The Psychology of Dreams

[psychofdreams]

I start cal next fall as a psych major. I would totally like to hear your honest opinions on studying at cal!

Hello there! Sorry for the late reply - I had to wait until my grades for this course were completely through before I could answer personal questions outside of the class!

The Psych department is awesome here! :) I was able to take Psych of Sleep, Social Psychology and Drugs and the Brain this semester (my first semester as a declared psych major) and even though I was wait listed for all three (they happened to be the three most sought after Psych classes because of the professors) I got in and have really enjoyed all of the classes. 

Prerequisites for the psych major can be kind of a bitch though - firstly because I am not a science-heavy type of student, although I have really grown to respect the subject. I am thinking about med school, but am not on the track as of right now. If you have some of the prereqs down before getting here (namely AP Stats, AP Bio) then you can declare a lot faster then I did and avoid these classes at Cal. AP Psychology, AP U.S Government, and AP Comparative Government also count if you got either a score of a 4 to 5 on them, but the Psych 1 classes and Social Science classes that are offered as prereqs here at Cal are pretty good, so I don't necessarily think these classes will be difficult/torturous for you haha

Anyways, I am so much happier now that I am in the major.. so if you decide to stick with Psychology when you get here, just know it will get better once you get past the (annoying) prereqs :) haha

You can follow my personal tumblr - bornabird.tumblr.com - if you'd like, for more insight on my life at Cal, and you can definitely contact me there, cause I'm going to be there a lot more than this blog!

Continue asking more questions if you'd like!

-Chanel

[psychofdreams]

Welcome to the Psychology of Dreams

Hello followers!

My name is Chanel, and I currently attend UC Berkeley. I am in my third year as a declared Psychology major. This semester, I was able to enroll in a course titled “The Psychology of Sleep,” and for my Sleep Outreach Project I decided to dedicate a tumblr to one of the major components of the course - dreaming. 

Explanations for the reasons we dream have been recorded as early as 3000 years ago, but dream researchers are still not quite sure why we dream. There are many proposed hypotheses, some of which have been disproved. Either way, these presented hypotheses have lent themselves to the history of dreaming. What I hope to accomplish with this blog is not to “un-romance” notions of the dream - instead, I hope to disseminate factual knowledge about dreaming, so that you can use your own understanding and your own experiences to supplement your own interests in the topic of dreaming. 

From one life-long learner to another, I hope that you gain much from this tumblr that is dedicated to a topic that continues to fascinate many.

Cheers,

Chanel

[psychofdreams]

John Lennon of Beatles' fame was quite right when he said this - REM sleep (which is when dreaming usually takes place) is a phenomenon that occurs not only in the human species but has also been seen in birds and mammals.

Dreaming is a widely-occurring phenomenon that takes place every day in the human species, and is dominant during the second half of the night.

[psychofdreams]

Cataplexy is one of 4 key features that narcoleptics may experience. It is marked by sudden REM paralysis, in which the narcoleptic may appear to have fallen asleep. They are actually awake, they have just lost muscle tone involuntarily. Cataplectic attacks are usually brought on by intense emotion, especially positive ones. 

[wrongendofatelesc0pe]

[psychofdreams]

The dreamcatcher is a traditional Native American object. It consists of a willow hoop, on which a loose net or web is woven. This makes sense as dreamcatcher, or Ojibwe asabikeshiinh, translates to "spider." The dreamcatcher is then adorned with feathers and beads.

In Native American culture, the dreamcatcher is placed above the child's bed as a charm of protection from nightmares. The Objibwa believe that a dreamcatcher changes a person's dreams. Nightmares of a dreamer will pass through the holes in the dreamcatcher, while the good dreams are trapped in the web, sliding down the feathers to the sleeper. 

"Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through… Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day." - Konrad J. Kaweczynski

For the source and more information visit:

http://www.nativetech.org/dreamcat/dreamcat.html

[psychofdreams]

One Dream Rush

Back in 2009, the vodka brand 42 below sponsored a short film festival in Beijing, China known as One Dream Rush. 42 filmmakers were giving 42 seconds to create a film based on the dream theme. The competition, beginning in 2008, resulted in a showcase event held at the Chinese National Film Museum the following year.

The idea for One Dream Rush came about in the hopes of producing something truly unique and individual - "We all share the waking world together, but half our lives are spent asleep, alone with our dreams."

Some of the short films can be viewed here at OneDreamRush's channel on Youtube.

Information via: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/42-below-one-dream-rush/

[psychofdreams]

This video is another Sleep Outreach Project done back in 2009 by UC Berkeley students Siri Grandhe, Brian Johnson, Christina Leung, Mian Wei, and Zoe ZhaoXia Xu who were also enrolled in Psych 133: Psychology of Dreams.

This video explores lucid dreaming.

Check it out!  

[psychofdreams]

Dreaming & Films: Mulholland Drive

Although the film's trailer doesn't give much insight, Mulholland Drive is another film dealing with dreams. 

Loren Rossen III of the blog "The Busybody" gives a summary and review of the movie:

Mulholland Drive, David Lynch. 2001. Critical approval: 81%. A dream-fable of Hollywood upturned by cruel reality, and a film that Lynch was clearly destined to make. The dream comprises the first two thirds of the story, and is made sense of by the devastating third part, a complete analysis of which can be found at Salon. Being inside the mind of Diane Selwyn amounts to a heady experience no other film has offered; I've seen this masterpiece many times, never tire of it, and never will. The manner in which various people from Diane's life fill the roles in her dream shows a brilliant understanding of projection and how dreams work in the context of frustrated wish-fulfillment. And the lip-synced Llorando, precipitating the intrusion of reality, is one of the most cherished musical moments in the history of film.

Source: http://lorenrosson.blogspot.com/2010/07/top-10-films-about-dreams.html

[psychofdreams]

REM behavior disorder (RBD) is marked by a loss of normal muscle paralysis during REM sleep. This disorder is more common in men.

As a result of a loss of atonia, people with this disorder will act out their ongoing dreams. These episodes are often violent in nature, as seen in the video above of a man whose sleep session was videotaped in a lab. 

This disorder has been associated with non-volitional homicide. 

The cause appears to be due to dysfunctional brainstem REM mechanisms. 

[freeze-dried-kittens-blog]

[psychofdreams]

In a study done by my professor Matthew Walker and his colleagues in 2002, they found that there was a 30% increase in the chances of solving an anagram puzzle (example above) if subjects were awakened during REM sleep (the stage of sleep most associated with intense dreaming) versus if they were awakened during NREM sleep.

Furthermore, while REM sleep performance is similar to Wake performances, these performances appear to be achieved using a different mechanism due to the fact that certain areas are deactivated during REM sleep (including the lateral prefrontal lobes which are responsible for logical reasoning). 

Thus, flexible reasoning is greater in REM sleep than NREM sleep. 

[traitorinshallowwater]

[psychofdreams]

Narcolepsy is a chronic disabling neurological disorder that is marked by the inability to resist sleep. It is a disorder that one is born with (although it does not appear to be genetically inherited) which occurs any time during a person's lifetime, but its onset usually takes place between 15-30 years of age. It affects approximately 1 of every 2,000 Americans (300,000 people, numbers that are similar to the number of people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis). Many people can go through their whole lives not knowing that they have the disorder. Narcolepsy can also afflict animals, as seen in the video of Skeeter above. 

Narcolepsy has 4 key features: 

Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS)

Sleep Paralysis (although not unique to narcolepsy)

Hypnagogic Hallucinations

Cataplexy

Sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations are associated with REM sleep.

Sleep paralysis is a temporary inability to talk and move when falling asleep or waking up. It usually occurs during the transition out of REM, when the brain is partially asleep yet also partially awake.

