Dreams
...d on the time of day (Ferguson 4). Sigmund Freud was the first scientist to study dreams (Edelson 64). Freud was also the first theorist to say that dreams are an important part of our emotional lives. Though dreams have ordinary elements…they are often jumbled (Edelson 64) Some scientists are skeptical of dream interpretations, Nathienal Kleiman, one of the people who discovered REM sleep wrote , “ Dreaming may serve no function whatsoever” (Kasschall 32). Everybody dreams, not only all people, but mammals are shown to have REM sleep, which has to do with dreams. With some exceptions, all mammals go through REM sleep (Kramer 3). Since this goes with animals having some kind of dreaming experience. Students who get good REM sleep understand the information better and for longer a time. This is because the brain needs time to process information to form a pattern out of it, and place it in long term memory (Fishkoff 2). When people are randomly awakened during REM sleep and asked what they had just been dreaming about the reports are usually boring, even though most people don't even remember what they were dreaming about (Ferguson 3). Theories about REM sleep and why we dream is as different as the dreams themselves. Some reasons why we have REM sleep are: REM sleep helps the well being of long-term memory, cleans the brain of useless information, and is necessary to provide the brain with stimulation when you are sleeping (Kramer 3). Some scientists also say REM sleep is necessary for brain growth (Edelson 69-70). While sleeping, you hear as like when you're awake; the ears are never turned off. This leads to the reason that what you hear while your sleeping, you’ll hear in your dreams. The sound is always coming from somewhere. Common experiences of this kind are a telephone ringing or music from a radio. It’s not important how loud the noise is to get noticed when sleeping. Even an unnoticed sound, like a mouse running over your floor, can wake you up if it is alarming to you. You can get accustomed to high levels of noise, like construction work, or traffic on the road near by (Ferguson 6-7). Many dreams have the same images, and these symbols are always having to do with real life condition and feeling. Certain conditions, stresses and personalities seem to be particular dream symbols (Kramer 5). In my dreams, I am on the way to work when I, notice that I have a loose tooth. I wiggle it, and then to my horror, it falls out, then I notice other teeth are loose and they too begin to fall out. Soon my gums are empty and bleeding, and I rush around wondering how I’m going to handle this or cover it up so no one notices me this way. (Szeged-Maszak 8). There is some argument about what things in dreams actually mean, for example in this dream the bleeding might stand for energy or "life force," loss of blood in a dream symbolizes that some person, situation, or relationship, is creating a drain or energy. Dreaming about teeth represents the very roots of the self, the values of a person, dreams of tooth loss often occur when a compromise is made in which the person isn't sure on the decision (Szeged- Maszak 8-9). Research in the area of paranormal dreams has been done in many cases, but despite findings, the scientific community has not really received paranormal dreams (Ferguson 5). "The mind cannot deal with chaos very well, in fact it will resist and sometimes manufacture order" (Edelson 64). Dreams are easily influenced by things in life, they are also influenced by random sounds, and sometimes dreams are even influenced by experiences and memories (Edelson 68-69). It is normal to dream of people who have died, especially during the first year after they have died. It is also common to dream of them on their birthday or the anniversary of their death. These dreams tend to be upsetting and bizarre at first, and then are less traumatic , and grow more comforting over time (Fishkoff 9). If people think they don’t dream, they probably just don’t remember it. The most important reason why people don’t remember their dreams is because they just don’t care. Dream recall can be trained by thinking over what you have dreamed for some time and writing it down. McCarley says, "that the common experience of feeling paralyzed in a dreams simply means that the brain cells that allow muscle activity were stimulated" (78). People...