Dream, Dream, Dream

 

A few months ago Tracy got some prescription medication to help her stop smoking. (It worked.) One of the side effects is listed as 'vivid dreams.' I don't think the product creates vivid dreams as much as it makes people conscious of them.

My dreams are usually pretty vague. This morning when I was making breakfast I remembered that last night I dreamed about making something in the microwave. It is a funny feeling to remember something that never happened. (Or was the dream predicting the future? I microwave my breakfast! Eerie.)

Science is studying dreams. Since they can monitor a living brain as it sleeps, they consider that dream activity is random. But is it necessary for sorting and storing memories or is the part of the brain that organizes thought shut down for repairs? Fantastical, feel-good dreams take place in the middle of the sleep cycle while anxiety and other negative feeling dreams take place as the nightly sleep cycle ends.

Sleep study incites endless speculation as amnesia victims, insomniacs, and everyday people are monitored while they sleep. One interesting and testable theory is that you can enhance physical performance by watching a video or playing a video game of that activity before going to sleep. The Nova episode about sleep showed an example concerning learning how to ski based on watching a simulation.

My personal opinion is that dreams are more fun to experience than they are to remember, but it is immeasurably more fun to remember my own dreams than to listen to somebody else's.

Nancy Sherer

 

 


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