The document discusses different theories of dreaming. It defines dreaming and different types such as daydreams and nightdreams. It describes gender differences in dream content and theories such as psychodynamic theory proposed by Freud that dreams represent unconscious desires in symbolic form. The activation-synthesis hypothesis proposes that dreams arise from random neural activation in the brainstem that the cortex interprets. Extensions to waking life theory agrees dreams relate to a person's daily concerns and emotions.

1. By Dr. Armaan Singh

2. DefinitionDefinition
 Dreaming is an alteration in consciousness in which
remembered images and fantasies are temporarily
confused with external reality.

3. DaydreamsDaydreams
 Typical part of waking consciousness, even though our
awareness of the environment around us declines while
daydreaming.
 2-4% of the population spend at least half their free
time fantasising. Studies that ask people to identify
what they are doing at random times during the day
have that that they daydream 10% of the time.
 Content is mostly mundane, ordinary events.
 Frequent daydreaming may seem to suggest
psychological difficulties, but there appears to be little
relationship between psychological disturbance and
daydreaming, except when the person is unable to
distinguish between fantasy from reality.

4. NightdreamsNightdreams
 Most dream four or five times a night
 Spaced out 90 min apart; appear to become more vivid,
bizarre and illogical as REM becomes increasingly
dominant.
 First dream lasts for only about 10 min, but the last dream
averages about 30 min, although it may last for as long as 50
min.
 Usually have several characters, involvement movement
(running or walking), more likely to occur indoors than
outdoors, more often unpleasant than pleasant, mostly filled
with visual sensations rather than taste, smell or pain.

5. Calvin HallCalvin Hall
 Collected over 10,000 dreams and concluded most
dreams reflect the events that occur in everyday life
(Hall, 1966)
 There are gender differences, although whether those
differences are caused by hormonal/genetic influences,
sociocultural influences or a combination of influences
remains to be seen.

6. Gender differencesGender differences
 Girls and women tend to dream about people they
know, personal appearance concerns and an emphasis
on family and home.
 Boys and men tend to have more male characters in
their dreams, which are also typically outdoors or
unfamiliar settings and may involve weapons, tools,
cars and roads.

7. Lucid DreamingLucid Dreaming
 Sometimes people are aware that they are dreaming, even
though they are asleep- called lucid dreaming
 The lucid dreamer can direct the dream, they can exert
some conscious control over their dream
 Hearne (1981) conducted a series of experiments in which
people learned to control their own dreams by receiving a
mild electrical buzz to the wrist when they entered REM
sleep
 LaBerge (1992) suggests one way of increasing lucid
dreaming is if you awaken from a dream in the middle of
the night, immediately return to the dream in your
imagination, then envision yourself recognising the dream.

8. Night Dream TheoriesNight Dream Theories
 Psychodynamic Dream Theory
 Activation-Synthesis
 Extensions to Waking Life

9. Psychodynamic TheoryPsychodynamic Theory
 The idea that dreams express unconscious wishes
or impulses, influenced greatly by Sigmund Freud
 Freud examined the dreams of his patients,
believing that conflicts, events and desires of the
past would be represented in symbolic form in the
dreams
 Believed dreams ‘protect sleep’ by providing
imagery that would help keep disturbing, repressed
thoughts out of awareness
 Freud separated dream content into two levels:
Manifest and Latent

10. Manifest vs LatentManifest vs Latent
 The MANIFEST CONTENT of a dream is the
actual dream itself. E.g. If Betty had a dream in
which she was trying to climb out of a bathtub, the
manifest content is exactly that – she was climbing
out of a bathtub!
 The LATENT CONTENT is the true meaning of
a dream lay hidden and was only expressed in
symbols. E.g. in the dream, the water in the tub
might symbolise the waters of birth, and the tub
itself is her mother’s womb. Betty may be
dreaming about being born in Freudian terms

11. Dream Symbols in PsychodynamicDream Symbols in Psychodynamic
TheoryTheory
 Male genital organs:
Airplanes, fish, neckties, tools, weapons, bullets, hands, poles,
trains, feet, hoses, snakes, trees, fire, knives, sticks, umbrellas
 Female genital organs:
Bottles, caves, doors, ovens, ships, boxes, chests, hats, pockets,
tunnels, cases, closets, jars, pots
 Sexual intercourse:
climbing a ladder, entering a room, climbing a staircase, flying
in an airplane, crossing a bridge, riding a horse, driving an
automobile, riding a roller coaster, riding an elevator, walking
into a tunnel or down a hall, dancing

12. CriticismCriticism
 No scientific evidence yet to show dreams express
forbidden urges.
 Freud did not recognise that some dreams were trivial
or unimportant, representing a continuation of
ordinary waking events, rather than symbolic
representations of something more meaningful

13. Activation SynthesisActivation Synthesis
HypothesisHypothesis
 Using brain-imaging, Hobson and McCarley (1977) have
found evidence that dreams are products of activity in the
lower brain stem.
 This lower area inhibits the neurotransmitters that would
allow movement of the voluntary muscles while sending
random signals to the areas of the cortex that interpret
vision, hearing and so on.
 When signals from the lower brain bombard the cortex
during wakefulness, this process results in an experience of
reality. During sleep, the signals from the brain stems are
random and not necessarily attached to actual external
stimuli, yet the brain must somehow interpret these random
signals.

14. Activation SynthesisActivation Synthesis
(cont’d)(cont’d)
 It synthesizes an explanation of the cortex’s
activation from memories and other stored
information.
 Result is less realistic because it comes from within
memories and experiences of the past. The frontal
lobes, which people normally use in daytime
thinking, are more or less shut down during
dreaming, which may also account for the
unrealistic and often bizarre nature of dreams.
 No need for dream interpretation because they
arise from random activation on neurons.

15. REVISING ASHREVISING ASH
 Criticism: A survey questioning subjects about
their dream content concluded that much of the
content of dreams is meaningful, consistent over
time, and fits in with past or present emotional
concerns rather than bizarre, meaningless and
random.
 Hobson revised ASH to reflect concerns about
dream meaning, calling it the activation-
information-mode model (AIM) where the brain
uses bits and pieces of the person’s experiences
from the previous day or the last few days to create
a dream.

16. EXTENSIONS TO WAKINGEXTENSIONS TO WAKING
LIFELIFE
 Agreeing partly with Freud, many therapists and sleep-
dream researchers believe that dreams are extensions of
waking life, including thoughts and concerns, especially
emotional ones.
 Rosalind Cartwright (1988) found that dreams of people
undergoing divorce seem to be about past marital problems;
in contrast, the dreams of those who are happily married
reflect many themes. In one sense, Cartwright is updating
Freud’s idea that dreams are the “royal road to the
unconscious.” She studies dreams in a sleep laboratory, and
like Freud, she would see dreams as providing clues to the
person’s problems, concerns, and emotions.