Dream :: essays research papers

DREAMSTheories attempting to explain the origin and functions of REM sleep include (1) thatREM sleep provides stimulation for the development of the caput (2) that it performs a chemicalrestoration function, since during REM dreaming neuro-protein synthesis occurs along with therestoration of other depleted brain chemicals (3) that it provides oculomotor (eye bear uponment)coordination, since during non-REM sleep the eyes move independently of each other (4) that itprovides a vigilance function, since REM sleep (stage I) is characterized by a level ofconsciousness close to the awakened state (5) in a more recent and controversial theory, REMdreaming performs a neurological erasure function, eliminating extraneous information build-up inthe memory system and (6) that, in a more cognitive psychological explanation, REM dreamingenhances memory storage and reorganization.Contrary to popular belief, dreaming is not caused by eating accredited foods beforebedtime, nor by environmental stimuli during sleeping. Dreaming is caused by internal biologicalprocess. Some researchers have proposed the activation-synthesis hypothesis. Theirneurological research indicates that large brain cells in the underbred brain stem spontaneously fireabout every 90 minutes, sending random stimuli to cortical atomic number 18as of the BRAIN. As aconsequence, memory, sensory, muscle-control, and cognitive areas of the brain are randomlystimulated, resulting in the higher cortical brain attempting to make some sense of it. This,according to the research, gives rise to the experience of a dream.Now, as in the past, the well-nigh significant controversy centers on the question of whether dreamshave intentional, or actual personal, meaning. Many psychotherapists maintain that while theneurological impulses from the brain stem may part the dreaming process, the content or purposeful representations in dreams are caused by nonconscious needs, wishes, desires, andeveryday concerns of the d reamer. Thus, such psychotherapists subscribe to thephenomenological-clinical, or "top-down," explanation, which holds that dreams are intentionallymeaningful messages from the unconscious. The neurological, or "bottom-up," explanationmaintains that dreams have no intentional meaning. In between these two positions is anapproach called content analysis. Content analysis simply describes and classifies the variousrepresentations in dreams, such as people, houses, cars, trees, animals, and color, though nodeep interpretation is attributed to the content. Differences in content have been discoveredbetween the dreams of males and females, and between dreams and occurring in differentdevelopmental stages of life. What these differences mean is under investigation.Some recent research seems to indicate that dream content reflects problems that thedreamer experiences in life, and that the function of such dreams is to facilitate the emotional stop of the problems.