Why and What Do Dreams Mean?

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Dreams

Thesis: We dream thousands of dreams every night, but why and what do they mean?

I. The basics about dreams

A. History

1. Ancient theories

2. Research

B. What is dreaming

1. Definition

2. Types

a. Insight

b. Lucid

c. Precognitive

d. Review

e. Gratification

f. Physical

C. Why do we dream

II. The Interpretation of dreams

A. Four stages

1. Understand content

2. Influence

3. Characterization

4. Order and context

B. Interpretation Today

1. Gestalt vs. Freudian

2. Outcome

III. Nightmares

A. What are nightmares

B. Types

1. Daymare

2. D-Nightmare

3. D-Sleep

C. How often

IV. Daydreaming

A. What is daydreaming

B. Two general categories

1. Elaborate fantasies

2. Recurring fantasies

C. Daydreaming frequency

1. Throughout life

V. Conclusion

Dreams

In my report I want to tell you about dreams. “Dreams are a communication of body, mind and spirit in a symbolic communicative environment” (www.sleeps.com). To make that statement easier to understand dreams are a review influenced by factors in your life and spirit (www.sleeps.com). Our brains are constantly active. It is always in different states like sleeping, awake, drowsy, alert, excited, bored, concentrating, or daydreaming (www.sleeps.com). Sigmund Freud believed “dreams are keys to the most secret parts of the mind (Coren 24). Dreams always occur while we are in a type of sleep called REM (Rapid Eye Movement) (www.geocities.com). All the things you dream about are a reflection of you life. They reflect your feelings, thoughts, desires, and your fears.

Interest in dreams are dated way back even to the time of the Greeks. “The people of the ancient world tended to believe that some dreams were sent by the gods to convey information to mortals” (Holroyd 44). They discovered “that a dream is not nonsense but information in disguise” (Holroyd 46). The Epic of Gilgamesh was one of the first known writings of dreams. Written four thousand years ago, about the experiences of Gilgamesh. For example, “Gilgamesh dreams that he is pinned to the ground by the weight of a god who has fallen on him. At another point in the story he and his companion Enkinu climb to the top of a mountain that immediately collapses.” These same kinds of images and situation are dreamed by people of today’s time (Holroyd 46). The Greek people even thought certain things in your...

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...iew of our everyday lives and that is the only thing that controls them. Dreams and the interpretation of them have been an interest of people since way back in the Greek era. Every time people are asleep they are dreaming and their dreams all show symbolism to their lives. Dreaming, either daydreaming or dreaming while you are asleep never stops. No matter what you will always have those visions in your head that deal with your everyday life. Through the research I done I answered all the questions I had about dreams, nightmares, and daydreaming. Although dreams seem really strange and you may wonder how they got there they are there for a reason. If you didn’t dream, your brain couldn’t express itself.

Works Cited

“Dream Basics”. www.sleeps.com/basic.html.

“Dreams Explained”. www.geocities.Area51/zone/4671/dreams.html.

“Why Do We Dream”. Dreamemporium.com/why_do_we_dream.html.

Hartmann, Earnest. The Nightmare. Basic Books Inc., New York: 1984.

Holroyd, Stuart. Dream Worlds. Doubleday and Company, Inc., New York: 1976.

Howell, Ken. Home1.gte.net/drmdoc/webdoc3.html. 1996.

Singer, Jerome L. The Inner World of Daydreaming. Harpe and Row, publishers, New York: 1975.

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