Dreams: Sleep and Dreams Essay

Submitted By YaneliTorres
Words: 1407
Pages: 6
Open Document
Renteria 1
Sandra Y. Renteria
Professor Mark Richert
English 2
12 February 2013
Dreams
Dreams are like a world full of mysteries and fascinations, where there is very little reality or none at all. Dreams are made out of a series out thoughts, images, and emotions that happen in a person’s mind while they are sleeping. 90% of your brain requires to be active in order for you to be able to dream. According to psychologist Wiseman there is people who can actually dream the future, it might not be exactly as they dreamt about it buy something very similar, however there is also many who disagree with Wiseman. Scientist have found out that when you are sleeping, and enter REM sleep (when your large voluntary muscles are paralyzed and your brain activity is very high) a portion of your brain stem is activated, a few areas in the middle of your brain start working for example: the hippocampus that is associated with the formation of memories, the temporal lobe responsible for the visual imagery and lastly the amygdala that is in charge of the emotional memories. When all the parts mentioned before activate, the frontal cortex, also known as the self-system which is in charge of planning and reasoning becomes unaware so people can be able to dream. When that process happens then the images, emotions, and memories come together and we “see” dreams (Roberts, 2). Approximately 90% of your brain is active while your body rests.
Renteria 2
The process of dreaming can be quite complicated. “We can think of a dream as a report of a memory of a cognitive experience that happens under the kinds of condition that are more frequently produced in a state called sleep” explained Domhoff. Dreams are kind of an explanation of your own memories that can come a little bit twisted from what the real truth is. Dreams are normally made when we are sleeping. In other words you can think of a dream as your brain creating a story when your self-system shuts down and let us unaware of the real world out there (G. William Domhoff,1).
Experts say that everyone dreams every time they go to sleep, but before falling asleep the body temperature starts to slowly decrease. A structure in the brain called the pineal gland releases a hormone called melatonin into the blood stream, which prepares the body for sleep. Every 90 to 100 minutes people go through a cycle of five different sleep stages. In stage 1 sleep, alpha waves become less regular and then disappear, at this point the individual loose awareness of the outside world. During stage one people might experience fantasy images or something similar to hallucination. People often start feeling they’re falling and their leg might jerk. After two to five minutes, stage 2 starts. Stage 2 is a deeper level of sleep that consist of quick (13 to 16 per second) rhythmic waves also known as sleep spindles that last two to three minutes. The sleep spindles are responsible for causing all the non-sense and sleep talking during this stage. After another 20 minutes you enter stage 3 sleep, a much deeper sleep level which consists of low-frequency, high-voltage delta waves. A sleeper is much harder to wake at this time. The stage 4, the deepest sleep level also consists of slow delta waves that they almost happen constantly. Delta waves last about 20 minutes, if sleepwalking were to happen it’ll happen at this
Renteria 3 stage. The 5th stage is associated with dreaming is called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It’s when dreams happen the most. It happens at regular intervals of time throughout the night. During REM sleep the dreamer’s muscles are paralyzed. REM sleep only lasts about ten minutes, after that the person goes back to stages 3 and 4, this pattern keeps on repeating throughout the night, for approximately four to six times a night or until the individual wakes up (Rosen, 31-32). “Dreams are not a by-product of sleep, as has been assumed all along dreaming might be what allow us to sleep” says Solomon,
Show More

Related Documents: Dreams: Sleep and Dreams Essay

Essay on Dreaming: Sleep and Dreams

Psych 111 Dreaming A dream is a succession of images, sounds, ideas and emotions that we experience involuntarily while sleeping. Everyone has dreamed at least once in their life, even if they don’t remember it. As a matter of fact everyone experiences six to eight dreams per night, and out of the eight hours of sleep we’re supposed to get each night, two of them are spent dreaming. People aren’t the only animals that can dream. Actually, every mammal is known to have dreams at night, and even…

