Evolutionary Psychology Sleep Dreams

On why we have dreams and the functions of dreaming

The psychology of dreams has been explained either with the psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams or with the psycho-physiological procedure of dreaming. Thus there are two distinct schools in the psychology of dreams – one school of thought believes in the relation amongst REM sleep and dreaming, the role of dreams in learning and as a result of random neural firings further leading to random images that may not have any significance; and the other school of thought believes that dreams occur as a result of unconscious and repressed impulses and could be explained with psychoanalytic symbolism and in turn also explain psychic phenomenon or even lead to understanding the causes of mental illnesses.

According to Freud, ‘dreams are the royal road to the unconscious’, in the sense that they could be analyzed in a way that will disclose the concealed impulses in the unconscious. Dreams may therefore disclose who we ‘really’ are, what we ‘really’ want and how we want to attain these desires. Yet a great deal of contemporary psychologists have moved away from this ‘semantic’ view of dreams that emphasize on repressed desires and ‘meanings’ of dreams, and have suggested that dreams occur plainly due to random neural firings in the brain when the body is at rest and these random firings formulate images in the brain.

There are various stages in sleep and the REM sleep is the final stage. Dreams are related to this REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep and we tend to have various dreams in one night altho we forget closely all these images. We don’t act out these images because for the duration of the procedure of dreaming, the body undergoes temporary paralysis which is a protective or bodily defense mechanism versus any external injury.

Dreams according to psychology is likewise a defense mechanism as all repressed desires which could have destructive effects on our psyche are freed through the routine of dreaming, so both physiologically and psychologically, dreams have defensive or protective functions helping in release of exuberant stress, traumatic thoughts, repressed impulses as also protect the body from external injury. Dream recollection and control through the routine of lucid dreaming and hypnosis as employed more ofttimes by traditionalisti psychotherapists are not too frequent any more though these processes provide more perceptivenesses into images in dreaming and how these could be evoked or elicited in psychotherapeutic sessions or could be remembered and interpreted to provide more access to the unconscious.

The physiology of REM stage of sleep may be competent to provide answers as to why we dream of sure images yet this mechanism would be unable to explain incisively why these specific images occur. Some theories have suggested that sure repressed thoughts and desires or repeated occurrences could manifest in dreams through images. Sometimes trauma or any event with significant aroused value could lead to repetitious dreams with the same images. Considering existent literature, I suggest that dreams could have five important functions – a clinical function of explaining mental illness, a cognitive function of aiding learning, an adaptive function of restoring body mechanisms, a cathartic function of freeing traumatic or repressed sensations and a defensive function of providing a protective shield to the mind and the body.

So dreams could in truth be explained both from psychoanalytic and psycho-physiological perspectives. In fact we have to grasp psychoanalysis and psycho-physiology and integrate determinations with regards to dreams from both these fields to reach a comprehensive understanding of these mental processes.

The five functions of dreams are given here and the basic thesis of a comprehensive dream theory must be based on all these five functions.

Clinical Function of Dreams - Some psychologists believe that dreams are closely related to mental sickness and that galore post traumatic dreams represent anxiety and prolonged or repetitious traumatic dreams could suggest firstborn sensations or changes of mental disorder or failed physiological functions in the body. In fact numerous mental impairment of normal physiological functions could be traced back to sure dreams and we may even understand the origins or causes of mental disease by studying why sure dreams take place in sure people. The clinical value of dreams has been recognized in psychoanalysis even though the full potential of this function has not been very clear in physiology. Further scientific exploration is required to comprehend the role of dreams in explaining, preventing or even curing mental or physical illnesses. Dreams could spotlight issues of brain disorder, brain ailments and hormonal changes in the body and could have clinical value in identifying a good deal of diseases and unnatural conditions in the body.

Cognitive Function of Dreams - Dreams are utile in learning and scientific studies have proved that they play a cognitive role in children who have a lot of more dreams and increased REM sleep than adults, thence children tend to learn while dreaming and dreaming and REM sleep could likewise have a positive effect on learning physical skills. This might explain how dreams could also provide perceptivenesses into troubles as solutions and a lot of discoveries, inventions and novel ideas emerge in dreams. Dreams show respective future prospects or potentials in our thought procedure and through permutations and combinings provide cognitive solutions to galore of our life goals. Dreams could thence be very effective learning tools, aid in self understanding and realization and improve and consolidate cognitive abilities.

Adaptive Function of Dreams - Dreams help us to adjust to our environs and though the evolutionary vantage of dreaming is not clear or has not been studied extensively, the fact that we proceed to dream and even learn and defend ourselves through dreams makes dreaming an primary share of our passive and active life. The adaptive function of dreams is notwithstanding physiologically beneficial as it helps restore bodily mental and physical balance. Although this remains a disputable viewpoint, the finish psychological and physiological vantages of dreaming will have to be studied from an evolutionary perspective.

Cathartic Function of Dreams - Dreams are highly cathartic. They release stress, and through symbolic representation of images, purge out our fears, our impulses and urges and help us to confront our own mental lives. Dreams are more than the ‘royal road to the unconscious’, they are basic shields for our own defense and release. The thoughts and emotions that may be too dark, traumatic, shameful or dangerous for real life are manifested in dreams and support us to confront realities. Psychoanalytically dreams represent wish feeling of satisfaction and a great deal of images in dreams like elongated objects for example, are considered symbolic of sexual organs. It is notwithstanding arguable whether all dreams are a type of wish feeling of satisfaction and galore dreams could merely be a release of anxiety or completely the opposite of any wish fulfillment. If you repeatedly dream of your own injury or injury of close ones, you are plainly freeing your unconscious anxiety through the dreams which in turn may support you to function better and be more cautious in reality.

Defensive Function of Dreams - This is affiliated to the cathartic and adaptive functions of dreaming as when we release through catharsis, we likewise adjust to situations and this in turn provides a defense or shelter for the mind and body to proceed functioning without hurt or hindrance. Although this conception is nonpopular amongst a lot of psychologists, dreams may have strong defensive functions. While we dream, the physiological changes in the body such as release of glycine, an amino acid spotlight a defensive mechanism and both physical and mental annoyances could be freed through dreaming, providing in turn a shield for the body and mind. Dreams are thence not just the ‘royal road to the unconscious’, they are necessary covers or shields to protect the mind or body versus excess stress. Just like your boiling kettle has provisions to release excess steam, dreams too serve as a regulatory mechanism to release all excesses from the mind and body.

Dreams are in the end mind’s excretions. The view that dreams have no evolutionary vantage and that they have no functions has been endorsed by numerous scientists, yet if we look deeper into the annals of psychology, the signification of dreams in explaining mental life can not be overlooked. Only further exploration in physiology, imaging proficiencies and psychotherapy delving into the psychology of dreams would be capable to tell us why we dream and whether dreams are rudimentary or regulatory.

Review”McNamara comes to the difficult issues of dream exploration with a fresh eye that allows him to take into account all the applicable new determinations in both neuropsychology and content analysis, and the result is an firstborn and highly originative synthesis that transcends the tired orthodoxies of the past. Even if his provocative theory does not prove to be the whole answer, his book is a major contribution because it will stimulate new exploration directions and strength everyone to rethink their current assumptions.”-G. William Domhoff Research Professor University of California, Santa Cruz

Evolutionary Psychology Sleep Dreams Pic

Evolutionary Psychology Sleep Dreams Picture

Evolutionary Psychology Sleep Dreams Photo