Why do we Dream?

Scientists have different views as to why we actually dream. Some believe that they help consolidate the memories and learning that took place the previous day. There is evidence that you are much more likely to be able to recall lists and skills twenty-four hours later, after uninterrupted sleep, than eight hours later without sleep or twenty-four hours later with interrupted sleep.

Dr Avi Karni, a neuroscientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, believes that 'Rapid Eye Movement' (REM) sleep may be an important mechanism to make sure you don't lose information learned over the latter part of the day, especially for 'how to' or procedural memory. The natural corollary of this is that if your suffer from sleep disruption or deprivation you may suffer a general decline not just in memory, but in overall mental performance.

Other dream researchers see dreams as a means for allowing busy brain cells to recharge their depleted stocks of transmitter chemicals, but there is little evidence so far to support Freud's view of dreams as repressed wishes that have not been fulfilled.

Interpreting Your Dreams

From where do dreams receive their stimulus? The most obvious source is our own personal experience, but there is some evidence that our dreams are strongly influenced by what we see on screen. "The images that come across to us in television and movies provide very powerful stimuli for our dreams,"' says psychologist Montague Ullman, co-author of Working with Dreams and founder of the Dream Lab at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn. "When those images carry personal meaning," he says, "there's no question that they find their way into our dream scenarios."

Although their meaning may vary from individual to individual, some researchers believe that common symbols appear in our dreams. By learning to recognise such familiar symbols and the concepts that tend to be associated with them, we can more easily interpret the meaning of our dreams and better understand their relevance to our lives.

According to dream psychologist Gayle Delaney, those who dream of nuclear war may be undergoing a major transformation in their lives: "Nuclear war is something people have been dreaming about since 1945. Those who think these dreams are literally about nuclear war are taking a superficial approach. It's far more likely that such dreams represent a situation that feels like the end of the world to the dreamer, such as the loss of a mate for an adult or the divorce of the parents for a child."

Psychiatrist Loma Flowers claims that a dream about Cold War Russia represents repression in a close personal relationship, including self-repression. If Darth Vader appears in your dreams you may be feeling that you are hiding behind a mask.

Some dreamers see Prince Charles in their dreams, and usually this represents an rigid authority figure who withholds affection from others; while Princess Di may represent an isolated and unhappy person despite an outward image of popularity and success (although a few years ago she would have instead been simply a glamorous and attractive figure).

Dreams for Sale

Have you ever wished you could take control of your dreams? In America you can now buy, for a cool $999, something called a DreamLight which claims to be able to help you experience lucid dreams, that is, dreams that you know at the time are dreams. In a lucid dream your self-awareness changes the nature of the dream, making it a striking imitation of waking life and taking you to the point of elation or despair.

Steve LaBerge's DreamLight apparently tells your brain when you are dreaming. It is a special mask containing a computer that detects REM and alerts you to this by flashing lights that then appear in your dream. Armed with the knowledge that you are dreaming you can then direct the dream with full awareness. For those of you with lesser resources, a device known as the DreamLink is also being marketed. For $195 this will simply give you cues as to when you expect to be dreaming.

A similar product recently went on sale in Britain. Dr Keith Hearne's Dream Machine costs in the region of £200 to £250. Dr Hearne worked for many years at the Medical Research Council, studying the role of dreams in consolidating memories, before setting up his own research organisation in 1987.

It was there that he developed his Dream Machine because "I believe in the mentalistic universe, half of which is at present shut down to us. We spend approximately two hours - 25 per cent of each night - dreaming. This adds up to six years of brilliant creation over a lifetime, which we throw away and ignore instead of using it to enhance our lives."

Since Beethoven and Mozart recomposed music they had heard in their dreams and Robert Louis Stevenson dreamed the story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as a complete work, Dr Hearne may have a point.

Indeed, Einstein is reputed to have remarked that creative scientists are the ones with access to their dreams, the implication being that in order to innovate the scientist, like anyone else, must break the grip on his imagination that our powers of logical-seeming story-telling impose. We must be willing to subvert the conventional wisdom on which our everyday competence depends, letting free association reign.

The Dream Machine works in a different way to the DreamLight, monitoring the pattern of your breathing rather than eye movements in order to detect dreams. When an REM period is detected an alarm, in the form of four electric impulses to the wrist, alerts the sleeper to the fact they are dreaming and without waking them up. As soon as the dream is finished and before it has faded, a second alarm wakes up the dreamer so that he or she can write it down.

After several months practice, dreamers are able to take complete control of their dreams, becoming the 'director' of a dream rather than a mere 'spectator', and they may eventually be able to achieve lucid dreams without use of the Dream Machine.

However, some scientists are less enthusiastic about lucid dream technology, warning that Nature may not have intended dreams to be recalled in a systematic fashion: "It is better to dream peacefully and then forget them. They are a mish-mash of the day's events and are there just to keep your brain entertained," says Professor Jim Horne of Loughborough's sleep research unit.

The School of Dreams

Americans can also study their dreams in the more formal surroundings of the Delaney & Flowers Dream and Consciousness Center in San Francisco. This college was founded in 1981 to train people in problem solving and the development of new ideas through a practical understanding of dreams.

Students study common dream themes and interpretive techniques and learn how to focus on a problem the night before so that the following morning they will wake up with a solution. Five-day workshops cost upwards of $600, while those unable to attend a course can call a 24-hour premium rate telephone hot-line for an instant interpretation of their latest dream.

The Nightmare Scenario

Do you suffer from nightmares? Well, you are not alone. According to research by James Wood and Richard Bootzin of the University of Arizona, nearly everyone has nightmares, particularly young adults and those under stress.

Wood and Bootzin asked 220 undergraduates to keep a log of their dreams for two weeks. Their conclusions were that the average student has 24 nightmares a year, and that in a state of anxiety you are much more likely to remember your dreams.

In fact, during particularly stressful periods you are twice as likely to experience nightmares. However, there is still plenty of scope for research in this area: "There have almost been fewer studies on nightmares than sequels about the ones on Elm Street," quips Wood.

Issue 2: Contents | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9