Psychology Of Dreams
&
Sleep Disoders
Psychology of Dreams
• Dreams : a surrealistic mental movie in
which events frequently occur in a
jumbled up sequence
• 6 years of our life is spent dreaming
– Test your state of consciousness
– Can predict the future
– Trigger a memory long forgotten
Psychology of Dreams
• Dreams seem to be a mystery
– Can predict the future
– Trigger a memory long forgotten
– Sigmund Freud
• Believed a patients inner thoughts and forbidden
impulses could be found by analyzing dreams
• A symbolic expression of our unconscious conflicts
Dream Content
• Ordinary Events
– Family, Friends, work, or school
– Worries, fears, or feeling of inferiority
– 70% of dreams are about people we actually
know
– Bizarre dreams can occur (random firing)
– Symbolic & Representative
• Lincoln & Ford Theater
• 50% of our dreams are in color & the other 50%
are in black & white
Why do We Dream?
– Some believe it is the time when the
brain processes all the information of
the day
• Activation synthesis theory: the brains
attempt to make sense of all the
information processed
– Necessary Physiological function
• REM Sleep
– Sigmund Freud: manifest content &
latent content
• Believed a patients inner thoughts
and forbidden impulses could be
found by analyzing dreams
• A symbolic expression of our
unconscious conflicts
Nightmares & Sleep Walking
• A frightening dream that only
happens In frequent
• REM Rebound: an increase in
the number of dreams after
being deprived of REM sleep
• Too much alcohol or not
enough sleep
• during REM
• Sleep Walking & sleep talking
run in families
– Stage 4
Night Terrors
• A horrible dream
occurring during NREM,
when the body is not
prepared for it (incubus
attack)
– Physical overload sets
off major bodily changes
• Breathing rate zooms
• Person feels choked
• Heart-rate 170 beats perminute
• Fear of panic & dying
Sleeper usually springs up from
bed, sweating, nauseated, & afraid
Sleep Apnea, Insomnia &
Narcolepsy
• a disorder in which the person
will stop breathing during sleep
& reawaken because of it
– Snoring & less sleep
• Recurring problems in failing to
fall asleep
– Unnatural remedies do not help
• Uncontrollable sleep attack
lapsing into REM at any given
moment
– 1 in 2000 people suffer from it