SLEEP, DREAMS, AND THEORIES
What really goes on in your head when you dose off?
Before you continue...
We recommend you watch this quick video! Keep in mind that as you delve into your adventure of dream research, the scientific study of sleep (Polysomnography) and dreams (Oneirology) is still being widely studied. Nothing is set in stone, much like a majority of psychology studies. There are many kinds of dreams, many kinds of theories, and many reasons why we do dream. All of these don't have one definite answer, which leaves much up to interpretation!
If you are someone who experiences lack of sleep or sleep problems, there are many resources out there that can help you improve your sleep!
One last thing...
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Make yourself time to sleep. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) states that an adult between ages 18 to 60 needs more than 7 hours of sleep a night.
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Talk to your doctor or physician if you think you need help with your sleep.
Visit the following website from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine for tips on how to make better sleep habits for a healthier sleep schedule!
The Stages of Sleep
The following infographic is from Northwestern Medicine. Continue scrolling to read about the main stages of sleep!
From Physiology, Sleep Stages by Patel, Reddy, Shumway, and Araujio, a normal night's sleep consists of 4 to 5 cycles of the stages. Completing a single cycle of the stages usually takes about an hour and a half.
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To dive deeper into their research and get more details about the stages of sleep, click the button to continue reading Physiology, Sleep Stages!
Types of Dreams
There are many different kinds of dreams that one can have when you dose off into sleep. There isn't a set number of different kinds because dreams are still being studied. There are no set amount of answers or exact definitions when it comes to these kinds of topics. Delving into specific answers for sleep and dreams is much like asking; "What is consciousness?". You won't get a definite answer, because there isn't a definite answer to what consciousness exactly is.
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However, we've pulled as many resources as possible to give you various possibilities and interpretations of types of dreams and dream theories.
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When it comes to dream types, dreams can fall into any of these possible categories. Dreams can change from one kind of dream to another. For example, you can have a Metaphorical/Symbolic Lucid Dream that suddenly transforms into a Nightmare. Try to remember some of your own dreams, maybe they fall into one or more of these categories!
Current/Recent Event Dreams
These are the most common dreams that can occur, rebroadcasting indirectly or directly events from the last day or two.
EXAMPLE: A normal day at school/work.
Metaphorical/Symbolic Dreams
These dreams broadcast current or past life events metaphorically or symbolically. If you can catch the symbolism in these dreams, they usually try to inform the dreamer of tools for life improvement.
EXAMPLE: In your current life, you may be struggling on completing a group project. A dream that could symbolise your struggles is you climbing to the top of a mountain.
Fantasy/Comfort Dreams
These dreams are also fairly common. These dreams display comforting experiences. These dreams are often wish-fulfilments and other aspirations. These dreams may be the way your subconciouss is helping you release the stress of 'being awake'.
Creative/Problem-Solving Dreams
EXAMPLE: A child who is being bullied dreams that they are a super hero.
These dreams provide creative ideas and long-sought solutions to problems. When a dreamer awakes from these kinds of dreams, they usually feel like a revelation has occurred.
EXAMPLE: Nobel Prize laureate James Watson's dreams about snakes, which led to developing the structure of DNA.
Nightmares
These dreams are bad dreams that cause the dreamer to awaken. These dreams can be anxiety inducing, stressful, and threatening. These can be caused by many factors in a dreamer's life, such as trauma and unresolved stress.
These dreams could possibly be the subconscious trying to work through problems. These dreams can also be caused by various factors like biological, neurological, chemical, dietary, and psychological means.
Lucid Dreams
These are dreams where the dreamer is very aware that they are dreaming while they're in the dream. These dreams give the dreamer full control of their actions during the dream.
EXAMPLE: The dreamer can will themselves to fly.
EXAMPLE: The dreamer can choose to fight an attacker instead of turning and running away.
"Supernatural" Dreams
These dreams are the most memorable when they occur, however they're quite rare. The experience within these dreams can be so vivid that the dreamer can remember them for months, even years.
These kinds of dreams are still being studied, however they provide evidence that consciousness may expand beyond just the individual.
Premonition Dreams: The dreamer has a vision of the future that later comes true.
Telepathic Dreams: The dreamer communicates with a person or event that is occurring somewhere else without the dreamer's knowledge. After the dreamer wakes up from this dream, the events of their dream are later discovered to be true.
