Dreams and Dreaming. What are they about? Where do they come from? What are their functions? How can people use them?

Transcription

1 Dreams and Dreaming Humans have been curious about dreams throughout recorded history and, we can speculate, well before then. Typical questions include: What are they about? Where do they come from? What are their functions? How can people use them? To which there have been a variety of answers. Part of the problem with finding answers is that dreams are so very private. All of us have our own dreams while asleep, and we are the only ones who can experience them. People have endeavored to share their dreams with others when awake by describing their recall of them verbally or, less often, by drawing them, acting them, or dancing them. Sometimes this recall occurs the next morning but often hours, days, or even years later. And almost always people report that they cannot completely and adequately do justice to their dream experiences in their dream reports. Also, there is not much that can be done to influence the content of recalled dreams (Domhoff, 1996). This diffic~ulty severely limits the experimental possibilities for manipulating dreams to see what they are all about. And it is not possible to independently check the accuracy of the dream recall, which constrains the ability to be certain of our findings about the contents of dreams (Domhoff, 1996). Additionally, it has always been obvious, just as it must be obvious to you, that dreams are not easily recalled. Sometimes we feel that we have recalled a dream perfectly and can describing it fully and accurately. More often, we know that we have related something of the dream but are frustrated that we cannot completely or adequately describe it because our words, or paintbrushes, or movements are insufficient to do the dream complete justice. Other times, we just cannot remember everything about the dream and have to settle for describing the parts we do recall. Then, most frustrating of all, are the times we know we dreamed but just cannot bring any of it

2 122 Part I11 into our waking memory. This inability to remember causes a problem of representativeness (Domhoff, 1996). We cannot be sure tliat tlie dream recalls we are able to collect for st~tdy are an unbiased sample of all dreams in all people. For centuries, these problems have limited the ability to study and understand what dreams are all about. That limitation did not stop people from trying to study and understand tliem, but until recently there was only a smattering of scientific researcli done on dreams and dreaming. The late 19th century marks the beginning of systematic dream research, for this period is wlien a few psychologists began to write down tlieir own dreams and then to study tlie nature of these recalls. But it was during tlie 20th century that tliere was an increase in interest within tlie scientific community in dreams. Starting with Freud's I?ztelpretatioiz of Dre'zms published in 1900 (see Chapter 8), there was great psychological interest that continues today. Just as important, there was another transition point in tlie mid-1950s, witli the discovery of REMS and its apparent association with dreaming, that stimulated broader interest in dreams and the process of dreaming. People sleeping in the lab could be awakened during or right after a period of REMS and immediately asked what was going through tlieir mind before they were awakened. Eighty to ninety percent of tlie time, they responded with a recalled dream. As a result, it was believed that scientists could get more dream reports and, since they were recalled immediately after they were experienced, much more accurate ones. This awakened interest in dreams and dreaming led to an explosion of research. Today, people in various academic areas including clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, biopsycliology, anthropology, brain research, religious studies, and literary criticism are doing researcli on dreams and dreaming for tlie purpose of trying to understand these things themselves (Bulkeley, 1996). Because of these efforts, we now have a greater and better understanding of dreams and the process of dreaming. But, as, we shall see, tliere is still considerable disagreement about the nature of dreams and dreaming. DISCOVERY OF REMS It was one of those discoveries of the serendipitous type that are surprisingly important in the history of science. Graduate student Eugene Aserinsky was working witli physiologist and pioneer sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman's in tlie sleep laboratory at tlie University of Chicago looking for slow eye movements tlirougliout sleep like those tliat had been observed wlien people fell asleep. But watching tlie eyes move under tlie eyelids during tlie wee hours of the morning was tedious. Therefore, they decided to record tliem electrically using EOG. To their surprise, they also found periodic occurrences of rapid eye movements during sleep. They then turned their attention to these periods of rapid eye movements and soon found tlie movements were associated with dreaming.

