What is the Function of Dreams?

1. What is the Function of Dreams? By: Shanara Fleming & Nhi Truong

2. What is a dream? • A dream is a variety of emotions, images, and thoughts all put together that occur during REM sleep. (Rapid Eye Movement) • Some researchers believe that dreams have no purpose at all, while others believe that they have a meaning or that they are biologically beneficial.

3. The Theories of Dreams • Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams – Sigmund Freud • He believed that dreams represented repressed wishes or unvoiced desires. • As a result, our desires become a part of our dreams. • Activation-Synthesis Model of Dreaming – J. Allan Hobson & Robert McClarley • They believe that when we dream, the dreams during REM sleep drives our limbic system, hippocampus, and amygdala to generate signals in which our brain tries to interpret. These are what we know as dreams.

4. Other Theories of Dreams • While we sleep, our brain takes in outside sources such as the television and tries to interpret it in the dream. This could be seen in many cartoons or movies. • Another theory thinks that it’s a method of clearing up the mind and to start anew for the next day. • There’s also a model where many theories are combined. It starts off with thoughts and then it closes when emotions are mixed with the ideas.

5. How does it impact teenagers your age? • -Dreams affect teenagers like any other people from good dreams to nightmares. -Daydreaming for one, improves creativity and abstract thinking.-For example, Arthur Fry created the well-known post-it notes thanks to daydreaming in church.-Dreams can leave teenagers emotional or in thought since their adolescent years is known for finding their identity.

6. How does dreaming affect your everyday life? • -Most dreams are about social interactions, because that’s what people are most interested in. • -When people are awakened from REM sleep, they usually report a narrative involving the dreamer, with vivid visual detail, unpleasant emotions, an aggressive social interaction and occasional bizarre and improbable events. • -Often the emotions associated with a dream go on throughout the day thereby taking their effects on mood and behavior during waking life. • -Kuiken and Sikora found that 13% of 168 respondents to a questionnaire on dream recall reported that they, at least 12 times in the past year, had had dreams that significantly influenced their daytime mood

7. Fun Facts • -Why do we dream? The answer to this is still a mystery.-Men tend to have more aggressive dreams with twice the men than women while women tend to dream longer and have more people in them with equal genders.-80% of dreams are in color-Controlling your dreams is possible. Lucid dreams are where this usually happens.

9. Works Cited • http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm • http://library.thinkquest.org/C005545/english/dream/function.htm • http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/tp/facts-about-dreams.htm • http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/christine-duvivier/200809121016 • http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dream-catcher/201105/the-impact-dreams-your-social-life