Dreams AP Psychology

1. Dreams AP Psychology

2. Dreams • Occur most often in REM sleep. • A story like episode of unfolding mental imagery during sleep. • No one really knows why we dream.

3. Brain structures • Brain stem • Amygdala • Hippocampus

4. Dreams Purpose of dreams according to…. • Bio= necessary for healthy brain functioning • Cognitive= dreams are meaningful mental events, reflecting on important events or fantasies. • Others= dreams have no real meaning

5. Remembering and Forgetting Why can’t we remember our dreams? • Frontal lobe is inactive during the REM stage • Serotonin and dopamine are greatly reduced during REM sleep Why do we remember? • If you wake up during the dream • People who are good at visual details when they are awaken…higher rate of remembering their dreams • bizarre, vivid, or emotionally intense

6. What do we dream about?(Hall, 1966, collected data about 10,000 dreams) • Most are in color • Research shows: • Children dream about large animals more than adults • Women dream about children, family, and home • Men dream about aggression, weapons, tools, cars • Men dream more about other men, women dream about women and men equally • Men have more sexual dreams, usually with unknown and attractive partners • American’s dreams are more aggressive compared to other cultures • Falling and being naked arecommon in dreams

7. 5 Theories of Dreaming • 1 – Freud • 2 – REM Cycle • 3 – Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis • 4 – Crick Mitchinson View • 5 – Memory Consolidation Theory

8. #1 Freud • 1900 – The Interpretation of Dreams • Conflicts, events, and desires of the past are represented in symbolic forms in a dream • Manifest Content – story line of dream • Vs. • Latent Content – symbolic meaning of dreams – according to Freud the true meaning. • Freud believed that we must analyze dreams to discover the latent content. • No solid scientific support for Freudian dream interpretation.

9. #2 REM Cycle • First REM period, dreams deal with recent experiences (everyday issues) • Second REM period, dream may be based on a theme from the first dream • Final REM period, dream may have a remote connection to the first and second dream

10. #3Activation-synthesis hypothesis • Dreams represent an attempt by the cerebral cortex to make sense of the random discharges of electrical activity that occur during REM sleep. • Cerebral cortex creates a story line based on the individual’s store of knowledge and memories to explain these random signals and the emotions/sensory experiences they generate.

11. A-S hypothesis • Supporters: • Dreams often make no sense and are disjointed. • Arguments against: • No direct evidence and sometimes dreams do make sense

12. #4 Crick-MitchisonView • Theory: we dream to forget, unravel those neural nets…dreams’ function is to take out the mental trash. • “get rid of our stress” • Supporters: we cannot always remember our dreams • Arguments against: no direct evidence and sometimes we do remember events

13. Memory Consolidation Theory #5 • Dreams help us remember and process events of the day. • Supporters: • We wake up with problems solved and events are sorted out. “sleep on it” expression • Arguments against: • No direct evidence and sometimes we wake up with nothing resolved.

14. So, there is not much evidence to support any theory about why we dream. • Writing prompt: In no less than a half page and no more than one page explain: • which of these 5 theories makes the most sense to you and why. • Which of these 5 theories makes the least sense to you and why. • Use evidence from your own personal experiences with dreams to support your argument.