3 Dreams and Dreaming 123 Shortly thereafter, medical st~tdent Bill Dement joined Kleitman's lab and took over tlie st~tdy of these rapid eye movements. The team noted the apparent association of dreaming with rapid eye movement sleep that occurred every 90 to 100 minutes during the course of sleep. While it took several years for these observations to become recognized by the scientific community, once they were, many researchers were waking people up during REMS and recording their dreams for intensive studied. At first, it was eagerly anticipated that the study of dreaming during REMS would lead to an understanding of the unconscious mind, but that hope has not been borne out. Other research investigated tlie effects of REMS deprivation, thinking that they were investigating the effects of dream deprivation, which, at that time, was thought to be potentially psychologically devastating. Although it was found that this hypothesis also was wrong, much interest in sleep and dreams and good information about REMS came out of these misdirected experiments. Right from the start of research on the relationship between REMS and dreaming, researchers noted that they occasionally could get a dream report from awakenings out of NREMS. Nevertheless, the notion that dreaming only occurs in REMS was maintained then and generally persists today. One of the early explanations was that these NREMS dreams were not really experienced in NREMS but were memories of a dream left over from the recent REMS period. Later, others examined these NREMS dreams and concluded that there was mental content during NREMS, but it was, for the most part, not like REMS dreams. The reports coming out of NREMS were often shorter, blander, more vague, more oriented in the present, and lacking ongoing activity. They were more like a photograph, while REMS dreams were like a movie. But this did not satisfy everyone nor explain all of the data. Soon it was reported that it was not unusual to get a good dream report from people in the sleep lab who were awakened b4oi.e the first REMS period. Obviously, they were not left over from the prior REMS period, since that was many waking hours ago. Also, when corrected for length, nai've judges were unable to determine wliich reports were from REMS awakenings or NRELMS awakenings. At this point, the equating of dreaming solely with REMS apparently broke down. But not entirely, for RELMS awakenings more often resulted in dream recall than did NRELMS awakenings. Nielsen (2000) extensively reviewed 29 REMS and 33 NREMS studies of recall rate. The average RELMS recall rate was around 80% compared to an average recall rate for NREMS of around 40%. Also, there was still the qualitative difference; very many of the NREMS awakening recalls were shorter, blander, more vague, and lacking ongoing activity, but REMS awakening recalls were rarely of this type. It was not unusual for s~tbjects never to report a recall following NREMS awakenings in spite of multiple tries over several nights, which is rare following REMS awakenings.

4 124 Part I11 Because of data like these, it seems to some that much of tlie time something different is going on in NRELMS that is different from what is happening in REMS. So the debate continues even today (e.g. Foulkes, 1997; Hobson, Pace-Schott, & Stickgold, 2000; Nielsen, 2000). There is no issue about whether we dream when in REMS, but there is disagreement about wliat is going on in NREMS. Lab US. ''Home" Dreams There is another issue that has emerged. Once it was found to be possible to collect dreams in the lab by awakening people from REMS, tlie question was asked, "Yes, but wliat is the effect of tlie lab on tlie dreams?" I t was noted that images and references to the lab env~ronment were present In 20 to 10% of lab dream recalls. Could the lab liave otlier effects on the content of recalled dreams? Research was undertaken almed at answermg thls question. It was reasoned that the lab dream recalls were sampled, but liome dream recalls were selected, wliich could make a difference in content. That is, lab dream recalls were similar to having you wear a beeper and recording what was happening to you just every time the beeper went off, but home dream recalls were like asking you at the end of the day (or even days later) to describe wliat you experienced during tlie day. The beeper technique would probably produce a lot of bland, ordinary stuff, but the asking technique would more likely return tlie notable or unusual. I t was hypotliesized tliat it would be tlie same with dream recalls. Another hypothesis was tliat people would feel more inhibited in what they reported in tlie lab, a more public venue than liome. Research in tlie 1960s found just tlie differences predicted by botli hypotheses (Domlioff& Sclineider, 1999). Lab dream recalls are blander (e.g. less aggression, less sex, fewer misfortunes), and the way tlie dream recalls were gathered influenced tlie content. Yet, in otlier ways, lab and liome recalls were very similar in things like types of characters and presence of at least one bizarre element. Researchers in tlie 1970s endeavored to make tlie conditions for dream collection in the lab and at home more similar by using the same procedures in each. For example, in botli situations, an alarm clock would randomly awaken people from sleep, then tape record any dream recall. The result was the virtual elimination of the differences in dream recall content from the lab compared to the home. Also, reanalysis of some of tlie key 1960s data showed tliat tlie differences reported earlier were actually quite small in extent except for there being less aggression in the lab dream recalls. More recently, comparisons liave been made of sleep-awakening recalls with what was recalled of tlie same dreams the next morning. Contrary to expectations, saliency of dream content did not appear to be a factor influencing wliich dreams were recalled in tlie morning. However, there was a greater likelihood to (1) recall tlie dreams from tlie end of the night, (2) recall those tliat were longer, and (1) recall those with more emotional intensity (Domlioff, 2001).

