PHILOSOPHY OF DREAMS AND SLEEPING:
Physiological theory of dreams
Markku Roinila
J. Allan Hobson and his group
 J. Allan Hobson has been the foremost
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researcher on dreams in modern
neuropsychological science.
Has a large group of researchers with a sleep
lab.
Argues for brain-activation model of dreaming
which surpasses all interpretative claims of
dreams. It is a strongly eliminative theory.
Works: The Dreaming Brain, New York: Basic
Books, 1988.
Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep,
Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002.
A concise and polemical introduction to his
views is Dreaming. A very short introduction.
Oxford 2002.
Definition of dreaming
 Hobson et. al.: Dreaming is…
[m]ental activity occurring in sleep characterized by
vivid sensorimotor imagery that is experienced as waking
reality despite such distinctive cognitive features as
impossibility or improbability of time, place, person and
actions; emotions, especially fear, elation, and anger
predominate over sadness, shame and guilt and sometimes
reach sufficient strength to cause awakening; memory for
even very vivid dreams is evanescent and tends to fade
quickly upon awakening unless special steps are taken to
retain it.
Pre-history of modern brain activation model of
dream psychology
 Freud is the most important
psychological theorist of dreams in the
early stages of the discipline
 Most important works: Project for a
Scientific Psychology (1895); The
Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
 Modern scholars often think that Freud
was looking for a scientific experimental
method for the research of dreams, but
he was 100 years too early. For this
reason he was forced to resort to
speculative philosophy.
Differences between Freud and
modern psychology of dreams
Dream phenomena
Psychoanalysis
Activation–synthesis
Instigation
Repressed unconscious
wish
Brain activation in sleep
Visual imagery
Regression to sensory
level
Activation of higher
visual centres
Delusional belief
Primary process
thinking
Loss of working memory
resulting from DLPFC
inactivation
Bizarreness
Disguise of wishes
Hyperassociative
synthesis
Emotion
Secondary defensive
response of ego
Primary activation of
limbic system
Forgetting
Repression
Organic (Physical) amnesia
Interpretation
Needed
Not Needed
Problems of interpretation of dreams
 Thus the main difference to
contemporary brain research
method-employing psychology is that
whereas in Freud’s model
interpretation is always needed, in
modern psychology the test results
are what counts.
 Hobson is right that interpretation of
dreams is difficult to validate
scientifically.
 Interpretations are necessarily
subjective and can be used to wrong
purposes. For example, if dreams are
thought to represent the sickness of
the body the can be read as an
encoded message about the future
from Gods (pagan or christian). In
this ways medicine men can mislead
people, gain power etc.
Freud’s position
 This was no problem for Freud who thought
himself as a professional who could interpret
dreams and show how they represented the
psychological problems of a patient. The
professional could tell the patient things they
could not know themselves as unconscious in
dreams is in a constant war with the
consciousness.
 Hobson argues that this kind of system is really a
religion (despite the fact that Freud was an
atheist himself). It is based on faith in an agency
that gives hidden directives, which can be
understood only through the the intervention of
someone who could interpret the ”message”.
 Hobson is right, but the same could be said
about anyone trying to interpret the dreams as
long as scientific methods cannot do the task.
Further criticism by Hobson
 According to Hobson, Freud’s work suffered from two fatal scientific defects.
 First, an absence of relevant brain science and Freud was aware of that
 Second, Freud’s data was insufficient and focus narrowly fixed. Freud made no
attempt to collect dream reports himself (other than his own dreams and there
are not many, around 40). He could have collected more.
 Furthermore, Freud ignored two important predecessors. David Hartley
thought that dreaming served to loosen associations that otherwise inclined to
become obsessively fixed, that is, woud lead to madness. Herman Hemholtz
took a formal approach to dreams.
Dreams and sexuality
 Freud attributed dreams to
sexual content. They
represent a displaced sexual
desire. These are unconscious
wishes, which come up when
the ego is weakened by sleep.
 For example, flying in dreams
(remember Fellini’s 8½ and
Hitchock’sVertigo) represent
this kind of sexual wish.
Some admissions
 Robert Stickgold (who has studied
especially remembering dreams and is
part of Hobson’s dream-team): Freud
was 50% right and 100% wrong.
