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Essay on sleep deprivation and mental health
Essays on dreams in psychology
Essays on dreams in psychology
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Sleeping and Dreaming
Despite the large amount of time we spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however. Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of (sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased. The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely as well. The Ancient Greeks had surprise dream encounters with their gods. Native Americans turned to their dreams for guidance in life. Shamans dreamed in order to gather information from the spirits.
Sleep and dreams have defined eras, cultures, and individuals. Sigmund Freud’s interpretation of dreams revolutionized twentieth-century thought. Historical archives record famous short sleepers and notable insomniacs—some accounts reliable, some not. When Benjamin Franklin counseled, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” he was using sleep habits to symbolize his pragmatism.
Important public policy issues have arisen in our modern 24-hour society, where it is crucial to weigh the value of sleep versus wakefulness. Scientific knowledge about sleep is currently insufficient to resolve the political and academic debates raging about how much and when people should sleep. These issues affect almost everybody, from the shift worker to the international traveler, from the physician to the policy maker, from the anthropologist to the student preparing for an exam.
In 2004–2005, the Penn Humanities Forum will focus on the topic of “Sleep and Dreams.” Proposals are invited from researchers in all humanistic fields concerned with representations of sleep, metaphors used to describe sleep, and sleep as a metaphor in itself. In addition, we solicit applications from those who study dreams, visions, and nightmares in art or in life, and the approaches taken to their interpretation.
We also welcome proposals about the effects of dreaming on the dreamer, and the resulting emotions, behaviors, and actions taken or foregone in response to dreams.
In this Forum on Sleep and Dreams, we will see how the diversity of academic disciplines can help to answer important questions about sleep and dreaming—questions that may touch the basis of human intellect. The Forum is fortunate in...
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...stingly, the same type of brain arousal takes place whether people actually do finger tapping or only imagine it.
What surprised Sutton most, however, was detection of remarkably similar activity in much larger networks spanning areas of the cortex dealing with both input from the senses and output signals to the muscles.
"Patterns of activity in small, more primitive areas of the brain are recapitulated in larger, more advanced parts," Sutton says. "This means that nature did not have to develop new rules of operation for different levels of the brain from small clusters of cells to large systems."
In other words, as the brain evolved from a thimbleful of cells in a worm's head to the billions of cells with trillions of connections in humans, many of the same principles of organization were retained.
Those similarities make it infinitely easier to make computer models of the brain. "We already have built models which allow us to understand what is going on more quickly," Sutton notes. "Many types of mental illness may result from disorders of this organization. Understanding the details of what is happening will allow us to help real people with real suffering."
Stephen King’s perception in “The Symbolic Language of Dreams” gave me a new, profound insight on dreams. On the other hand, his interpretations also made me realize how little is known about them and their significance to our lives.
However, the human brain is not that simple, which makes it even more sensitive and fragile to outside forces...
...re, innovation to speculation, the human brain is a jumble of nerves and tissue like no other. It has not only brought humans to the front of the world stage in comparison to all others, it has given us the ability to do so much more than think it gave us the ability to be human.
When Vilayanur Ramachandran, one of the most prominent neuroscientists of our time, was asked how he came to be interested in the brain, he replied “How can anyone NOT be interested in it? Everything you call 'human nature' and consciousness arises from it”. I could not agree more. After all, the complexity and efficacy of the brain is what differentiates homo-sapiens from other species. It is where war and peace originate, love and hatred exist, religions created and destroyed; the source of our sensations, feelings, memory, action, creativity and communication; it is the epitome of humanity and the keeper of the soul. And what can be more challenging than to specialize in the human brain?
It is very important that people dream if they want to remain in good health. Sleepers can cycle through five stages of sleep continuously throughout the night, one of the most important being Rapid Eye Movement (REM). REM sleep can last for up to five minutes at a time, and is entered multiple times throughout sleep. On the other hand, the brain stem, which controls a person’s emotions, memory, and desires, is very active during sleep. However, the “reasoning brain” is shut down. A person’s brain also cuts off all signals from the senses and blocks messages sent to the muscles, which prevents someone from acting out his or her dreams (Andre-Clark). Dreams occur during the REM phase, the most restful time of sleep. For this reason, scientists have concluded that dreaming is beneficial to an individual’s health. Robert J. Hoss, author of Dream Language, states, “dreaming is...
