Dream Presentation Notes

Slide 1:

Title

Slide 2:

Ask Class Questions,

Has anyone in this room ever dreamed?

What do you think is happening when you are dreaming?

Have you ever woken up and not remembered your dream?

Slide 3:

Define dreams and basic science

As I'm sure you know, people dream while they're sleeping. But the kind of dream you have depends on what stage of sleep you are in. There are 4 sleep stages, divided into two categories, Rapid Eye Movement and Non-rapid Eye Movement. 

NREM has three sub divisions, Stage N1, Stage N2, and Stage N3. Stage N1 is the lightest stage and occurs when you are just barely unconscious. This is when you may twitch and have dream-like hallucinations. In Stage N2 all conscious of the external world vanishes. In many adults this stage takes up a majority of sleeping time. Stage N3 is when sleep becomes deep and harder to interrupt. Though dreams sometimes occur in these stages, dreams from the REM stage are most likely to be remembered. 

REM sleep accounts for approximately 25% of sleeping time. In this stage, sleep paralysis occurs. Sleep paralysis is needed in this stage because this is when the vivid and memorable dreams occur. 

In one study it was shown that different types of dreams were shown in different sleep stages. People were monitored while sleeping and woken up in different  stages of sleep. When people were woken up from Stage N2 or 3 and given a paper that required them to fill in blanks in sentences, people tended to write words with a positive connotation. When people were awoken in the middle of REM, the words they wrote had a negative connotation. 

Slide 4:

Sleep Paralysis

In REM sleep, you have the most vivd dreams, and to protect your body, your brain causes you to go into a state of paralysis. This natural occurrence only becomes a problem when you wake up while your body is still paralyzed. Sleep paralysis can also be to blame for "alien abductions" due to an acute sense of danger and hallucinations that occur in sleep paralysis. 

Sleep Walking

Sleep walking often occurs during slow wave sleep (stage N3 or N4). Though while sleep walking your eyes are open, you are completely unconscious. Usually sleep walking does not cause any major problems but it can be quite dangerous. People sleepwalking have been known to cook, drive, violent behavior, and in the more extreme cases, homicide. 

Nightmares

Nightmares, in a very basic sense are just dreams with a negative tone. They are dreams that cause fear and sometimes cause people to wake violently. Nightmares sometimes occur due to physical problem, such as an uncomfortable sleeping position, having a fever, or even stress and anxiety.

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreams are dream in which the person known they're dreaming but does not wake up. Though sometime people just find themselves in lucid dreams with no preparation, there are many techniques to force a lucid dream. People try to have lucid dreams because it allows the dreamer to do anything they want. It is not quite understood why all dreams are not lucid. 

Slide 5:

Cultural Significance

Common Dreams

There are many dreams that thousands of people have claimed to have, such as teeth falling out, being naked, being chased, fling dreams, falling dreams, and dreams where you are taking a test. 

Dream Interpretation

Though these are not hard facts but for centuries many cultures have used to dreams to forecast the future or give insight about something going on in the person's life currently. Teeth dreams are often associated with anxiety about one's physical appearance. Being spontaneously naked in public while dreaming has been known to mean that you feel vulnerable, shameful, or that you are hiding something that you fear being revealed. There are millions of experiences and objects that can be present in a dream and they can all be interpretted differently. 

. "Sleep Science." Sleep Science. N.p., n.d. Web. Jun 2012. <http://sleep.science.mma.edu.ph/>.

. "Stages of Sleep." WebMD. N.p., n.d. Web. Jun 2012. <http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/sleep-101>.

. "Content Analysis Explained." Dreamsearch. N.p., n.d. Web. Jun 2012. <http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Info/content_analysis.html>.