Dreams
AP Psychology
Dreams
Occur most often in REM sleep.
 A story like episode of unfolding mental imagery
during sleep.
 No one really knows why we dream.
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Brain structures
• Brain stem
• Amygdala
• Hippocampus
Dreams
Purpose of dreams according to….
• Bio= necessary for healthy brain functioning
• Cognitive= dreams are meaningful mental
events, reflecting on important events or
fantasies.
• Others= dreams have no real meaning
Remembering and Forgetting
Why can’t we remember our dreams?
• Frontal lobe is inactive during the REM stage
• Serotonin and dopamine are greatly reduced
during REM sleep
Why do we remember?
• If you wake up during the dream
• People who are good at visual details when they
are awaken…higher rate of remembering their
dreams
• bizarre, vivid, or emotionally intense
What do we dream about?
(Hall, 1966, collected data about 10,000 dreams)
• Most are in color
• Research shows:
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Children dream about large animals more than adults
Women dream about children, family, and home
Men dream about aggression, weapons, tools, cars
Men dream more about other men, women dream about
women and men equally
– Men have more sexual dreams, usually with unknown and
attractive partners
– American’s dreams are more aggressive compared to other
cultures
– Falling and being naked are common in dreams
5 Theories of Dreaming
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1 – Freud
2 – REM Cycle
3 – Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis
4 – Crick Mitchinson View
5 – Memory Consolidation Theory
#1 Freud
• 1900 – The Interpretation of Dreams
• Conflicts, events, and desires of the past are
represented in symbolic forms in a dream
• Manifest Content – story line of dream
– Vs.
• Latent Content – symbolic meaning of dreams –
according to Freud the true meaning.
• Freud believed that we must analyze dreams to
discover the latent content.
• No solid scientific support for Freudian dream
interpretation.
#2 REM Cycle
• First REM period, dreams deal with recent
experiences (everyday issues)
• Second REM period, dream may be based on a
theme from the first dream
• Final REM period, dream may have a remote
connection to the first and second dream
#3 Activation-synthesis hypothesis
• Dreams represent an attempt by the cerebral
cortex to make sense of the random
discharges of electrical activity that occur
during REM sleep.
• Cerebral cortex creates a story line based on
the individual’s store of knowledge and
memories to explain these random signals
and the emotions/sensory experiences they
generate.
A-S hypothesis
• Supporters:
• Dreams often make no sense and are
disjointed.
• Arguments against:
• No direct evidence and sometimes dreams do
make sense
#4 Crick-Mitchison View
• Theory: we dream to forget, unravel those
neural nets…dreams’ function is to take out
the mental trash.
• “get rid of our stress”
• Supporters: we cannot always remember our
dreams
• Arguments against: no direct evidence and
sometimes we do remember events
Memory Consolidation Theory #5
• Dreams help us remember and process events
of the day.
Supporters:
• We wake up with problems solved and events
are sorted out. “sleep on it” expression
Arguments against:
• No direct evidence and sometimes we wake
up with nothing resolved.
• So, there is not much evidence to
support any theory about why we
dream.
• Writing prompt: In no less than a
half page and no more than one
page explain:
– which of these 5 theories makes the
most sense to you and why.
– Which of these 5 theories makes the
least sense to you and why.
– Use evidence from your own
personal experiences with dreams
to support your argument.