Hypnagogic hallucinations are vivid and often scary dreams that are reported when falling asleep. They often coincide with REM sleep onset (they will immediately fall into REM sleep, which is atypical) and are commonly accompanied with sleep paralysis. 

Cataplexy, contrary to what people may think, is WAKE not sleep. However, it induces the same paralysis seen in REM, just without REM actually occurring. It is commonly triggered by intense emotion (usually positive) or strenuous activity.

Ultimately there is no cure or truly effective treatment, and lifestyle changes may simply have to be made in order to cope with the life-long disorder. However, antidepressants appear to reduce the amount of cataplectic attacks, possibly because they inhibit REM sleep. 

[psychofdreams]

Sleep & Creativity Series: Novels

The ideas for their titles Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley came to these authors in a dream. 

[psychofdreams]

A Short History of Dreams

The Dream by Puvis de Chavannes

Many groups had early views of the meaning of dreams. Ancient Egyptians believed that dreams were messages from the gods. The Chinese and Native Americans thought that dreams were connected to the soul; that dreams were expressions of inner desire. The Greeks also considered that dreams were of a divine nature– that dreams were visits from the gods. Aristotle later disproved this idea, proposing that they were caused by daily activities instead. A mix of these views persisted until the 21st century when scientific researchers began delving into the meaning of dreams, coming up with conclusions that were based in biology. 

[oh-whiskers]

[vainveins]

UC Berkeley scientists have developed a system to capture visual activity in human brains and reconstruct it as digital video clips. Eventually, this process will allow you to record and reconstruct your own dreams on a computer screen.

More here.

[psychofdreams]

Sleep & Creativity Series: Nerve cell communication

On Easter Saturday, 1920, Otto Loewi dreamt of an experiment that would prove that nerve impulses were chemical, not electrical. On the first night, he woke up and took down some notes. When he went back to the notes, however, he found that the could not decipher his scribbles. 

Luckily, he had the same dream the next night. Instead of taking notes though, he woke up and went straight to the lab. He performed the experiment and by dawn he believed he had evidence of neurochemical transmission. 

[fuckyeah19thcenturyscience]

Dmitri Mendeleev’s Periodic Table (1869). (x)

[psychofdreams]

Sleep & Creativity Series: The Periodic Table of Elements 

Dmitri Mendeleev discovered the pattern of his periodic table of elements in a dream. He spent three near continuous days trying to produce a scheme without success. Exhausted, he slept and he dreamed of a column/row structure that grouped the then known 63 elements in families based on their increasing atomic weight and properties. 

[can-you-sleep]

That way, when you look at your totem, you know beyond a doubt that you’re not in someone else’s dream.

[psychofdreams]

Dreaming in Films: Inception

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but the possibility of dream manipulation to the extent in which the movie Inception goes into is, in reality, highly improbable. 

Dream researchers have attempted to study the extent of dream manipulation, by experimentally probing the dreaming brain. Many studies in the least 50 years have tried to control what subjects dream by experimentally controlled what they experience during the day. This includes delivering sensory stimulation bursts of auditory tones, music, flashing strobe lights and so on. Sadly, these studies reported below-chance incorporation of such stimuli in dreams.  

Scientists thought that perhaps the stimuli needed to be more cognitive/meaningful to the subjects. In one study, subjects were shown scary films or disturbing film footage (like cadaver dissection) just before they went to sleep. However, these studies once again failed to incorporate material into dream reports. 

A recent and different approach - to investigate specific groups - has had greater success. One study by Carprinter and Crafty in 1983 found that over 95% of water polo players reported dreaming about their sport. Furthermore, these dreams increases as the season progressed. These studies have been difficult to replicate however, since other studies have produced mixed results. 

Therefore, the idea that one could manipulate a dream by transplanting an item, a notion, or a whole person into another's dream that the film Inception highlights is discounted by scientific studies.