Shared/Communion Dreams: Two different dreamers have the same dream around the same time.
Visitation Dreams: A recently deceased family member, friend, partner, or pet visits the dreamer in these dreams.
Daydreams
These dreams, like their name, occur during the day. It's when the dreamer's mind wanders, diverting their attention away from their current tasks to instead thoughts much like dreams. These thoughts usually consist of rebroadcasts of past, present, or future events.
An average of 30 to 47% of a day is spent daydreaming and 'spacing out'.
Positive-Constructive Daydreams: Happy daydreams. They usually include imaginative thoughts.
Dysphoric Daydreams: Bad daydreams. They usually include visions of failure.
False Awakening Dreams
These dreams are when the dreamer believes that they are awake when they're still dreaming. These dreams usually occur during REM sleep. Dreamers that experience Lucid Dreams more often will frequently experience False Awakenings.
EXAMPLE: Waking up and getting ready for the morning.
EXAMPLE: Waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, then heading back to bed.
EXAMPLE: Thinking about a dream you had previously, believing that you are awake when you are in a False Awakening.
Night Terrors/Sleep Terrors
Night Terrors is a sleep disorder. These dreams consist of the dreamer screaming, flailing, and intense stress and fear while still asleep. Night Terrors can occur to anyone of any age, but are more common with young children.
Unlike nightmares, the events of a night terror are usually forgotten. The dreamer of a night terror episode also remains in REM when the episode is over. Night Terrors also occur during the NREM-3 stage, unlike nightmares that happen during REM.
Many factors can cause Night Terrors such as sleep deprivation, fever, sleep-disordered breathing (EX: sleep apnea), depression, anxiety, stress, restless legs syndrome, and alcohol use.
REM Rebound
Also called REM Rebound Sleep or The REM Rebound Effect, this is a phenomenon where a dreamer receives more REM sleep than normal.
During rebound, the time a dreamer spends in REM and the intensity of their REM sleep can increase.
REM Rebound is often caused by sleep deprivation and stress, and can cause vivid dreams due to heightened brain activity.
Again, the study of dreams is still being delved into and explored. But, we hope that these categories of dreams gives you a good headstart on your own dream hunting!
Dream Theories
There are many different theories that exist to try and explain why we do dream. As we stated before, the study of dreams is still something that scientists are exploring. Listed below are many different theories that try to place a reasoning to why we dream!
Sigmund Freud's Wish Fullfilment Theory
What better way to talk about dream theories than to start with the big man himself, the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. Freud's Wish Fulfillment Theory is one of his most popular theories. Freud stated his theory in his book 'The Interpretation of Dreams' in the 1900s, stating that our dreams represent our unconscious desires, thoughts, feelings, and wishes. He also broke down dreams into two parts. The Manifest Content (what you remember from your dream) and the Latent Content (what is unseen in your dream). The places where this theory falls short is that there's no scientific evidence to back up Freud's theory.
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Freud also created a model known as The Iceberg Model as a way to explain the unconscious mind as the parts of our mind that we cannot see. The iceberg is split into three parts in two different ways. It's split into consciousness, preconsciousness, and unconsciousness. It's then split into Freud's personality theory and how he views the human psyche; the id (our sexual and aggressive drives), ego (what moderates our id and superego), and superego (our moral conscience).
Carl Jung's Concept of Collective Conciousness
Carl Jung was a student of Sigmund Freud, however, Freud didn't agree with Jung's theories of collective consciousness. Jung's Concept of Collective Consciousness states that humans are connected through a shared set of experiences. This also connects all humans and to our previous ancestors. His theory also gives the idea that we share our ancestors memories through our subconsciousness.
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Jung also believed that the collective unconsciousness connected our human minds to the rest of the world, stating that coincidences that couldn't be explained aren't happening randomly and that they must have an explanation. These coincidences, Jung believed, were signals sent by the universe and that these signals connected all minds to the collective unconsciousness.
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Jung and Freud thought differently on dreams. Jung's theory focused on where dreams may reveal about one's future. The main function of dreaming to Jung is psychological compensation. Dreams are to help guide our consciousness to a better future self.
