What Are Dreams?

Many centuries ago, dreams were seen as what the gods conveyed to human beings, and in many cultures today, they are still regarded as prophecies. In ancient Greece, sick people slept at the temples of Asclepius, the god of medicine, in order to receive dreams that would heal them. Modern dream science really began at the end of the 19th century with Sigmund Freud, who theorised that dreams were the expression of unconscious desires often stemming from childhood. The Freudian model of psychoanalysis prevailed until the new research into the chemistry of the brain emerged in the 1970s, which illustrated that psychological problems could result from biological or chemical factors, as well as environmental ones. That is to say, we were ill not just because of what our mothers did (or didn’t do), but because of some imbalance that could be medicated.

Another dream theory, developing in the early 1950s and ranking the foremost study in dream science after Freud, discovered a phase of sleep with the characteristics of intense brain activity and rapid eye movement (REM). People who wake up during REM sleep can narrate a vivid dream story, leading the researchers to propose that most dreaming occurs during the REM stage. By the electroencephalograph (EEG), similarities between brain activity during REM and that during wakefulness were shown. So the researchers recognised that much more was underway at night than anyone had suspected. But what, exactly?

Scientists still don’t know for sure, although they have lots of theories. There are some scien- tists like Harvard’s Allan Hobson believing that dreams are essentially random. In the 1970s, Hobson and his colleague Robert McCarley created a new term, ‘activation-synthesis hypoth- esis’, which explains how dreams are formed by nerve signals released during REM sleep from the pons, a small area at the base of the brain. These signals, the researchers stressed, will activate the images that we call dreams. Such a description has negatively influenced dream research: what was the meaning of studying dreams if they were merely pointless emission of nerve signals at night?

It takes grown-ups about a quarter of sleep time to maintain REM, much of it dreaming. During that time, the body is almost paralysed, but the brain is buzzing. Utilising PET and fMRI technology to monitor the dreaming brain, scientists have discovered that the limbic system controlling our emotions is one of the most active parts during REM. There is much less activity in the prefrontal cortex associated with logical thinking, which explains why dreams in REM sleep usually lack a coherent storyline. (Some researchers have also found that people dream in non-REM sleep likewise, although those dreams generally are less lucid.) Another active part of the brain in REM sleep is the anterior cingulate cortex, whichdetects discrepancies. Eric Nofzinger, director of the Sleep Neuroimaging Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, thinks that could be why people often try to solve thorny problems in their dreams. ‘As if the brain surveys the internal milieu and tries to figure out what it should be doing, and whether our actions conflict with who we are,’ he says.

It may seem that these are very important mental functions, but there is no evidence that REM sleep or dreaming is critical to daily life or even saneness. An older class of antidepressants called monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) could greatly obstruct REM sleep without any detectable side effects, though people do get a ‘REM rebound’ – extra REM – on the condition that they cease the medication. That is also the case of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac, which could lower dreaming by a third to a half. Even the permanent loss of the capacity of dreaming does not mean being disabled. Peretz Lavie, a researcher from Israel, has been observing a patient Yuval Chamtzani. He got an injury at 19 by a piece of shrapnel penetrating his brain, and consequently, Chamtzani lost REM sleep and could no longer recall any dreams. Nevertheless, Lavie believes that Chamtzani, who is now 55 years old, is possibly the most ordinary person he has known and one of the most out- standing ones. ‘He’s a lawyer, a painter and an editor of the puzzle column in a popular Israeli newspaper,’ says Lavie.

REM sleep is mysterious in that even if it may not be indispensable, it is almost omnipres- ent – at least in mammals and birds. However, not all mammals and birds dream (or if they do, they’re certainly not discussing about it). Some researchers consider REM may have undergone evolvement due to physiological elements. ‘One thing that’s unique about mammals and birds is that they can regulate body temperature,’ says neuroscientist Jerry Siegel, director of UCLA’s Centre for Sleep Research. ‘There’s no reliable evidence that any cold-blooded animal has REM sleep.’ Siegel says REM sleep heats up the brain and non-REM cools it off, suggesting that the changing sleep cycles allow the brain to repair itself. ‘It is highly possible REM sleep is supplementing a fundamental physiological function and that dreams are a sort of epiphenomenon,’ he adds, ‘– an extraneous by-product, like the foam on beer.’

No matter what functions the nocturnal dreams have, they are undoubtedly beneficial for therapy during the day. The University of Maryland’s Clara Hill, who has studied the use of dreams in therapy, notes that dreams are a ‘back door’ into a patient’s thinking. ‘Dreams reveal stuff about you that you didn’t know was there,’ she says. She is training the thera- pists to work with patients’ dreams, specifically, using dream imagery to expose worries, anxieties and other hidden emotions. Dreams provide hints to the essence of some severe mental diseases. Schizophrenics, for example, suffer from poor-quality dreams, which are usually relevant to objects rather than people. ‘If you intend to understand human behaviour,’ says Rosalind Cartwright, chairman of psychology at Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, ‘here’s a big piece of it. Dreaming is our own storytelling time to let us know who we are, where we’re going and how we’re going to arrive there.’ Cartwright has been studying depression in divorced men and women, and she has pointed out that ‘good dreamers’, who have lively dreams with strong storylines, are less likely to remain depressed. She thinks that dreaming helps relieve toxic emotions. ‘Dreaming is a mental-health activity,’ she says.

Questions 27 – 31

Reading Passage 3 has seven paragraphs, A–G.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet.

27.mention of the dreams of an artist with versatile talents
28.the fact that REM sleep occurs in a range of animals
29.the association between dreams and happiness
30.the practical scientific technology adopted in REM investigation
31.a query about the usefulness of investigation on dreams

Questions 32 – 34

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write the correct letter in boxes 32–34 on your answer sheet.

32.What do people in ancient times think of dreams?
33.According to Paragraph D, which part of the brain is in charge of reasoning?
34.What can we learn from the dreams of the animals mentioned by the writer?

Questions 35 – 40

Look at the following statements (Questions 35–40) and the list of people below.

Match each statement with the correct person, A–G.

Write the correct letter, A–G, in boxes 35–40 on your answer sheet.

List of People

A Eric Nofzinger

B Clara Hill

C Robert McCarley

D Sigmund Freud

E Jerry Siegel

F Rosalind Cartwright

G Allan Hobson

35.Dreams sometimes come along with REM sleep as no more than a trivial attachment.
36.Probing patients’ dreams would be beneficial for treatment as it uncovers unconscious thinking.
37.Dreams assist people in coping with difficulties they encounter in the daytime.
38.Decoding dreams would remind people of desires in their early days.
39.Dream research can give us a better understanding of ourselves.
40.Dreams occur randomly and are stimulated by the neural signals associated with REM sleep.