 Hobson: Freud understood rightly that
dreams have a primitive emotional
character which are loosely connected
to mental content. In dreams we can
find elation, joy, happiness, love, fear,
anxiety, panic as well as primitive
actions such as fighting, assaulting,
shooting, sex, escape.
 Dreaming reminds us that we have
powerful instincts, emotions and even
inclinations to madness that must be
held in check during waking hours.
No sex, please, we’re neuroscientists
 But the modern view is that Freud was wrong: dreams are not wish fullfilment
and there is a lot less sex and positive emotions than he thought.
 It is also objected by Hobson that Freud saw the unconscious as compelling, but
sneaky and devious element which was trying to overcome the conscious
elements in the mind and which therefore has to be suppressed.
 However, if it is supposed that dreams reveal rather than conceal emotion and
instinct, cencorship of the unconscious is misleading and erroneous. Thus
dreams are not symbols of something else like sexual wishes. Dreams are what
they are.
 In this respect it is interesting that the dreams of men and women are found in
sleep lab tests to be strikingly similar to each other. One would perhaps think
that men’s dreams would be more aggressive and women’s dreams more
emotional and tender, but this is not the case. In fact, emotions are equally
important in the dreams of men and women.
Hobson’s critique in a nutshell
 We do not dream because our unconscious wishes or drives
would, if undisguised, wake us up. We dream because our
brains are activated during sleep, and we do so even if our
primitive drives are turned on by that activation. It is the
specific neurophysiological details of that activation process,
not psychological defense mechanisms, that determine the
distinctive nature of dream consciousness. We need to accept
our dreams, our fears, and our rages for what they are:
expressions of brains activation in sleep and in waking that
have their own deep and compelling reasons for being.
Implications
 This has naturally larger implications than just the philosophy
of dreams. Hobbes and his colleagues strive to argue that the
development of brain research will significantly alter not only
psychology, but also philosophy of mind. One wonders: what
is left for the philosophy of mind discuss if it is accepted that
all phenomena of the mind can be reduced to brain activation
or inactivation?
 This is in fact one of the leading ideas of this course – how to
have a philosophy of dreams if dreaming is just reduced to
brain activation.
Modern scientific psychology on
dreams
 For modern scientific psychology, research of dreams is all about the activities of the
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brains. Therefore it is more interested in the form than the content of dreams. The
approach is formal and analytic rather than interpretetive.
In a way, however, it approaches the classic philosophical question of what distinction can
be found between the dreaming and the waking state of man as we will see.
When something is especially vivid, certain parts of the brains are activated and when
something is confused (for example, if a person has features from two different persons),
there is a certain amount of inactivity of some parts of the brains. Thus in dreaming
(compared to waking) some mental functions are enchanged while others are
diminished.
Within this paradigm, dreams are defined as mental activity occurring in sleep. This is
indeed hard to object: it is clear that when we are sleeping, what happens is mental, not
bodily, although it might be that bodily movements affect the dreams.
The mental activities vary a a lot. For example, we may have the feeling that we are
moving (for example, driving a jetplane) although we are immobile in bed when
sleeping. We may have anxiety dreams (for example, related to work or upcoming social
event). Or the dream may be hallucinatory, having no apparent relation to reality.
Development of modern method
 Although the development of
modern scientific psychology
would have advanced with only
direct observation, the invention
of EEG (recording of brain
waves-technology)
revolutionized the sleep
research. It was invented by the
German Adolf Berger.
 With EEG-graphs one can study
the activation and inactivation of
brain neutrons. To put it plainly,
in modern dream science
waking and dreaming are two
states of consciousness, with
differences that depend on
chemistry.
Sleep basics: NREM and REM-sleep
Through the EEG-graphs it was found that there
are two kinds of sleeping: NREM and REM-sleep.
 An anxiety dream has to do with emotions and is
a typical example of a NREM-dream which is a
low-level brain activation dream and takes place
often when there is only a short time between
falling sleep and waking up. The term NREM
means that there is no rapid eye movement
during sleep (non-REM sleep).
 A hallucinatory dream is a typical example of a
REM-sleep which involves rapid eye movement.
It is dramatic and complex, bizarre and
hallucinatory and may contain delusions. It is also
a long dream, about eight to ten times as long as
the two other dreams. The REM-sleep fully
includes the elements we attribute to dreams:
rich and varied perceptions and hallucinations,
delusional acceptance of the wild events as real
despite their improbability and physical
impossibility, bizarreness following from
discontinuity, emotional intensity (fear, elation,
and exuberance) and poor reasoning and logical
invalidity.
