Unromancing the Dream

1. Unromancing the Dream Elizabeth and Syrr

2. Theories • 1970s- Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley- Dreams are an attempt to interpret random electrical impulses produced automatically in your brain. • Results in how the brain and mind work during sleep. • Brain activation is compared to stored memories in order to synthesize the activation into some dream content.

3. Method • One- They studied and reviewed previous work by other researchers. Able to cite 37 references that pertain to their hypothesis. • Two- Research of animals’ sleep and dreams. Mammals experience stages of sleep similar to those in humans. They didn’t claim that nonhuman animals dream.

4. Results and Discussion • Sensory input and motor output are blocked when asleep. • Brain is able to send motor signals, the body is not able to express them. • Exception to the blocking of motor responses is in the eyes which may be why visual images are triggered during dreaming.

5. Results and Discussion • The brain enters REM sleep at regular intervals that remains in that state for specific lengths of time – nothing random. • Dreaming sleep (D State) appeared to be a preprogrammed event in the brain that functions almost like a neurobiological clock. • Dreaming sleep is purely physiological, not psychological.

6. Results and Discussion • Brain activates itself internally. • Images are called up from the memory in an attempt to match the data generated by the brain’s activation.

7. Results and Discussion • At least 95% of all dreams are not remembered – unless it is vivid and you awaken during or immediately after. • When we awaken there is an immediate change in the brain chemistry. • Certain brain chemicals that are necessary for converting short-term memories into long-term ones are suppressed during REM sleep.