There are five theories that were developed that helps to explain the reason as to why we dream. They are wish fulfillment, information processing, psychological function, activation synthesis, and cognitive development. The Wish Fulfillment theory suggests that the reason why we dream is to fulfill wishes that would be considered strange in reality. The information processing theory suggests that we dream to reorganize information and events from the recent day. The psychological function theory suggests that REM sleep helps to develop and preserve neural pathways. The activation synthesis theory suggests that REM sleep triggers random visual memories and weave them into stories. And finally the cognitive development theory states that the …show more content…
This developed from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Dreams are provided to be a safety net for our unconscious mind which we express often unfulfilled wishes and needs that otherwise would be considered and strange and unacceptable in reality. So because of this, our mind creates made up scenarios while we sleep so that these wishes and needs are fulfilled without actually showing them. Also according to Freud and the wish fulfillment theory, these dreams contain both a manifest, remembered, and also latent, underlying meaning, content. However, this theory lacks any scientific support because the fact that dreams does not have a single defined meaning but can be defined differently between different people.
The second theory as to why we dream is information processing. As we learn new material and skills every day, they begin to become a conglomerate of stuff learned for the day in our mind. However according to this theory, when we sleep at the end of a day after learning new material, our mind creates dreams to help organize new learned material , organize the day’s events, and also to consolidate memories so that they would be easier to remember later on if the information ever needs to be recalled. However one question that this theory does not answer is why do we dream about things that we have not
One of the most common brain activities during sleep is dreaming. Scientist still to this day do not fully understand why we dream or what dreams are exactly. “Some experts suggest that dreams represent the replay of the day’s events as a critical mechanism in the formation of memories, while others claim that the content in dreams is simply the result of random activity in the brain.” It is known that visually intense dreaming occurs most commonly in the REM sleep stage. Dreaming causes the brain to become very active, and not only at displaying the images we see during our dreams.
I believe this because the definition of a dream is a series of thoughts, including what one greatly desires. You also need to think about a plan to get to your success. You can not reach a
Each one of these dreams play an important role in novel. Could dreams in real life reveal as much as they do in novel? Imagine the dream a person had, representing the next face in their
Because of this, I work hard at everything I do. Casual fear of failure appears to be a good motivator for me. I believe we dream because our unconscious self is just as confused as out conscious one. Our unconscious self may be trying to communicate to our conscious self in order to help us understand ourself and our
Do dreams have an evolutionary function? In this essay I will discuss Flanagan’s reasons for believing consciousness is an adaptation, I also will discuss why sleep is an adaptation and his stance on dreams being spandrels. And I will end with my opinion on why dreams may or may not be significant based on Flanagan’s theory and the treat simulation theory. I will also discuss the reasons why or why not dreams may have an evolutionary function.
1. Introduction Starting from the ancient times humans has always been interested in strange phenomena of sleeping and dreams. Dreams can be explained psychologically as images of subconsciousness and feedback of neural processes in human's brain. For most of us, dreaming is something quite separate from normal life. When we wake up from being chased by a monster, or being on a date with a movie star, we realize with relief or disappointment that "it was just a dream."
To dream is to desire an achievement which seems unobtainable. Most everyone has trouble convincing themselves that their dreams are within reach. Jim Carrey once said, “So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality.” This is a result of allowing dreams to remain dreams and, instead, opting to take a more reliable path. In doing so, a sense of emptiness that never completely dies out is often developed.
What representation do dreams provide for ‘if’, ‘because’, ‘just as’, ‘although’, ‘either-or’, and all the other conjunctions without which we cannot understand sentences or speeches?” The theory of speech was represented in Harry potter and we can sense the broken fragments and the conjunctions that were happening in his sentences while trying to explain the
Outline Introduction I. Attention-Getter: Have you ever thought why we dream and if there is any real meaning to what we dream? II. Central Idea: There are several theories of why we dream and the meaning related to our dreams. III.
Dreams are based on the dreamer’s attitude towards life. He believed dreams were deceptive. He believed dreams provided a secure environment to overcome one’s limitations without disturbing the dreamers waking life. Also a dream could depict some important aspects about the dreamer, such as how factors like power; acceptance, etc affect the relation between the dreamer and his reality/world.
The “why we dream argument see dreams as only nonsense that the brain creates from fragments of images and memory” (Obringer). On this side of the argument dreams are viewed as tricks of the mind that just seem to happen. Other people believe differently. Some people believe dreams have meaning even if we don’t recognize it at first. “Many think dreams are full of symbolic messages that may not be clear to us on the surface” (Obringer).
What does it mean to dream? Well, I believe dreams will always remain a mystery of phenomenons that science will never be able to explain. However, we can interpret our dreams in many different aspects. Philosophers, such as Alan Watts, interpret dreams in an interesting way, such as it being an adventure (The Dream of Life). From this, I’d like to think of dreams as adventures for our minds; we’re subconsciously wandering to a new adventure every time we decide to rest our eyes.
There have been many times in my life where I have either woken up in the middle of the night from a horrible nightmare or woke up in the morning trying to recall my dreams. I have spent a lot of time researching what my dreams mean. Although we have experienced countless dreams in our lifetime, do we ever stop to think: how dreams occur? How dreams affect our lives? Do dreams even mean anything?
Freud’s perception of dreams are that they all occur in forms of "wish fulfillment" trials by the mind through some sort of struggle concerning something recent or something from in the past (Freud later explains this in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which Freud explains that dreams seem to not arise to be a wish fulfillment.). Since the information is in the mind and is an uncontrollable, often disturbing form, of a "censor" before the mind will not permit it to pass uninfluenced into the mind. Through dreams, the mind is more unconcerned in this duty than in its awakening hours but is nevertheless alert. As such, the mind must change and twist the meaning of its knowledge to make it through the censorship. Such a perception in dreams are
Today I first discussed when dream occurs. Second, I discussed theories of dream. Finally, I discussed the dream interpreter. Understanding when dream occurs, theories of dream and what they mean help us grasp what dreams actually