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Sleeping and waking
 In previous times it was thought the
brain is just switched off during sleep.
Sometimes, but not very often we do
indeed sleep without seeing any
dreams.
 In times of stress the mental activity
continues all the night. It is also that we
can see dreams almost the whole time
when we are sleep, not only just
because we wake up as has often been
thought.
 It is true that nightmares or other
unpleasant dreams can wake us up.
 Modern brain research has also shown
that although external stimuli such as a
sound, smell or suchlike can affect our
dreams, but not necessarily and the
dreams are certainly not dependent on
those influences.
Sleeping animals
 The brain activation is similar in all mammals, so in sleep laboratories
one can study with animals, such as cats on sleeping and dreams. It is a
more difficult question whether animals have dreams or not.
 This is related to the question, popular since specially 17th century, of
whether animals have a consciousness or not. I will return to the
philosophical views later, here it suffices to say that most contemporary
scientists think that animals have some kind of limited consciousness
which is very different from men as they lack language and the capacity
for propositional or symbolic thought. On everyday experience, it
would seem that animals do have dream as their behavior sometimes
looks like reflecting dreams in the same way as humans do. But so far,
science does not provide answer to this question.
 However, what is known is that Rem-sleep always involves intense brainactivation and occurs in all mammals.
Sleeping babies
It is good to observe babies because REM-sleep
starts in them immediately as they start sleeping
and the brain activation is more intense and less
inhibited than in adults.
 We don’t know if babies dream. It seems possible,
though. If babies do dream, their subjective
experience cannot possibly be of the same quality
as that of adults.
 According to empirical tests, the accounts of
dreaming that are similar to those of adults start
to appear at about age three, when the infant is
acquiring language and propositional thought. This
would suggest that children start to dream when
they start forming propositions which again would
hint that there is a connection between reason and
dreams. Thus brain activation would perhaps not
be quite enough to produce full-scale dreams.
 However, the dreams might be important to the
development of the the child – the frequency of
REM-dreams in babies would seem to point at
that direction. However, it takes until around the
age of seven when most of the formal adult
dream characteristics are reported.
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Sleeping proportions
 The proportion of sleeping changes in our lifetime, as does the proportion of REM and
NREM-sleep. The REM-sleep takes place most of the time in fetuses and new-born
babies. The idea may be that the brain is developed exactly in these stages of the
development. After 26 weeks, waking increases progressively until the death.
 How much sleep is needed, then? This varies very much from person to person. Some
need 4-6 hours sleep per day (for example, Thomas Edison, the inventor) and some 8-10
(many writers, for example Proust & Graham Greene who have written on dreams), the
average is 6-8 hours.
 Sleep deprivation show in that one has difficulties in being attentive and being efficient.
In addition, one tends to have intense, bizarre dreams more often than when one has
slept well.
 Sleep deprivation may cause mental problems and therefore it is difficult to measure –
the scientists would not want to experiment with mental sanity, at least if they are
themselves sane. However, many have found that in extraordinary circumstances men
can survive for a surprisingly long period without sleep or with reduced amount of sleep
although in the long run sleep deprivation will without doubt produce various problems
even to a very healthy and mentally strong person.
Functions of sleep
 Sleep is essential to life itself.
About two weeks of severe
sleep-deprivation will produce
serious problems to our
functioning normally.
 Our skin starts to break down
and we feel cold. We lose weight
however much we eat.
Eventually, within a month, we
start dying because of
infections.
 Sleep is essential in refreshing
our body, in maintaining its
resistance towards bacteria and
to maintaining our body
temparature.
Functions of sleep
 Philosopher Owen Flanagan has argued in his Dreaming Souls that dreams
do not have any real function in human life. We know already by
experience that we have a vivid emotional life and it seems to be the fact
that dreams do not have much effect to our waking life.
 Many psychologists (and some philosophers such as Locke) argue that
sleeping and dreams help us to organize our cognitive material and to
refresh our cognitive abilities. In this sense dreaming help us to update
and clean our hard disk, so to speak, clean unnecessary memories,
integrate new experiences to old ones, update memories and so on. In
addition, brain activation during sleep may have a developmental role
which goes on all through the life.
