If you dream about winning
the lottery or having an accident, should you prepare? If you answered
"yes," you’re not alone, according to a study published in the
February 2009 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The
researchers ran six experiments, finding that not only do we put stock in our
dreams, we also judge dreams that fit with our own beliefs as more meaningful
than ones that go against the grain.
"Psychologists'
interpretations of the meaning of dreams vary widely," study researcher
Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said in
a statement. "But our research shows that people believe their dreams
provide meaningful insight into themselves and their world."
Violent dreams can be
warning sign
As if nightmares weren't bad
enough, a rare sleep disorder causes people to act out their dreams, sometimes
with violent thrashes, kicks and screams. Such violent dreams may be an early
sign of brain disorders down the line, including Parkinson's disease and
dementia, according to research published online July 28, 2010, in the journal
Neurology. The results suggest the incipient stages of these neurodegenerative disorders might
begin decades before a person, or doctor, knows it.
Dreams help us solve
puzzles
Scientists have long
wondered why we dream, with answers ranging from Sigmund Freud's idea that
dreams fulfill our wishes to the speculation that these wistful journeys are
just a side rapid-eye-movement, or REM, sleep. Turns out, at least part of the
reason may be critical thinking, according to Harvard psychologist Deirdre
Barrett who presented her theory in 2010 at the Association for Psychological
Science meeting in Boston. She has found that our slumbering hours may help us
solve puzzles that have plagued us during daylight hours."Whatever the
state we're put in, we're still working on the same problems," Barrett
said, adding that while dreams may have original evolved for another purpose,
they have likely been refined over time for multiple tasks, including helping
the brain reboot and helping us solve problems
Men dream about sex
No surprise here, men are
more likely than women to dream about sex. And comparing notes in the morning
may not be a turn on for either guys or gals, as women are more likely to have
experienced nightmares, according to doctoral research reported in 2009 by
psychologist Jennie Parker of the University of the West of England.
In her study of nearly 200
men and women, ages 18 to 25, Parker found that women's nightmares could be
broadly divided into three categories: fearful dreams (being chased or life
threatened), dreams involving the loss of a loved one, or confused dreams.
This doesn't mean women have
no fun in their dreams. A study presented in 2007 at a meeting of the
Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) revealed that of about 3,500
home dream reports about 8 percent contain some form of sexual-related
activity. The most common sexual dream involved sexual intercourse, followed by
sexual propositions, kissing, fantasies and masturbation.
You can control your dreams
If you're interested in
lucid dreaming, you may want to take up video gaming. Both represent alternate
realities, according to Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan
University in Canada. Of course they aren't completely the same. While video
games are controlled by computers and gaming consoles, dreams arise from the
human mind.
"If you're spending
hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it's practice,"
Gackenbach told LiveScience in 2010. "Gamers are used to controlling their
game environments, so that can translate into dreams." Her past research
has shown that people who frequently play video games are more likely than
non-gamers to have lucid dreams where they view themselves from outside their
bodies; they also were better able to influence their dream worlds, as if
controlling a video-game character.
Dreams can take the edge
off
Taking the edge off may
require, not a stiff drink, but a trip to la-la land. UC Berkeley scientists
report in the Nov. 23, 2011, issue of the journal Current Biology that during
the dream phase of sleep (also called REM sleep), participants' brains showed
decreased levels of certain chemicals associated with stress.
"We know that during
REM sleep there is a sharp decrease in levels of norepinephrine, a brain
chemical associated with stress," study researcher Matthew Walker,
associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, said in a statement.
"By reprocessing previous emotional experiences in this neuro-chemically
safe environment of low norepinephrine during REM sleep, we wake up the next
day, and those experiences have been softened in their emotional strength. We
feel better about them, we feel we can cope."
BY: Rajeswary, Kuganesh, Anita Raj, Nageswarie
Tamil New Year