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George A. Miller's Information-Processing Theory
This dream theory compares our human brain to computer processing. This theory was proposed in the 1950's, a time when American psychology was dominated by behaviorism (the idea that behaviors are learned through interacting with our environment). Miller created the theory that the human brain can only hold a limited amount of information in short-term memory.
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Then, in 1968, Atkinson and Shiffrin developed a model known as the Information Processing Model, or the Multi-Store Model of Memory (MSM). The model proposes that there are three stages of memory: the sensory memory (or sensory registry), the short-term memory (or working memory), and the long-term memory. Sensory memory is what we take in through our senses, which is then sent and filtered to short-term memory that has a limited capacity, which is then sent to long-term memory that's believed to be limitless.
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With this theory, it states that the human mind takes in information, organizes it, and stores it much like a computer.
Dr. J. Allan Hobson's Physiological Function Theory
In 2009, psychiatrist and sleep researcher at Harvard Dr. J. Allan Hobson published a paper that argued that REM sleep is physiological rather than psychological. Hobson explained that dreaming is the brain's way of 'warming its circuits', activating the brain and preparing it for functioning during consciousness. Essentially, dreaming is the brain's way of getting a workout. Dreams is our brain's way of staying active during an awake state.
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Hobson also states in this theory that we are always ourselves in our own dreams, that we act in a fictional world that our brain has developed. REM sleep is our brain's way to prepare for consciousness. We need REM to be able to function in an awake state, and REM dreams can be viewed as generated reality patterns from the brain to help prepare it for reality interaction.
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We actually were able to find Hobson's original paper explaining this theory on Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Click the following button to read the full paper!
Proposed by the same psychiatrist Dr. J. Allan Hobson that created the Physiological Function Theory, this theory was proposed in 1977 suggesting that dreams are caused by the activation of the brain. These bursts of neural brain activity travel to the frontal lobe of the brain, which tries to interpret these brain signals as a response during sleep.
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This theory suggests that dreams are caused by brain processing and brain activity during sleep activated by REM sleep. When the brain is activated during REM sleep, areas of the brain that process our emotions and memories such as the amygdala and the hippocampus are active. As a result of the brain activity, the brain tries to interpret these signals and give them meaning, which results in the creation of dreams.
Hobson and McCarley's Activation-Synthesis Theory
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Calvin Hall's Cognitive Development Theory
Hall developed this dream theory before the discovery of REM sleep in 1953. However, Hall states in this theory that our dreams are broadcasts of our thoughts that we have. Therefore, dreams would be us expressing these thoughts. Our dreams is our way of expressing our ideas and our world through our current knowledge and information.
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After receiving more than 50,000 dream reports from people of all ages all over the world, Hall created 5 specific observations of dreams:
1) Dreams are our conception of ourselves.
2) Dreams are our conception of others.
3) Dreams are our conception of the world.
4) Dreams are our conception of our consequences.
5) Dreams are our conception of our conflicts.
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In short, dreams are representations of our conceptions of, well, everything. Our conceptions are turned into images, which are dreams.
Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli's Neural Housekeeping Theory
Tononi and Cirelli's Neural Housekeeping Theory, also called the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis (SHY), was developed in 2015 and explains that sleep is the way to give our brain some down-time. It's our brain's way of organizing everything and making room for all the new stuff the next time we're conscious.
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To try and prove this theory, Tononi and Cirelli's team measured the connections of brain slices from mice. There were samples of slices from mice taken from the end of a sleep period and before a sleep period. The team discovered that the slices of brain were 18% smaller from the mice after a sleep period in comparison to the mice before. The result of this test concluded that the networking between our brain's neurons are exhausted in sleep.
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If the Neural Housekeeping Theory is proved to be true, this theory would explain why it's hard to concentrate on tasks when we skip a night's sleep.
This is the actual paper, sorry in advance this one's got a lot of big sciency words.
Revonsuo's Threat-Simulation Theory
Developed by Antti Revonsuo, this theory explains that dreams can be seen as an 'ancient biological defense mechanism' due to dreams being able to simulate threatening events. This theory believes that threatening dreams like nightmares can give an evolutionary advantage for humans to become more familiar of what to do in certain conscious threatening events, whether to be able to encounter these events or avoid them entirely.
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In short, our nightmares give us the ability to cope with life-threatening, traumatizing events if they were to occur to us while conscious.
This is the actual paper, sorry in advance this one's got a lot of big sciency words.