 According to Hobson, also the most important survival instincts (which
involve emotions and memory) are also connected to sleeping. We need
to know how to approach the opposite sex, when to mate, when to be
afraid, when to run for cover. These are the skills that sleep refreshes
every night of our lives by activating our brains, with no regard for the
details of our conscious memory.
Nightmares
 Nightmares and generally frightening
or negative dreams (such as running
away from some monster) contain
strong and intense negative emotions. If
we spontaneously wake up from a
dream, it usually contains
predominantly anxiety, fear or anger.
Therefore the nightmares are simply
caused by the intense negative emotions
in dreams.
 The physiological answer to nightmares
is that there is an area in the brain
called limbic brain which is activated
when this happens. So there is an area
in the brain which, when activated,
produces nightmares in the same way as
activation of some other areas in brain
produce pleasure and positive dreams.
 Nightmares take place mostly in the
REM-phase of sleep, so the nightmares
are usually very vivid and often bizarre
or surrealistic.
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Night terror
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Difference between nightmares and night
terror.
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Night terror is a pure emotional experience
which takes place when we awaken from sleep.
They are usually associated with NREM-sleep
and can be related to post-traumatic stress.
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Night terror affects the body very strongly: the
heart starts pounding, breathing rate increases
and the blood pressure arises. We wake up
sweating and in terror without remembering
any dreams. These kind of night terrors are
typical in ex-soldiers, for example.
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The nigtmares, in contrast to night terrors, are
perfectly normal. They are normal phases of
REM-sleep, suggesting that the maintenance of
these emotional systems of the brain help us to
develop our survival skills and thus may be one
of the functions of brain activation in sleep.
Other disturbances of sleep
In addition to nightmares and night terrors,
there are other disturbances such as sleep
walking, sleep talking and tooth grinding.
 They are called as parasomnias, movement
behavior that occur during sleeping. Also
these phenomena are functions of the
activation of brains, this time because of
activation in subcortical brain tissue which is
related to motor systems of a human.
 These parasomnias take place during
NREM-sleep – they are normal human
functions except that instead of taking place
while we are awake, they happen when we
are sleeping.
 They are not dreaming in a proper sense –
their cause is partial brain activation which is
enough to support movement, but not
enough to support waking. In this sense
sleepwalking and sleep-talking have features
of both sleeping and waking.
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Sleep and movement
 Motion takes place also when the areas of the brain are not activated. For
example, in REM-sleep there is not a lot of motion (except the eyes under the
eyelids). But then the activation of motor area of the brains are actively blocked
exactly to prevent motion. This makes sense as it is impossible to fall to sleep if
we are not immobile. Try falling to sleep while walking!
 Movement is controlled by several levels of the brains. The upper level of the
brain which gives us voluntary control over movement during waking, is pretty
much out of the loop during sleep. The lower structures, of which many are
necessary for movement, may however be activated while the upper brain is
inactive. This leads to a kind of automatic movement which is what happens, say,
when the need to go to bathroom makes one sleepwalking and trying to urinate
in a garden or in some other place which is not the toilet where we in the
waking state do this kind of action.
 A fairly newly found sleep disorder is REM sleep behavior disorder. In this
strange syndrome the person enacts his or her dreams through movement. For
example, one may dream of being swimming and five away from the bed or
throw ball throw moving one’s hands. This happens in the REM-phase of the
sleep. Apparently many persons who have this disorder are inclined to suffer the
Parkinson disease later on.
Dreams and indigestion
 In the past it was thought that dreams are the result of bodily affections such as
indigestion. According to modern brain science, this is simply wrong. Of
course, if one has a stomach ache, or has eaten or drunk too much, the
processing of the food and resulting chemical disturbances are likely to
lead to awakenings, and these awakenings may be associated with dream
recall. When one is lying asleep in such states of gastrointestinal brain
activation, it is not unlikely that mental content will be related to the
dietary indiscretion.
 In fact the day’s external events have very little place in the genesis of
dreams. Freud thought that dreams were triggered by recent memories,
but the modern psychologists find that recent memory enters into
dreaming very little. Fragments of episodic memory of biographical
events are incorporated, but whole recollections are never reproduced
as such. Instead, only partial fragments of recent memories enter into
dream construction and, along with other materials from remote memory,
become part of scenarios created entirely from scratch as brain activation
proceeds.
