Essay Example on Dreams: Hallucinations During Sleep and Their Impact on People

My topic of interest is how we dream. The reason behind choosing this topic it's because people are affected adversely by dreams. Some of the people experience sleepwalking, and others experience talking out loud while in their dreams without even realizing it. The databases having crucial information about my topic is ProQuest, Wiley Online Library, and Google Scholar. Dreams are hallucinations that occur during some specific stages of sleep. Researchers find it hard to explain how we dream and the role of dreams. One of the reasons identified by researchers regarding how we dream is that the brain is always active even while sleeping. More importantly, the thoughts and dreams experiences makes little or no sense at all. Based on previous research, 95 percent of all dreams that people get are quickly forgotten shortly after waking up (Proulx, 2018). The logic behind dreaming is that the emotional centers of the brain are responsible for triggering the dreams instead of the logical regions. Nevertheless, there is no definitive proof about why we dream, dreams are normally autobiographical based on recent conversations, activities, or other aspects in a person's life. Despite this, there exist various theories that explain how we dream. This paper will discuss various articles concerning how we dream.

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The first article to consider is "The effect of dream report collection and dream incorporation on memory consolidation during sleep." The main aim of the study was to find out the impact of collecting dream reports on memory consolidation during sleep (Carr, Pinto, Edwards, & Malinowski, 2019). The article indicated that gathering dream reports involves wakening people up from their sleep. Nonetheless, it is not clear if the awakenings affect the sleep-related memory consolidation process. The research compared the performance of the subject's memory after a night with awakenings and without through a test involving associating words with a picture. The participants of the study were 22 years old and healthy, free from any physiological problem. The researchers also assessed if the stimuli from the learning activity were incorporated effectively into the dreams and if it had an effect on the activities performance the following morning. The results of the research presented that though the awakenings affected sleep quality, it did not have an impact on the sleep-associated memory. Moreover, dreams which were recorded at night through awakenings incorporated learning activities into the dreams. On the other hand, dreams recorded in the morning did not incorporate any learning tasks. The study concluded that awakening methods in recording dream reports are necessary and important for conducting memory and dream researches. Additionally, the research suggested that dreams in non-rapid eye movement have a relationship with developments of memory consolidation throughout sleep compared to rapid eye movement.

The other article in consideration is "The effects of dream rebound: evidence for emotionprocessing theories of dreaming." The main point of the study is to evaluate the effect of the dream rebound CITATION Sar18 \l 1033 (Schoch, Cordi, & Schredl, 2018). The article indicated that suppressing thoughts normally results in having rebounding effect both in the dreams and thoughts. The research also aimed in investigating if emotional valence of a suppressed thought has an impact on the dream rebound. Besides, evaluating if dream significantly has an influence on individual emotional response. The results of the research showed that unpleasant thoughts were more subjective to dream rebounds compared to having pleasant thoughts. Since the participants chosen were both men and women, the researchers found out that there exists differences among the two in terms of their dreams content. Men reported that they dreamt more significantly about cars, games, and weapons compared to women who reported that they dreamt more concerning clothing. Besides, men indicated that their thoughts and dreams had more physical activity and aggressive content compared to women. Furthermore, the results of the study showed that successful suppression and dream rebound have a positive effect on emotional response concerning pleasant and unpleasant thoughts.

The last article to consider is "The Effect of Visual Day-Dreaming and Music Therapy on Reducing the Test Anxiety of the University Students." The main motive of the research is to identify the influence of visual daydreaming on decreasing exam anxiety among college students (Polat, 2014). The research found out that though exam anxiety is favorable in motivating the learners to read, great levels of anxiety can lead to psychological problems and academic failure in some individuals. The students who were selected as participants formed three distinct working groups that included music therapy group, daydreaming group, and the control group. The study made sure that the three groups were homogeneous that comprised of income, marital status, gender, and age. Based on the results, the mean scores for persistent anxiety were high on the participants in the music group and control group compared to the visual daydreaming group. There were statistically significant differences in the visual daydreaming group compared to the other groups. To sum up, the study found that visual daydreaming was significant in decreasing exam anxiety among college students. Compared to the control group, students in the daydreaming group had low anxiety scores.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be indicated that the way people dream remains a mystery. There is little or no research on how individuals dream. Though there exist some theories on the role of dreams, there is no definitive proof about how we dream.

References

Carr, M., Pinto, A., Edwards, C., & Malinowski, J. (2019). The effects of dream rebound: evidence for emotionprocessing theories of dreaming. Journal of Sleep Research.

Polat, S. (2014). The effect of visual daydreaming and music therapy on reducing the test anxiety of university students. Archives of disease in childhood, 6-9.

Proulx, N. (2018). Dreams. New York: New York Times Company.

Schoch, S. F., Cordi, M. J., & Schredl, M. (2018). The effect of dream report collection and dream incorporation on memory consolidation during sleep. Journal of Sleep Research, 1-19.