The function and meaning of dream

 The function and    meaning of dream

I was sitting at my desk when I remembered that this was the day of my chemistry final. I was terrified, because I hadn’t studied a bit for it. In fact, I had missed every lecture all semester. In a panic, running across campus desperately searching for the classroom, to which id never been. It was hopeless, I know I was going to fail and flunk out of college.

If you had a similar dream—a surprisingly common dream among people involved in academic pursuits—you know how utterly convincing are the panic and fear that the events in the dream can bring about.

Nightmares, unusually frightening dreams, occur fairly often. In one survey, almost half of a group of college students who kept records of their dreams over a two-week period reported having at least one nightmare. This work out to some 24 nightmares per person each year, on average (Levin & Nielsen, 2009; Nielson, Stenstrom, & Levin 2006; Schredl et al., 2009).

   However, most of the 150000 dreams the average person experiences by the age of 70 are much less dramatic. They typically encompass everyday events such as going to the supermarket, working at the office, and preparing a meal. Students dream about lecturing. Dental patients dream of getting their teeth drilled; dentists dream of drilling the wrong tooth. The English have tea with the queen in their dreams; in the united state, people go to a bar with the president (Domhoff, 1996; Schredl & Piel, 2005; Tylor & Bryant, 2007).

Thematic event	Percentage of dreams reporting at least one event
	Males	Females
Aggression	47%	44%
Friendliness	38%	42%
Sexuality	12%	04%
Misfortune	36%	33%
Success	15%	08%
failure	15%	10%

(Although dreams tend to be subjective o the person having them, there are common elements that frequently occur in everyone’s dreams)

There are three alternative theories that will be discussed in the next blog.

(Note)

The material provided in the post is taken from the book “UNDERSTANDING PSYCHOLOGY”   (10^th edition)

All credit goes to the author; Robert S. Feldman 

 (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)