Sleep and mental illness
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Hobson argues that dreaming is a psychotic
state as much the psychotic states we
experience while being wake.
The internally generated perceptions have
the hallucinatory power needed to make us
hopelessly delusional.
Dream halluzinations make it impossible for
us to realize that we are in the grasp of an
altered state of consciousness. We are sure
that we are awake and believe our senses and
the associated emotions despite the
bizarreness, incongruities and discontinuities
which would immediately disturb us if we
were awake.
“Pinch me, I’m dreaming!”
Formally speaking, severe mental illnesses
and dreaming are identical. In both the
question is of brain activation, physical
changes in brain states.
But there is an easy cure: just wake up!
Sleep and mental illness
 Psychosis is a mental state characterized by hallucinations and/or delusions.
Delusions are possible without hallucinations. Dreams, again are most like
organic mental illnesses, for example deliriums which follow from drugs or
high fever. We may not know what day it is or where we are. We may have huge
gaps in memory. Thus in a sense we are delirious when we are dreaming. This
would, again, lead to the conclusion that dreams are only confused noise, not
having any significant meaning or cognitive information.
 Hobson: ”Going to sleep entails the enabling of a distinctive brain activation
process akin to delirium: delirium is state that we thought we could get only be
being bad or by taking drugs such as alcohol, amphetamine, or atropine, or by
outliving our brains – in the senile conditions of old age. Suddenly we find out
that it happens to all of us, every night of our lives, and probably more when are
being good than when we are being bad, and more when we are younger than
when we are old!”
 Delusions are sort of chemical imbalance
Dreams, memory and learning
 The common
misconception that our
dreams are black and white
is due to poor memory.
 We dream in color. In the
thousands of lab dream
reports, there is not a
single instance of wellrecalled dream being in
black and white, as would
be expected if this were
indeed normally the case.
Dreams and Learning
 There is a theory according which the function of dreaming is to re-organize
memory during the sleep. The most well-known theorist in contemporary
psychology is Robert Stickgold.
 The idea in this theory is that dreams are composed of memory fragments
which seems to be supported by recent experiments with REM-sleep although
even more recent experiments show that NREM-sleep is equally important to
men.
 The research in this area is developing: the learning and memory processes that
sleep may affect have been better characterized and differentiated. Also, thanks
to progress in basic sleep neuroscience, the brain dynamics that appear to
support the differentiated aspects of learning and memory are now known in
enough detail to allow modelling of the sleep learning process.
 So although there is an interpretation that dreams do not really have any
significant function in human life other than maintaining our self-survival
behavior, there are also views according to which dreaming can help us in
learning and memory. However, this learning and memory reorganization does
not necessarily have to be conscious – it may happen without us ever being
aware of it.
Memory re-organization in sleep
 So far, the modern science does not know the rules of the
memory re-organization. We can only hope that advances in
technology and brain science can some day reveal the rules to
us.
 Experiments with animals (especially with rats who are quick
learners) show that REM sleep increased when rats were
exposed to new learning. Preventing REM-sleep, again,
impaired learning. However, however quick learning can be,
it can take several days and possibly a week until new
information is used to change one’s methods of doing things.
Learning is simply not a very quick process and it is typically
unconscious.
Recurrent dreams
 We may have recurrent dreams
concerning exams or teaching or any
other activity which includes
performance to other people.
 They usually contain strong emotions
or anxiety which is related to the
feeling that one is not prepared
properly to do what one is supposed to
do. Thus it is no wonder that we have
anxiety about performing – if we can’t
remember what to do or say, we fail in
the performance.
 Another kind of recurrent dream may
be related to learning. For example,
when one is learning something new,
say, a game (tetris, for example), one
may see in dreams fragments of the
learning activity.
Lucid dreaming
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Sometimes dream events are so incredible as to
make us wonder if we are awake or not. This disbelief
can be increased and converted into the recognition
that we are, in fact, dreaming.
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When we are awake, we can check on our knowledge
very easily. We are able to make voluntary movements;
we are able to control our thoughts; we can pinch
ourselves and see that we feel things and are
behaving in relation to external stimuli.
