Bitare, Joan Marie V.

BSP2A

1. Dreams: Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that dreams allow people to express
unconscious wishes they find unacceptable in real life. He drew a distinction between
the manifest content and the latent content of dreams. The manifest content is the
plot of the dream: whos in the dream, what happens, and so on. The latent content is
the dreams hidden meaning. According to Freud, the manifest content is a symbolic
representation of the latent content. In other words, the plot acts as a disguise that
masks the real meaning of the dream.
2. Different Kinds of Dreams & Its Interpretation
a. Daydreams: Studies reveal that the average person daydreams for a whopping 70-
120 minutes of their waking day. Daydreaming is an important part of dream
research. As with all types of dreams, you enter a kind of hypnotic trance and allow
your unconscious thoughts to rise to the surface. During daydreams, you are semi-
awake. Clearly not asleep - but not fully checked-in with reality, either. A daydream
starts with a compelling thought, memory or fantasy, and your imagination runs
away. The longer you daydream, the deeper you become immersed in your private
fantasy land. It's been suggested that people who daydream a lot find it easier to
lucid dream. That's because daydreaming is like practicing lucid dreaming while
you're awake - observing imagery in your mind's eye and directing the course of
your fantasy. In fact, visualization is one of my main lucid dreaming practices.
Daydreams have long been frowned upon as a waste of time especially in the high
pressured modern world where the focus is on constant achievement. But
daydreaming allows the dreamer to relax and take a break from the continuous
stress of everyday life. It also allows us to play back disagreeable situations,
perhaps and argument in the family or with the boss. In a daydream we can go back
on what was said and imagine a better outcome or ways of expressing ourselves to
greater effect. Daydreams could therefore be looked at as learning lessons for the
future.
b. Normal Dreams: These are your bog standard dreams where you have no idea
you're dreaming until you wake up. In a typical dream, you could be doing a rap
duet with the Pope and think nothing of it. You accept your dream reality as it is.
Everybody has normal dreams every single night. These dreams arise mostly out of
REM sleep and are essential to our survival. In fact, we would eventually die without
them. Assuming you get eight hours of shuteye, you will dream for about 100
minutes, with longer and more vivid dreams occurring at the end of your sleep.
Normal dreams offer insights from the unconscious mind, or even a second
conscious self; a silent observer (depending on which psycho-philosophy you
subscribe to). These insights are based on your thoughts and experiences from the
day before, sometimes memories from long ago, repressed fears and anxieties, and
your strongest desires and urges. It arrives in the form of conceptual imagery - the
coded language of the unconscious mind - which is what makes your dreams seem
so weird.
c. Lucid Dreams: They are rich and immersive and you can guide them into infinite
and beautiful worlds of your choosing. Lucid dreaming is the ultimate freedom.
 What defines a lucid dream? It's any dream in which, while physically asleep, you
also:
know that you're dreaming; and/or
can control the dream or direct your awareness
Sometimes I control lots of aspects of the dream - like the locations or characters or
plot. But my dreaming mind still fills in a lot of details on its own. Other times I let
the dream guide me and show me whatever it wants. I'm still lucid because I can
think clearly, acknowledge I'm dreaming, and experience the dream in real-life
intensity. Most people use lucid dreams to fulfill personal desires. But once you look
outside this feature, you'll realize lucid dreams offer brilliant insights into the
unconscious mind. They are rich and immersive and you can guide them into
infinite and beautiful worlds of your choosing. We have only just begun to examine
the process of lucid dreaming, having a conscious dream. There is some evidence
that the ancients from various cultures experienced lucid dreams but this is a
completely new concept in modern times. If you able to develop an ability to
experience this type of dream the possibilities are endless. Anything you care to
imagine can happen in your dream. Have you ever wanted to experience of flying
like a bird, to become a rock star, to meet people that you have known or would like
to know.
d. False Awakenings: False awakenings are basically very vivid types of dreams. Like
any normal dream, you assume you're awake, and you certainly don't know you're
dreaming (if you do, you're already lucid). It begins in your bedroom, or the last
place you went to sleep, or even a different bed altogether. You dream that you've
woken up for real and somehow your brain mimics every detail of the room, exactly
as it should be. Unless you question your reality (remember that reality check thing
I mentioned earlier) you don't stand a chance... It usually takes something quite
obvious to shock you out of these types of dreams. Maybe you look in the bathroom
mirror and see yourself 20 years from now. Or maybe you're driving down the road
and realize there are no other cars on the road. This is a kind of dream that is not
universal, but is very disconcerting to those to whom it happens. On the other hand,
it is also oftentimes a gateway to lucid dreaming, if you can recognize the signs that
you are not actually awake as such, instead of letting the nightmarish pseudo-
reality continue.
e. Nightmares: In nightmares, you don't know you're dreaming so the unconscious
mind processes everything as if it were really happening. Some nightmares can be
so vivid that the sensory system is triggered and you can feel certain types of pain.
It can be very unnerving. According to dream analysis, being chased in a nightmare
represents our evolutionary fear of being hunted. Children - who arguably feel more
vulnerable than most adults - report this type of dream the most. Studies show that
nightmares are usually caused by sickness, stress, trauma, and drugs or alcohol. A
nightmare is a dream that occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep that
results in feelings of strong terror, fear, distress and extreme anxiety. Nightmares
can happen to anyone at any given time of their lives. Generally your typical
nightmare will evoke negative emotional responses from the mind, typically the
anxious, fear or dread feeling. Nightmares and symbols in them can be unconscious
messages to the conscious alerting the dreamer to pay close attention to the
meaning. Constant nightmares might be classified under a type of sleep disorder. If
nightmares persist on a regular basis that stops you from getting a healthy sleep,
then it might be classified under a sleep disorder. Parasomnia falls under a
nightmare or sleep disorder that involves a series of abnormal jerks, emotions,
thoughts and behaviors while falling asleep, or during sleep stages. Most
parasomnias are dissociated sleep states which are partial arousals during the
transitions between wakefulness and NREM non rapid eye movement sleep. It can
occur during wakefulness and REM sleep as well.