Dreams Understanding Essay, Research Paper

The subconscious is usually the right side of the brain or the opposite side of

the persons writing hand. Within the subconscious lie different types of things

such as suppressed emotions, creativity, and basic human instinct (Ullman and

Zimmerman 1979). The conscious part of the mind works when people are awake and

is the part of the mind that handles things that people can understand. No one

truly knows why a person can’t interact with the subconscious while awake,

however studies show that dreams are a way in which people can better comprehend

its behavior. The condition of the body during dreaming is interesting because

the brain shuts off all sensory receptors thus, canceling all somatic impulses (Ullman

and Zimmerman 1979). This puts the body in an almost paraplegic state. The brain

however continues to control all autonomic functions such as blood flow, heart

pulsation, and lung inflation. During the sleep, homeostasis will fluctuate

because sleep occurs on four stages (Davidmann, 1998). The individual goes from

awake to stage 1, then to 2, 3, and finally 4, the deepest stage of sleep. After

spending about twenty minutes in stage 4, they return to stage 1 and progress

back to stage 4. The individual will continue to make these cycles throughout

their sleep. Most individuals will experience about 4 to 5 cycles a night (Davidmann,

1998). This is why humans are more apt to wake up at specific times in the night

and not sporadically (most people do not notice this however). During stage 1

the individual will experience what has been named REM (Rapid Eye Movement), I

will make further elaboration on REM momentarily. For now I would like to point

out that during REM the body will show more signs of consciousness by

spontaneous muscle contractions, flagellate excretion, and oculomoter

coordination (eye movement). The body will experience these tensions and

reactions because this is the active time of sleep in the average human (Davidmann,

1998). I spoke earlier of REM (Rapid Eye Movement); it is the time in which the

individual will have their dreams. Nathaniel Kleitman discovered it in 1953. It

always occurs in the lightest stage of sleep, stage 1. It has been given its

name because of the muscle contractions in the eye motor receptors. These

electrical impulses originate from the brain stem and then travel to the eyes to

produce imagery. The catalysts for these impulses are triggered by the

subconscious mind and the emotions within it (Davidmann, 1998). The REM will

usually begin ninety minutes after sleep is initiated and will last roughly ten

to fifteen minutes (Davidmann, 1998). It is during the ten to fifteen minutes

that dreams occur. The REM will end and the individual will slip into deeper

sleeps, until the forth stage is reached. Once this occurs the mind begins to

come out of the deeper sleep stages until it reaches the REM once again. The

interesting factor is that each time the sleeper enters the REM phase of sleep

the REM phase will increase in length. This repeats four to five times in the

average sleep. The reason the dreams occur in the REM or the lightest stage is

because this is the only stage in which the conscious mind can interpret the

imagery of the subconscious. This is not to say that the subconscious doesn’t

remain active in deeper sleep stages but the conscious mind isn’t alert enough

to decipher the imagery the subconscious creates in deep sleep. A good

personification description of this is to say that the conscious simply can’t

swim as deep as the subconscious. The REM is also interesting because if a

person does not experience it they will suffer from various sleeping disorders

because it is required by the body just like sunlight is required. People who

experience exaggerated REM will suffer from fatigue and sleep depravation while

they are awake. Usually, a fully-grown person has about 4 to 5 cycles of REM

sleep, consisting of about 25% of a night’s sleep. A newborn child’s sleep can

consist of as high as 50% REM type sleep (Davidmann, 1998). As I previously

stated, a person would go through the sleep stage cycle four to five times a

night, hence four to five dreams per night. With this in mind it can be

calculated the average human being will have 136,000 dreams in a lifetime,

spending about six total years in the REM stage dreaming. Mentally retarded

individuals or people with low IQs tend to spend less time in the REM type

sleep, but other mental disorders are capable of initiating more REM type sleep.

The reason for this is unknown. Now that the diagnostics of dreams has been

covered I would like to focus on the origin of dreams from a medical standpoint.

As a consequence, memory, sensory, muscle-control, and cognitive areas of the

brain are randomly stimulated, resulting in the higher cortical brain attempting

to make some sense of it. The reason for these stimulations is unknown but

various medical researchers believe they are the after effects of certain

chemical reactions in the brain. This, according to the research, gives rise to

the experience of a dream, but there is controversy of the question of whether

dreams have intentional meaning. Many psychotherapists agree that dreams are

stimulated by impulses from the brain stem but they have actual meaning and are

not just hallucinations.

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