Submitted to sleep, we turn into another dimension of our existence, the symbols and mechanisms of which seem mysterious. Let’s try to decipher them by referring to modern data from neurophysiology and psychoanalysis.
Interest in this topic did not arise yesterday: in the British Museum you can see the papyrus found in Thebes 1350. BC. e., where more than 200 dreams are recorded with appropriate interpretations. But understanding of dreams still causes controversy and excites many of us. Let’s try to answer ten of the most interesting questions about dreams.
1. Is there a technique that allows you to remember dreams?
Yes, sure. However, if you forget your dreams, then probably because they have never paid them serious attention. Who is to blame? A culture that, if you leave aside psychoanalysis, does not attach much importance to dreams, and modern life: in the morning we are raised by the alarm clock, and we get up too quickly, afraid to be late for work. And since dreams occur at the end of the natural cycles of sleep, they immediately drown in mental activity in reality.
Some unconsciously block the process of recalling, so as not to meet with the suppressed side of the psyche. In addition, it turned out that in the “quick sleep” phase, which is just accompanied by dreams, there is no synchronization of the hippocampus neurons (the brain departments where the memories are formed) and neocortex (where they are stored). Perhaps that is why we do not remember what we dreamed of.
The best way to recall your dream is to start an alarm 15 minutes earlier than usual, stay in bed so that the images pass before the mental gaze, and write down what they saw. The more time we devote to this, the more we write down, the better we can remember the dreams.
2. What happens at night in my brain?
Every night it consists of several sleep cycles of 90 minutes each. At first, drowsiness is replaced by a superficial dream, after which the first cycle begins: a deep “slow dream” occurs without dreams, which is replaced by a “quick sleep” with dreams, accompanied by quick eye movements. In the newborn, “quick sleep” is half the total time of the sleep cycle, in children under two years old-30-40%, and in adults-15-25%.
3. When I imagine something on the verge of sleep and appear, is it a real dream or not?
Not really. Real dreams are unconscious mental activity, and when we dream, consciousness floats according to the will of imagination, but we more or less retain control over it. In this state, the brain generates alpha waves, as before falling asleep, but their frequency is slightly lower.
When they say that the child “hovers https://globalpharmacy24.com/drug/vidalista-professional in the clouds”, he is in alpha waves mode. The same is true for relaxation. Then, as the body relaxes, we spontaneously have strange images called hypnagogical: this is the invasion of the dreaming component of “quick sleep” into a wakefulness state. Such borderline states include walking in a dream (lunatism), narcolence (a tendency to fall asleep in the middle of the phrase), “memories” about the abduction by aliens.
4. Can an extraneous noise affect my dreams?
During sleep, the ears do not turn off! Otherwise, it would be more difficult for us to wake up in the morning. In the same way, the words, the sound of a fallen object, any rustle may well integrate into the plot of a dream and even change it. If you are in a state of superficial sleep, then even very weak sounds can wake you up.
A pleasant or unpleasant odor, someone’s touch, a flash of light also affect. If you are sharply woke up, you may have a condition known as the inertia of sleep in which the person is completely disoriented: he socially woke up and considers himself ready to fulfill everyday tasks, and functionally, he still sleeps. This is one of the options for violation of the boundaries between sleep and reality.
5. Why still needed dreams?
For neurophysiologists, this is a secret so far. As, however, why do we sleep at all. Of course, every scientist has his own hypotheses in this regard. In the books “Castle of Dreams” and “The kidnapper of dreams”, the classic of modern Somnology, Michel Zhuva, writes that “quick” sleep serves for genetic brain programming: it allows you to form the basic forms of behavior of our species in the baby, and the adult to maintain them.
And the Nobel laureate Physiologist Francis Scream believes that dreams are needed to forget: at that moment all the impressions accumulated in the day and the impressions are reorganized so as to eliminate some memories and preserve others.
According to psychoanalysts, each of us has such desires and impulses that are replaced, because they are unacceptable for consciousness. In this case, energy requires discharge, and with the help of a dream, the brain is freed from the emerging mental stress. Therefore, Freud calls the dream "royal path to the unconscious".
6. I often dream of nightmares. How to get rid of them?
Nightmares are dreams of fear, pain or inexplicable anxiety. These painful dreams that everyone periodically dreams can be caused by many reasons: unresolved conflict, bodily clamps, too dense dinner. They become a problem only if you wake up every night with a cry and cannot fall asleep more, because you are afraid to see a new nightmare.
Archetypes arise in dreams when our psyche needs to replace the unacceptable situation of the one that suits it more
In this case, we are talking more about post-traumatic nightmares that help to overcome unbearable emotions caused by misfortune (such as war, natural disaster, sexual violence, auto and airline. ). They require the help of a psychologist.
But everyone is capable of dealing with "normal" nightmares. For example, you can independently do work to visualize painful scenes, thereby depriving them of a dramatic intensity, and then outplay in a positive way. So from nightmares they do not "get rid", they are resolved as a problem.
7. I see symbols not from my life in a dream. Why?
Elements of everyday life make up only from 30 to 40% of the content of dreams. In relation to the rest of Karl Gustav Jung in the work “Man and its Symbols” explains that these are the so -called archetypes. He divided the unconscious of each person into two "territories".
Personal unconscious – a product of life experience and experiences of each of us. And the collective unconscious is a real ocean of information generated by all human experience from the beginning of time. It was in it that universal symbolic topics, archetypes gradually crystallized.
Dragon, great mother, hero, wise old man, fish, sand – these are just some of the thousands of existing archetypal images. A hero killing a dragon, baptism, cosmic disaster – these are already archetypal motifs. They arise in dreams when some problem sets them in motion and when it is necessary to replace the psychologically unacceptable situation of the one that arranges the psyche more. So these symbols also belong to everyday life, only they must be deciphered.
8. Can I interpret my dreams myself?
Yes, but for this you need training! Freud showed that a dream is not just a rebus, as they thought before it, it is connected with the individuality, with how we are arranged. In addition, the interpretation of symbols significantly varies depending on whether you adhere to the Freudian, Jungian, Adler or Transpersonal approach. And also depending on the circumstances in which you are.
9. I already happened to see a disaster in a dream before it happened. This is what a special gift?
Prophetic or telepathic dreams are, of course, something exceptional. But the fact that they are rare does not mean that they are not at all. For more than forty years, numerous experiments have been conducted in this area. The most fame were studies by the American psychoanalyst Ulman. They show the existence of foreboding and telepathy in a dream.
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