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In dreaming, we normally lose this self-reflective
awareness; we are unaware of the state that we are in;
we are unable to control our thoughts; and we are
unable to make critical judgments.
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During dreaming, some individuals become
spontaneously aware that they are dreaming. This
occurs naturally in children who are aged eight
and above, and continues through adolescence.
Later, it is difficult to rely on spontaneous
occurrence of self-awareness during dreaming sleep.
Inducing lucid dreams
 Lucidity can be induced by techniques that anyone can follow.
 I put a notebook by my bedside along with a pen to record dream experience and
then, before going to sleep, I tell myself that, being a normal human being, it is likely
that I will have two hours of absolutely fabulous dreaming tonight. To tune in on
some of it I am going to notice when bizarreness occurs.
 I tell myself to notice things that could never occur in waking but typically occur
in dreams, namely the changes of times, places, and people (especially the unusual
occurrence of unidentified characters, characters with the qualities of one person
who suddenly have those of another, and so on). This fluidity of the orientation
functions – time, place, and person – is what is going to tell me that I am dreaming.
 When I am successful, a part of my brain–mind wakes up and I am able to notice that I
am dreaming and say so to myself. Having done so, I have created a kind of dissociation:
part of my brain is in the waking state and part is in the dreaming state. And
then I can have a lot of fun. I can watch the dreams, I can induce awakenings so as
to increase my recall, and, best of all, I can influence the dream content. I can do
whatever I please; well, almost whatever. I can certainly fly and can have
whatever sorts of intimate relationships I choose with my other dream characters.
This is usually enough to make people quite proud and pleased to have achieved
lucid dreaming.
 Does this sound believable? Have anyone tried?
Criticism of Hobson
 Although Hobson has refined his theory
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over time, it is still basically reductive
in the sence that all the phenomena of
the mind have a corresponding scheme
of brain activation.
Sometimes Hobson argues as the brain
is the object of mind phenomena
This would make the mind redundant –
if all we think, reason, will etc. Is
nothing but brain activation, where do
we need the mind for?
Arguably the dreams present us with
interesting things – one might think
that they are something more than just
neurochemistry
What else?
Other psychological theories
 We have discussed the views of Allan J. Hobson and his team.
 Although Hobson is by far the foremost theorist of dreams in
modern psychology, there are some alternative theories
which are founded on the same kind of experimental science.
 I will briefly discuss alternative theories such as evolutionary
psychology theory, psychosomatic theory, expectation
fulfilment theory and the theories of Solms and Foulkes.
Solm’s criticism
 Mark Solms is a clinical
neuroanatomist, so he shares
Hobson’s basic approach.
 However, he has shown that there
are dreams also in NREM-phase of
sleep (Hobson earlier thought there
was only REM-dreams) and that
they are not always dependent on
brain activation.
 The basic approach however is that
brain activation is the explaining
cause of most dreams. Solms is not
interested in the content of dreams.
 Difference with towards Freud:
whereas Hobson thinks dreams are
related to psychosis, Solms argues
that they are wish-fullfillment.
Adler: Dreams are emotional
preparation
 A pioneer for the
evolutionary psychology
theory of dreams (discussed
next) was perhaps Alfred
Adler (1870-1937) who
suggested that dreams are
often emotional preparations
for solving problems,
intoxicating an individual
away from common sense
toward private logic. The
residual dream feelings may
either reinforce or inhibit
contemplated action.
Evolutionary psychology theories of
dreams
 Many (incl. Philosopher Owen Flanagan and Hobson) argue that dreams serve no
specific purpose. They are just epiphenomena (In philosophy of mind, epiphenomenalism
is the view that mental phenomena are epiphenomena in that they can be caused by
physical phenomena, but cannot cause physical phenomena; In medicine, an
epiphenomenon is a secondary symptom seemingly unrelated to the original disease or
disorder.). Hobson argues that the substance of dreams have no significant influence on
waking actions and most people get on well without remembering their dreams.
 This view is objected by evolutionary psychologists who believe that dreams surve some
adaptive function for survival.
 Deirdre Barrett describes dreaming as simply "thinking in different biochemical state"
and believes people continue to work on all the same problems—personal and
objective—in that state. Her research finds that anything—math, musical composition,
business dilemmas—may get solved during dreaming (we will see that some Early
Modern philosopher anticipated this view).
