Sandra Salazar-Hernandez

PSY-1010
Professor Justice Morath
Lab 3
The Sweet Dreams Are Made of This article written by Gerhard Kiosch and
Ulrich Kraft and the research done by Allan J. Hobson and Robert W. McCarley talk
about previous works with the creation of Dreams. Through extensive research
from Sigmund Freud in his 1899 work of the meanings of dreams, Nathaniel
Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky--their sleep laboratory experiments on Rapid Eye
Movement (REM) science has moved on with the rocketing topic of why dreams
occur.
After following neurophysiologist Michael Jouvets experiments on the way
pons reacted in cats, we have Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley stretching science
with other theories. Hobson and McCarley say that dreams are caused by neurons
and it being deciphered into a narrative by the person as they sleep. These signals
are sent randomly and reaching pons with feelings and experiences from the
memory. The REM-on neurons were in charge of the releasing of neurotransmitters
acetylcholine that is sent sporadically. Then we have the REM-off that showed after
a 50 minute timewhich would end the dream.
Kleitman and Aserinksy method of waking up patients was more of an open
ended question with restrictions on any specifics whereas Foulkes was indeed the
same but lead participants to think they were dreaming. What I mean is that
Foulkes question was asked implying that the participant is dreaming and I think
this implication sort of makes it easier to say Yes or I was dreaming. This is why I
think Foulkes had 70% of participants say they had dreamlike impressions. On the
other hand we have Kleitman and Aserinsky who simply ask if they were dreaming.
This question to me sounds more of an unsure open ended question that is less
likely to receive a Yes like the way Foulkes had asked his question. Maybe to avoid
leading questions is to maybe have the participants draw what was their last
thought before they were waken up. Its hard to think of a question that will make
the participants sway to one answer instead of real answers.
I dont ever recall any dreams and since the media tells us that they mean
something then thats what I try to do. Even though I can probably recall 3, maybe 4
dreams I usually tend to remember the storyline and ask myself why and how I
dreamt that. I take in the factors of my own emotions and make sense of these
dreams. There is one dream in particular where my sister was in danger and ended
up getting eaten by Godzilla at our school. I was 10 and I can still remember this
specific dream because it had to do with my sister. I made the realization that I

should probably be a lot nicer to her because I dont know if anything can happen to
her at any given time.
Another recent example is my bad habit in driving and texting. Messing with
my stereo and changing songs on my phone or texting while driving, I shouldnt be
doing that. And I still do it. Ive had maybe a series of 2 or 3 dreams where I am
driving and crash head-on to the car in a complete stop right in front of me. And I
think while this happens I get scared. I cant remember if I would wake up in the
middle of the night or after I am up that, I remember about the crash. It is then that
I recall those images and instances a part of a fortune or a warning to my life right
now. I even went to the extent of telling people that I have seen my deaththis
dream of crashing is my death.
I feel like the functions of dreams are a matter of everyones own personal
perspective. These stories manipulated by knowledge and chemical reactions
therefore making it relate to owns experience or emotions. A customized story by
collecting our deepest secrets, fears, fantasies and them being visually available at
random times. I am still quite unsure whether to believe dreams. Most of them have
no meaning and some do. It is kind of like fortune cookies. We make those
connections reading whatever they say and making them fit to our life. Just like our
own thoughtsits through our eyes and depending where we stand, class, culture
and individual freedomwe interpret things and acknowledge them differently than
others. We either choose to make sense of them or not. In the end, its our choice
to whether remember dreams or make something of them. Making it that much
harder to pin point its meaning and purpose.