are many different theories, but two main theories from the book that I will
highlight. The first theory is by Freud (1900/1965). He suggests that dreams are confusing and
obscure because our dynamic unconscious state creates them to be exactly confusing and
obscure. His reasoning is that our dreams represent our wishes, and sometimes present them in
in disguise. He suggests that most of this wishes are sexual (which I disagree with). Research
shows that dreams became more intense after 9/11 (Ernest Hartmann, Robert Basile, 2003), and
to me that wouldnt reflect someones wishes The other problem with his reasoning is you
could make up any sort of secret wish to apply to your dream to make it fit, and there really
isnt any substance to that. But then again there isnt really any rhyme or reason for our dreams
either.
The second theory is called the activation-synthesis model. This theory states that dreams
are produced when the mind attempts to make sense of random neural activity that occurs in the
brain during sleep (Hobson, McCarley, 1977). I personally relate more with this theory as all the
thoughts and actions and visual perceptions our brain has recorded throughout the day have to go
somewhere they dont just disappear, and dreams are our subconscious trying to make sense of it
all.
Application:
The reason this topic of dreaming was such an interest to me was because I dont dream.
Okay, that might not be entirely true, but it is seriously so rare for me to dream, and when I do
dream, I tend to remember it because it is so unusual for me to do so! Ive heard of people who
claim to be able to control their dreams to an extent, and that has always been interesting to me,

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because once again, I hardly ever have dreams. During Christmas time my siblings like to drink
eggnog late at night, they claim that it makes them have super crazy dreams. Then they all would
get up the next morning and talk about their bizarre dreams, and I always felt left out; I even
tried the eggnog! Its gotten to the point that I actually get annoyed when people try and tell me
about their dreams because I really cant even relate to what they are talking about. So basically I
want to figure out what the cause of my dreamless state is, and what it means. It was especially
interesting to me to see that the average teenager has about 11 nightmares a year (Goleman,
1990) I couldnt even tell you 11 dreams Ive had EVER.
Conclusion:
I think the thing Ive learned the most from researching this topic was about the five
stages of sleep, especially REM periods. My take away from what Ive researched so far is that
maybe if I could figure out a way to wake up during one of these periods in the night, then
maybe I would realize I do dream, and maybe I would possibly be able to recall that dream. I
would be interested in doing further research into those who dont dream, to see if there is any
correlation to find between those who do, and those who dont. I find all of this rather
fascinating, especially because this is a topic where the majority of it is unknown, and so
everyone who is researching it is willing to admit they really dont know, but this is their best
guess. I feel like its left a lot more room for exploration than many other topics would.

References:

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Ludwig, A.M. (1996). Altered states of consciousness. Archives of general Psychiatry, 15, 225234
Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D. T., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Psychology. New York: Worth. 191.
Gerger, H. (1929). Uber Das Elektroenkephalogram des Menschen. Archiv Fuer Psychiatrie, 87,
527-570
Hobson, J. A. (1988). The dreaming brain. New York: Basic Books.
Ernest Hartmann, Robert Basile, (2003) Dreaming, Vol. 13 No. 2, June 2003.
retrieved Februrary 2nd, 2016 from: http://www.asdreams.org/journal/articles/132_hartmann.htm
Hobson, J. A., & McCarley, R. W. (1977). The brain as a dream-state generator: An activationsynthesis hypothesis of the dream process. American journal of psychiatry, 134, 1335-1368.
Goleman, (1990) HEALTH; Study Finds Less Cause for Worry on Nightmares. New York Times.
March 15, 1990
Retrieved on February 7th, 2016 from:
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/15/nyregion/health-study-finds-less-cause-for-worry-onnightmares.html