 In a related theory by Mark Blechner, titled “Oneiric Darwinism," dreams are seen as
creating new ideas through the generation of random thought mutations. Some of these
may be rejected by the mind as useless, while others may be seen as valuable and
retained.
Antti Revonsuo: threat simulation theory
Finnish psychologist Antti Revonsuo posits
that dreams have evolved for "threat
simulation" exclusively.
 According to Threat Simulation Theory
much of human evolution physical and
interpersonal threats were serious, giving
reproductive advantage to those who
survived them. Therefore dreaming evolved
to replicate these threats and continually
practice dealing with them.
 In support of this theory, Revonsuo shows
that contemporary dreams comprise much
more threatening events than people meet in
daily non-dream life, and the dreamer
usually engages appropriately with them.
 It is suggested by this theory that dreams
serve the purpose of allowing for the
rehearsal of threatening scenarios in order to
better prepare an individual for real-life
threats.
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Psychosomatic theory of dreams
 Tsai developed in 1995 a 3-hypothesis theory that is claimed to provide a mechanism for
mind-body interaction and explain many dream-related phenomena, including hypnosis,
meridians in Chinese medicine, the increase in heart rate and breathing rate during REM
sleep, that babies have longer REM sleep, lucid dreams, etc.
 Dreams are a product of "dissociated imagination," which is dissociated from the
conscious self and draws material from sensory memory for simulation, with feedback
resulting in hallucination. By simulating the sensory signals to drive the autonomous
nerves, dreams can affect mind-body interaction. In the brain and spine, the autonomous
"repair nerves," which can expand the blood vessels, connect with compression and pain
nerves.
 Repair nerves are grouped into many chains called meridians in Chinese medicine. When
some repair nerves are prodded by compression or pain to send out their repair signals, a
chain reaction spreads out to set other repair nerves in the same meridian into action.
While dreaming, the body also employs the meridians to repair the body and help it
grow and develop by simulating very intensive movement-compression signals to expand
the blood vessels when the level of growth enzymes increase.
Expectation fulfilment theory of dreams
 Joe Griffin (1997): expectation fulfilment
theory of dreams.
 Dreaming serves to discharge the
emotional arousals (however minor) that
haven't been expressed during the day,
thus freeing up space in the brain to deal
with the emotional arousals of the next
day and allowing instinctive urges to stay
intact.
 The expectation is fulfilled, i.e. the action
is 'completed', in the dream but in a
metaphorical form, so that a false
memory is not created.
 The theory satisfactorily explains why
dreams are usually forgotten immediately
afterwards: as Griffin suggests, far from
being "the cesspit of the unconscious", as
Freud proclaimed, dreaming is the
equivalent of the flushed toilet.
David Foulkes on child dreaming
 Foulkes and his team have researched the dreams
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of children around twenty years.
He rejects the common idea that children have
dreams from infancy in the same form as later.
This is supposed to be because children have more
REM-dreams than adults and formerly it was
thought that we can see dreams only in REMphase of the sleep.
Foulke’s results show that younger childre (3-5
years old) dream very little – around 15% of
REM-awakenings elicited dream reports
Until 9-11 years only about 30% of REMawakenings resulted in dream reports
Years 12- frequency increases swiftly to typical
adult rate of 80%
The results seem not to be dependent on verbal
skills - Foulkes argues that it is not likely that the
younger children were having rich dreams but
failed to remember or describe them well.
Consequences
 Instead, along with the development of narrative memory and theory-of-mind
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capacities, the gradual development of a rich visual-spatial imagination may
be among the key cognitive prerequisites for a fuller dream life.
Therefore Foulkes would conclude that we learn dreaming as we develop:
“Dreaming is an organizing, constructive process which requires cognitive
sophistication, and is continuous with waking cognitive and emotional life.”
Foulkes argues that dreaming is at heart an organizing process, a high-level
symbolic skill, and a form of intelligent behaviour with cognitive prerequisites.
The virtual world we inhabit in dreams is one which we have constructed,
though usually without either voluntary control or current sensory input.
This would naturally go against Hobson and Solms – one cannot “learn” brain
activation – it is there at least in an early age if not in infancy.
Foulkes has been critisized on the test conditions – do children dream in the
same way in the laboratory as in home? Etc. Problems with reliability of dream
reports in children etc.