Question:
Select one dream that you have had recently that you still remember with some detail and that you don''t mind sharing. Briefly describe your dream and then explain your dream from a minimum of two of the dream theories discussed in the article and/or the textbook.
In other words, how would those theories explain your dream and where it came from? Note: Be sure to describe each of the theories you have selected in order to receive full credit!
Why do you personally think we dream?
Theory #1: The Evolutionary Theory: We Dream to Practice Responses to Threatening Situations
Ever notice that most dreams have a blood-surging urgency to them? In dreams, we often find ourselves naked in public, or being chased, or fighting an enemy, or sinking in quicksand. Antti Revonsuo, a Finnish cognitive scientist, has shown that our amygdala (the fight-or-flight piece of the brain) fires more than normal when we''re in REM sleep (the time in sleep when we dream). In REM sleep, the brain fires in similar ways as it does when it''s specifically threatened for survival.
In addition to that, the part of the brain that practices motor activity (running, punching) fires increasingly during REM sleep, even though the limbs are still. In other words, Revonsuo and other evolutionary theorists argue that in dreams, we are actually rehearsing fight-and-flight responses, even though the legs and arms are not actually moving.
They say that dreams are an evolutionary adaptation: We dream in order to rehearse behaviors of self-defense in the safety of nighttime isolation. In turn, get better at fight-or-flight in the real world.
Theory #4: Dreams Are Like Psychotherapy
But what about the emotion in dreams? Aren''t dreams principally the place to confront difficult and surprising emotions, and sit with those emotions in a new way? Ernest Hartmann, a doctor at Tufts, focuses on the emotional learning that happens in dreams. He has developed the theory that dreaming puts our difficult emotions into pictures. In dreams, we deal with emotional content in a safe place, making connections that we would not make if left to our more critical or defensive brains.
In this sense, dreaming is like therapy on the couch: We think through emotional stuff in a less rational and defensive frame of mind. Through that process, we come to accept truths we might otherwise repress. Dreams are our nightly psychotherapy.