dreaming

Hi Mary

Welcome to UncommonForum!

I hope you don't mind my moving your post, but I reckon this is definitely worthy of the Pychology forum!

Just so others know, I assume you were talking about this dreaming article ?

Yes it is true that evrybody dreams - and in fact all mammals (although I remember something odd about platypuses ). The function of dreaming is to 'flush out' unfulfilled emotional arousal, as the article describes.

And in fact, you are not supposed to remember your dreams - they take place when you are asleep so you don't have to bother with them consciously. If you wake up during a dream, or become more conscious during it, then you remember it.

There is an interesting theory currently being proposed that psychosis is effectively dreaming while you are awake - or more accurately, processin waking reality through the REM state. Fascinating stuff.

Hope this answers your question, in a round-about kind of a way!

Best

Roger

When we're a foetus we REM instinctual learning’s.

As adults we dream to flush things out.

Are these similar or does one phase into the other as we age? ... I guess hypnosis uses the same process but to reprogramme - is this flushing out and learning new ways to behave/think?

Andy.

HI Andy

Interesting question. My guess is that the balance changes. The REM state can still program our emotional brains at any age (Post traumatic stress disorder - PTSD being an example).

Again guessing, but as babies we do very little emotional introspection (little Timmy in his cot tossing and turning about the bills and his relationships ), which increases as we get older, and so the need for discharge increases.

It's kind of the same process, but in reverse... you think?

Roger

mazcon wrote:Hi all,
Just pondering the subject of dreaming. Just following on from the link on the UK website, do you think it would be true to say that everybody dreams?
A group of us were talking about dreaming and several people said they never or rarely dream. I wondered if this might be because they are incredibly emotionally stable? If everybody dreams, why do some people not remember their dreams?
What do you think?

Mary

Heya Mary. As to you question, the answer is yes, everybody dreams. It has been proven that even people who claim never to dream, after being woken up right after the REM phase in psychology labs, they have been able to recall dreams. With regard to emotional instability, I highly doubt that's the case. One of the reasons people can not recall their dreams may be because their sleep schedule is structured in a way in which their waking hour never ends up right after the REM stage, thus making it hard or impossible to remember dreams. Don't forget that we have most of our dreams during the REM period, and the only dream we usually recall upon awakening is the one form our very last REM stage (the sleeping cycle repeats itself about 4 times on average during a night.)
Hope that helps, cya.

Dozy25 wrote:the sleeping cycle repeats itself about 4 times on average during a night.

Do you think there's a connection between these cycles and ultradian cycles?

Hey again. No I do not think there's a connection between the two. The sleeping cycle is a completely distinct phenomenon. It consists of 5 phases and is characterized by various EEG activity in the brain during the phases. I've never heard about this Ultradian cycle you mention, would be helpful to know more about it. From the very limited information I got from your link, it seems rather to be more related to the Circadian Rhythm, influencing bodily functions during the day.

I asked you that because I thought there was a connection since here it says, "This ultradian rhythm continues to affect us when we sleep, further strengthening the link between hypnosis and dreaming."

You said, "we have most of our dreams during the REM period". Is it then possible to dream even outside of the REM stage?

Ciao

Hi grovelli

There may well be a link between REM sleep and ultradian rhythms. The average non-depressed adult will REM about every 90 to 120 minutes during sleep. During the day every 90 to 120 minutes we expereince a shift to a more right hemispheric focus in which we are more likely to DAY DREAM. The night-time REM activity may be a sleep time 'version' of day time ultradians.

Mark

grovelli wrote:I asked you that because I thought there was a connection since here it says, "This ultradian rhythm continues to affect us when we sleep, further strengthening the link between hypnosis and dreaming."

You said, "we have most of our dreams during the REM period". Is it then possible to dream even outside of the REM stage?

Ciao

Yes, of course it's possible to dream out of REM stage. The dreams in other stages are much more rare though.

p.s. Mark's got a good point.

So since REM sleep lasts between 90 and 120 minutes, is its daytime 'version' supposed to last the same amount?
Ciao

Hi grovelli

Dreaming usually occurs for about 20 minutes at a time but it occurs every 90 to 120 minutes. So if you sleep 8 hours about 2 hours of that sleep, dispersed throughout the night, would consist of dream REM time. Depressed individuals can spend up to 6 hours in an 8 hour sleep period dreaming though.

Mark

Thank you Mark, the correspondence between ultradian rhythms and REM phase is perfectly clear to me now; I can see them as two faces of the same coin. Up until today I saw sleeping and awakeness as two completely different states but it looks like they're a unique continuum within the human body.
Ciao

What a great way of putting it

Thanks Mark,
I wouldn't have been able to put it like that hadn't you enlightened me.