Words 1724 - Pages 7

Pros And Cons Of Sleep And Dreams In Macbeth

Before killing Duncan, Macbeth’s guilty conscience is connected with the horrific hallucinations of the motif sleep/dreams. As can be seen, Macbeth determines that he fears about the dangers that threaten him right now actually less than his “horrible imaginings” (I.iii.151) after he had thought about killing Duncan. Since this quote talks about “horrible imaginings”, the motif sleep/dreams, can view as an unnatural state, is mainly about how Macbeth suffers from his horrific hallucinations. It helps…

Words 453 - Pages 2

Dreams: Unconscious Mind and non Rem Sleep Essays

Dreams By: Tyrone Walker 4-23-2013 . Dreams are kind of in a world of their own, however having a psychological sort of understanding of how the unconscious works it can offer a little bit of explanation of your dreams. Dreams have always sort of fascinated me in one way or another. With dreams they are so complex however sometimes so simple. We have these dreams that sometimes people feel are related to what is currently going on in our lives, as well as possible things to come in…

Words 1046 - Pages 5

Dreaming Research Paper Josie Shapiro

he brain while asleep. There are many well­known theories regarding dreams and dreaming proposed by psychologists and researchers such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley. Other important facts about dreaming are discussed such as when humans dream, how researchers can detect brain activity and consciousness, and the different types of dreams including daydreams, recurring dreams, lucid dreams and nightmares. Common symbolic messages experienced while dreaming…

Words 1554 - Pages 7

Lucid Dreaming Essay

Dreaming Dreams are the playground of the mind. Anything can happen when one is dreaming. The only limitation is that we only rarely realize the freedoms granted to us in our dreams while we have them. Lucid dreaming is the ability to know when one is dreaming, and be able to influence what will be dreamt. A normal dream is much like passively watching a movie take place in your skull. In a lucid dream, the dreamer is the writer, director, and star of the movie. Lucid dreams are exceptionally…

Words 1945 - Pages 8

Lucid Dream Techniques

Have Wake Induced Lucid Dream (WILD Technique) One of the most popular methods for lucid dreaming is the WILD technique and here I will be discussing some methods that will help you to have wake induced lucid dreams. WILD is simply a dream that is conscious entered from the wakefulness state during the REM (rapid eye movement cycle). This probably is most used lucid dreaming method because entering into a dream with a strong intention of becoming lucid during REM phase of sleep increases the chances…

Words 1126 - Pages 5

Psychology: Dreams and Dreaming Essay

Psychology: Dreams and Dreaming January 13, 1997 Dreams, a nightly gift and a part of the natural process of being alive, are being rediscovered by our publisher. The meaning and value of your dreams will vary according to what you and your society decide. Our society is changing. We used to only value dreams in the context of psychotherapy. There are also a few assumptions about dreams. One is that you are always the final authority on what the dream means. Others can offer insight, suggestions…

Words 3173 - Pages 13

Lucid Dreaming Research Paper

Fome Omogha William Madden English 1101 October 12, 2014 Psycho Physiological Research on Consciousness during REM sleep: (Lucid Dreaming) For a very long time, People had tried to study the various functions of the human body, how we speak, move, etc. These physiological behaviors have analyzed for some levels. One area of the human system that mostly confuses researcher or scientist is the MIND. In my researching, I found out that there are a lot of things that does that doesn’t have…

Words 784 - Pages 4

Dreams: Informative Speech Essay

Thesis Statement: Understanding how dreams occur, how they affect our lives and what they mean help us grasp what dreams actually are. Intro: I. (Attention Getter) Have you ever dreamt that you were walking along the side of a road or along a cliff and suddenly you trip? You’re falling for what seems like forever, but before hitting the ground, you wake up? This is considered to be a falling dream, and ironically, falling dreams occur when you are falling asleep. They are usually accompanied…

Words 1725 - Pages 7

my life Essay example

3. Sleep disorders. a. Insomnia. According to the national sleep organization approzimately 10% suffer from cronic insomnia, diff. Sleeping or staying asleep. Some causes, pain from discomfort or pain, psychological from stress or anxiety from demanding or irregular school scheule. b. Sleep apnea. A person stops breathing then wakes up coughing and gaging hundreds of times a night. c. Narcolepsy. Serious sleep condition causes sudden unprebictable daytime attacts of daytime sleepyness…

Words 920 - Pages 4