Episode #9: Dreams Decoded Notes

On this episode, Nikko and Emily discussed dreams... and man they had a lot to say... of course, there is a lot to say about dreams and still so much left undiscovered. Here's the research they uncovered:

1. Dreams

1. Wikipedia says “a dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood, although they have been a topic of scientific, philosophical, and religious interest throughout recorded history.”

2. Types of Dreams - https://www.healthline.com/health/types-of-dreams#standard-dream

1. Standard Dreams

1. Most dreams are predominantly visual, meaning that images are at the forefront of dreams, rather than other senses like smell or touch.

2. While most people dream in color, some dreams are entirely in black and white.

3. The less stressed you are, the more pleasant your dreams may be.

4. Dreams can be very strange — and that’s totally normal.

5. Your mood, events in the news, pain, violence, and religion may all influence your dream’s subject.

2. Nightmares

1. Potential Causes of Nightmares

1. watching or reading something scary

2. sleep deprivation

3. eating right before bed

4. medication side effects

5. having a fever or being ill

6. sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, nightmare disorder, or narcolepsy

2. Common Nightmare Themes

1. death or dying

2. physical violence

3. being chased or hunted
   

   

3. Night Terrors

1. When someone has a night terror, they wake up terrified but may only have a vague idea of what they dreamed about. Most of the time, they don’t remember dreams from the night terror.

2. Technically not a dream, but a sleep disorder

3. Night Terrors result in a person waking up



1. screaming

2. kicking or moving violently, even jumping out of bed

3. sweating

4. breathing hard

5. with a racing heart rate

6. disoriented and unsure where they are or what’s going on

4. Lucid Dreams <-- Nikko's had these!

1. Lucid dreaming means you’re aware that you’re dreaming while you’re in the dream. Like most dreams, it often happens during REM sleep.

2. Most people don’t have frequent lucid dreams, though some research reports that 55 percent of people experience it at least once in their lives.

3. Sometimes you can control a lucid dream if you have practice. This can help you control your dreams, especially if you tend to have recurring dreams or nightmares.

5. Day Dreaming <-- Emily does this ALL the time!

1. Daydreams occur consciously, but you may still feel like you’re not fully awake or aware of your surroundings. If someone catches you daydreaming, they may say that you look “zoned out” or lost in thoughts.

2. Daydreams usually involve other people, whether real or imagined. Some research has shown that daydreaming about people you know predicts positive well-being while daydreaming about people you aren’t close to can predict more loneliness and worse well-being.

6. Recurring Dreams

   
   
   

1. Recurring dreams are dreams that repeat more than once. They often have themes such as confrontations, being chased, or falling. 

2. You can have neutral recurring dreams or recurring nightmares. If you have recurring nightmares, it may be due to an underlying mental health condition, substance use, or certain medication.

1. Figure 8 Dream (Emily's)

2. Flying Beach Towel Dream (Emily's)

3. Turn to Stone Dream (Emily's)

7. False Awakening

1. False awakenings are a type of dream occurrence where a person believes they’ve woken up but actually haven’t. If you’ve ever found yourself dreaming that you woke up, but it was actually a part of the dream, this is a false awakening.

8. Healing Dreams

1. While there’s not a lot of scientific information on healing dreams, they’ve been described as dreams that

1. bring you balance or harmony

2. give you a sense of connection, meaning, or purpose

3. bring about reconciliation

4. leaves you feeling joyful or at peace

9. Prophetic Dreams

1. Prophetic dreams are thought to be dreams that have foretold a future event. If you dream of something happening and then it occurs later, you may feel you’ve had a prophetic dream. There’s no real way to tell if a dream is prophetic or not — it comes down to what you believe. Some believe that a prophetic dream is just your subconscious anticipating a particular outcome and having you dream it to prepare.

10. Vivid Dreams

1. Vivid dreams are almost always associated with waking up during REM sleep when your dreams are most vivid and more easily remembered. 

2. While we may consider any dream that we experience in REM sleep “vivid,” with vivid dreaming, it’s used to describe a particularly intense dream that felt very real. You may also remember your vivid dream a lot easier than a typical dream.

3. Anyone can have vivid dreams, but if you’re pregnant or particularly stressed, it may contribute to having one.

   
   
   

3. Physiological and Psychological

1. https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-happens-when-we-dream/

1. The whole brain is active during dreams, from the brain stem to the cortex. Most dreams occur during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. This is part of the sleep-wake cycle and is controlled by the reticular activating system whose circuits run from the brain stem through the thalamus to the cortex.

2. The limbic system in the mid-brain deals with emotions in both waking and dreaming and includes the amygdala, which is mostly associated with fear and is especially active during dreams.

3. The cortex is responsible for the content of dreams, including the monsters we flee from, the people we meet, or the experience of flying. Since we are highly visual animals the visual cortex, right at the back of the brain, is especially active, but so are many other parts of the cortex.

4. Least active are some parts of the frontal lobes, and this may explain why we can be so uncritical during dreams, accepting the crazy events as though they are real – until we wake up.

2. Theoretical Divide Regarding Dreams - https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream1.htm

   
   
   

1. Physiological theories are based on the idea that we dream in order to exercise various neural connections that some researchers believe affect certain types of learning. Psychological theories are based on the idea that dreaming allows us to sort through problems, events of the day or things that are requiring a lot of our attention. Some of these theorists think dreams might be prophetic. Many researchers and scientists also believe that perhaps it is a combination of the two theories. 

2. First and foremost in dream theory is Sigmund Freud. Falling into the psychological camp, Dr. Freud's theories are based on the idea of repressed longing -- the desires that we aren't able to express in a social setting. Dreams allow the unconscious mind to act out those unacceptable thoughts and desires. 

3. Carl Jung studied under Freud but soon decided his own ideas differed from Freud's to the extent that he needed to go in his own direction. He agreed with the psychological origin of dreams, but rather than saying that dreams originated from our primal needs and repressed wishes, he felt that dreams allowed us to reflect on our waking selves and solve our problems or think through issues.

4. More recently, around 1973, researchers Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley set forth another theory that threw out the old psychoanalytical ideas. Their research on what was going in the brain during sleep gave them the idea that dreams were simply the result of random electrical brain impulses that pulled imagery from traces of experience stored in the memory. They hypothesize that these images don't form the stories that we remember as our dreams. Instead, our waking minds, in trying to make sense of the imagery, create the stories without our even realizing it -- simply because the brain wants to make sense of what it has experienced. While this theory, known as the activation-synthesis hypothesis, created a big rift in the dream research arena because of its leap away from the accepted theories, it has withstood the test of time and is still one of the more prominent dream theories.

5. During REM sleep, several physiological changes also take place. The heart rate and breathing quickens, the blood pressure rises, we can't regulate our body temperature as well and our brain activity increases to the same level (alpha) as when we are awake, or even higher. The rest of the body, however, is essentially paralyzed until we leave REM sleep. This paralysis is caused by the release of glycine, an amino acid, from the brain stem onto the motoneurons (neurons that conduct impulses outward from the brain or spinal cord). Because REM sleep is the sleep stage at which most dreaming takes place, this paralysis could be nature's way of making sure we don't act out our dreams.

Yes, there will be a follow episode or 2 because there really just is sooooo much to discuss. What questions do you have?

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