Dream World WebquestBy: Davin-Kyle ThompsonAaron LaganaMatthew Kiprovski

Dream Theories:Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Dreams• Sigmund Freud suggests that dreams are a representation of

unconscious wishes and desires

• These can be either sexual or violent in nature

• All dreams, no matter how bizarre, serve a purpose

• These dreams must be studied to understand a person

Dream Theories:Activation-Synthesis Theory• First proposed by John Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley

• This theory states that dreams don’t serve a purpose at all, but rather are rather nuerual firings from the brainstem during REM sleep

• To keep us asleep and not wake us up after every impulse, our cerebral cortex associates certain dreams with certain impulses

Dream Theories:St. Francis Crick’s Theory of Dreams• According to Francis Crick, dreams are just mental garbage• Every day, we encounter many things and a lot of major and

minor events occur• At the end of the day, when we dream, we go through these

events and we separate them into “wanted” and “unwanted” categories

• We tend to weaken the synaptic connections of our unwanted memories, going through a process of “reverse learning”

• This strengthens our memory of the events that we actually want to remember

Why do dreams occur?• According to Freud, dreams occur so we can fulfill our

unconcious desires• Do things we wouldn’t normally be able to do

• Activation-Synthesis theory suggests that neural firings cause dreams, associating certain images with certain neural impulses

• Francis Crick states that dreams occur to “reverse learn” unwanted memories, strengthening our wanted memories

What occurs physiologically when we dream?• Freud’s theory states less about what happens physiologically

when we dream and more with what happens unconciously• He called dreams “the royal road to the unconcious”

• According to activation-synthesis theory, the brainstem fires off random neural impulses during REM sleep, and the cerebral cortex associates images with the firings, causing dreams

• According to Francis Crick, during dreams we weaken synaptic connections in our brains for unwanted memories, which in turn causes us to remember more important things

What purpose do dreams serve?

• Freud says dreams serve as ways to fulfill unconscious desires, allowing us to do things we always wanted to do

• Activation-synthesis theory states that dreams serve no purpose at all and are just the random neural firings

• Francis Crick’s theory goes with the assumption that dreams serve to distinguish our unwanted and our wanted memories and to help us keep the wanted ones

Can you explain why many people report dreaming of experiences which they have recently encountered• Fruedian theory may suggest that people may have certain

wishes about certain daily events, and can only fulfill them in dreams• People wish a day at school or a job goes a certain way

• Activation-synthesis cannot explain this; it states all dreams are just the random firings

• Francis Crick’s whole theory is based on recently encountered experiences and choosing which ones we want to remember in the end

Is there any way in which the content or meaning of dreams could be scientifically studied?

Do dreams have universal meanings?• Freud says

Do people dream in color?

• People do dream in color; most do not realize it, however

• If you are more noticeable and appreciative of colors when awake, it’s easier to notice color in dreams