5 Dreams and Dreaming 125 Today, it is realized that the setting and methods of dream recall collection can affect dream content, but this difference lessens the more similar the collection conditions are. I t can be concluded that while setting and method of collection can have a bit of an effect on what is recalled about the dream, the essential dreaming process is the same. Also, the few effects of the laboratory on dream content appear now to be known. The major advantage of the laboratory has been the ability to sample dreaming across the night and in specific stages. However, newer technology is now allowing this sampling to occur at home, too, so tlie home versus laboratory issue may fade in tlie future. PROBLEMS WITH STUDYING DREAMS Before we turn to what has been discovered about dreams and dreaming, we need to attend to the fact that dream research is difficult. The main problem is that there is no direct access to dreams. Each one is created by an individual and experienced only by that individual. The oizlj, way dreams can be st~tdied is to have the dreamer recall tlie dream after it happened. REMS awakenings are thought to facilitate this process by having the recall as close as possible to the experience and therefore are assumed to produce more accurate recalls. Yet, even this technique is far from perfect, because the dreamer still needs to awaken to collect the recall that causes a change in the fitnctional organization of the brain (see Chapter 5). Also, dreams are experienced primarily visually, but the typical dream report is verbal. Verbally describing a visual experience is imperfect and incomplete at best. Furthermore, studies have shown that the gender, age, status, and so forth of the person who obtains the recall and whether it is written down, taperecorded, or whatever affect the content of the recall. In addition, my research has shown that our memories of dreams are highly labile (see Box 17 in Chapter 6). Additionally, people usually report more about what happeized in a dream than how intense or detailed these experiences were (Strauch & Meier, 1996). In spite of these difficulties, it is still beneficial to st~tdy dream recall, because it gives us insights into the nature of dreams and dreaming and the recall itself can be usefit1 for dream recall interpretation. Nevertheless, the constraints these difficulties pose need to be kept in mind. DEFINITION OF A DREAM An even more basic problem is defining just what a dream is. Even among professionals who st~tdy and work with dreams, it has not been possible to reach agreement about what a dream is-and what it is not (Pagel et al., 2001). Part of the problem comes from the wide range of backgrounds (psychological, medical,

6 126 Part I11 anthropological, literary, pliilosopliical, physiological) among those who study dreams. For some researchers, dreams are only created during sleep and have a narrative quality but witli liallucinatory and bizarre elements. For others, dreams may also occur when awake, such as during meditation, drug influenced states, daydreaming, hallucinating, and during drifting waking thought. As a follow-up study, Jim Pagel, a sleep disorders physician and dream researcher in Colorado, asked college students, sleep disorder patients, and medical professionals witli an interest in dreams to select wliat they thought was tlie best definition of a dream from a list of widely differing definitions (Pagel, personal communication, July, 2002). Tlie most commonly selected definition was "a report of mental activity occurring during sleep," but this definition was chosen by only slightly less than one-third of the participants. Tlie selections also differed by group. For example, college st~tdents most often (one in three) selected "any non-conscious thought, feeling, or emotion," but this choice was tlie least selected by tlie medical professionals (less than 1 in 20). Since the focus of tliis textbook is on sleep and dreaming, I will use a more restricted definition of a dream. I exclude wliat may occur during waking and any mental content during sleep that is not story-like. (I will continue tliis discussion in Cliapter 6.) This topic is an important issue, though. Science means precision, and a part of being precise is to define its terms carefully. Without doing so, there is a very real danger that misunderstandings and miscommunications will occur, because people are not talking about the same thing, resulting in a muddled understanding of natural phenomena. Without precision of definition, tlie data collected and labeled as dreams may be quite different in different studies, making tlie conclusions unable to be compared. Chapter 6 describes what is known about tlie content of dreams based on tlie st~tdy of people's recall of their dreams. Cliapter 7 looks at the process of dreaming. Cliapter 8 summarizes many of the major theories about dreams and dreaming.