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and synthesize the articles discussing the various aspects of the unconscious mind, its defenses, and dreams as a means to gain a look inside. The synthesis argues that gaining a better understanding of one's unconscious mind, its defenses, and the tools to look inside, can allow an individual to grow personally and professionally and to become a better a complete, well-rounded individual.
(Scientists have discovered that there are a large number of internal brain structures, which work together with the input and output brain structures to form fleeting images in the mind. Using these images, we learn to interpret input signals, process them, and formulate output responses in a deliberate, conscious, way.)
Everybody in the world requires sleep; although, not everybody requires the same exact amount. There is no answer as to why some people need more sleep than others, but the fact of the matter is that in order to live a productive and healthy life, everyone needs sleep. In fact, research has shown that humans should get a minimum of eight hours of sleep each night, which would ultimately be one third of a person’s total lifespan. Unfortunately, studies show that on average people only get seven and half hours of sleep per night, and one third of the population gets even less than that. Loss of sleep causes many poor side effects. People fail to realize that sleep is a very important time of the day, if not the most important. It is the time for our body and brain to not only recover, but also rejuvenate. Sleep is the time for our minds and bodies to release emotion and consolidate new memories. This enables humans to remember the past, organize the present, and anticipate the future. To this day, sleep is a very contemplated and questioned subject in today’s society, and yet no one has an exact answer to the tricky questions that have become a major issue in today’s up-tempo lifestyle. People need to realize the importance that sleep has in human life, the effects that lack of sleep can have on a person during work, school, and even driving, and how society can adapt as a whole to become overall healthier.
Austin based filmmaker Richard Linklater recently released a movie that is a dream. By that I mean both that it is about a dream, and that it is dreamlike. "Waking Life" received mixed reviews, but it also sparked new interest in an idea that has actually been around a long time: lucid dreaming. In this paper I intend to explore the concept of lucidity in dreams, and to concentrate on the research of Stanford University's Stephen LaBerge, who has used lucid dreaming as a tool to better understand the biological phenomena of sleep and dreams.
Cartwright, R.D. (1978) A primer on Sleep and Dreaming. Massachusetts : Addison - Wesley, Publishing, Company
The ancient Babylonians thought dreams were messages from supernatural beings, and that the good dreams came from gods and that bad dreams came from demons. (1) Since then people have sought many different explanations for the occurrence and importance of dreams. Before beginning to understand the function or significance of sleep and dreams, it is important to look at when, what, where, and how dreaming and sleeping occur.
As long as humans have existed, sleeping (and everything that comes with that) has held a certain fascination with aspects simply too complex to fully comprehend. The interest goes way beyond the conclusions that comes from modern technology. Research is being conducted on a global scale to answer some of the most basic questions about our subconscious. There are topics that stretch from physical science, sleep stages, types of dreams, lucidity, effects of sleep deprivation to ancient theories and relic Egyptian dream books. All of these subjects come with some controversy, since clearly all human beings do not have the same brain.
One of the most persistent topics that often holds humanity’s interest is the actuality and purpose behind their own biological functions. Many hold a desire to grasp and understand the concepts of how their body and brain works, and the evolutionary purposes behind every facet of the human existence. Among the most explored functions exists the process of sleep, one of the most mysterious quirks that have puzzled evolutionary biologists for generations. While many understand some basic science associated with sleep, the average person knows so little about the neurological and physiological science and purpose behind it. Many levels of comprehension and theory exist past the layman’s understanding of what sleep is and why it exists. Even though
Pressman, Mark R., and William C. Orr. Understanding Sleep. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1997.
How often have you ever woken up and wondered why sleep is needed in the first place and questioned the importance of it? Those are very popular questions that many humans ask today, as sleep is an essential part of a person’s health and wellbeing, yet people all over the world each night do not get enough sleep. This research essay will be looking at the nature of sleeping, the importance of getting a good night’s rest and the consequences if a person does not get enough sleep. A good night's sleep is incredibly important for health and making a person feel better. Sleep is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, and can have many beneficial factors for the body, mind, and so much more as “ an average human sleeps