THEORIES ABOUT WHY WE DREAM

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Levels of Consciousness
Consciousness - An organisms or individuals
awareness of, or possibility of knowing what is
happening inside or outside itself
Subconscious - Consciousness just below the level
of awareness. It contains thoughts and ideas just
out of our awareness.
Unconscious - A deeper level of awareness is the
unconscious. It contains thoughts and desires
about which we have no true or direct knowledge.
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Brain Waves and Sleep Stages

• Beta Waves
• Wide awake waves
• Alpha Waves
• slow waves of a relaxed, awake brain
• Delta Waves
• large, slow waves of deep sleep
• Hallucinations
• false sensory experiences
• Sleep Spindles
• Begin during stage 2 sleep and increase through
  the cycle

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The Nature of Sleep and Dreams
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Stages of Sleep

• Upon reaching stage 4 and after about 80 to 100
  minutes of total sleep time, sleep lightens,
  returns through stages 3 and 2
• REM sleep emerges, characterized by EEG patterns
  that resemble beta waves of alert wakefulness
• muscles most relaxed
• rapid eye movements occur
• dreams occur
• Four or five sleep cycles occur in a typical
  nights sleep less time is spent in slow-wave,
  more is spent in REM

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Sleep Across the Lifespan
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Age and condition Average amount of sleep per day
Newborn up to 18 hours
112 months 1418 hours
13 years 1215 hours
35 years 1113 hours
512 years 911 hours
Adolescents 910 hours26
Adults, including elderly 78 () hours
Pregnant women 8 () hours
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Usually dreams contain everyday occurrences such
as interactions with family, friends, school
teachers, and so on. They also contain ideas
about fears and inadequacies.
The Psychology of Dreams
Everyone dreams...
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THEORIES ABOUT WHY WE DREAM

• Dreams are a reflection of our unconscious
  wishes, memories, or fantasies. (Freud)
• Dreams are part of the collective unconscious
  that have powerful and mythical symbols that we
  all share (archetypes). Motherhood, hero, wisdom,
  self, etc. (Jung)
• Dreams may serve to reorganize the brain by
  replenishing chemicals in the brain.

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• Dreams can help us work out unsolved problems in
  our lives.
• Dreams can help us make sense of random
  stimulation in the brain (Hobson-1977)
• Dreams can help us forget certain things in our
  lives. Dreams are the brains way of processing
  memory by eliminating useless information.
• Dreams support the learning process by helping us
  remember things. (Karni, Sagi)
• Dreams may serve to warn us of illnesses.

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