Sunday, November 15, 2009
A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain
People have always wondered what their dreams mean and now finally there are some answers. Scientists have been comparing their hypothesizes for what dreams are and how they work. Some scientists, such as Dr. Hobson, a psychiatrist at Harvard, has suggested that dreams are “tuning the mind for conscious awareness.” In his point of view, when people dream it is simply the body’s way of preparing the brain for the next day’s activities. Many other scientists have recognized Dr. Hobson’s reasoning and have thought it to be impressive. However, Dr. Llinás, a neurologist and physiologist at New York University, said that his idea was not the only interpretation of dreams. Dr. Llinás’ and other scientists’ studies have shown that dreams are a kind of crude test run for what the coming day may hold; it could be good; it could be bad. In way this interpretation of dreams makes the statement that dreams are a type of warning sign, for the good and bad. There are different types of dreaming and these different types of dreaming can vary a scientist’s point of view on what a dream is. There is lucid dreaming, which is a mixed state of consciousness, sleepwalking and night terrors, which are mixtures of muscle activation and non-REM sleep, and narcolepsy, which is an infringement of REM on normal daytime alertness. Although it is comforting to have some idea of what a dream is, scientists have a lot of work ahead of them before they are able to come up with a definite explanation for what a dream actually is.
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6 comments:
3 aspects of the review that were particularly well presented were what they said about the reasons of why we dream. I found the reason that dreams are a kind of crude test run for what the coming day may hold. Another thing that was well presented was why they thought that dreams was a test of good and bad that may happen during the day. The last thing that was well presented was that it was a easy read, and went right to the point.
2 suggestions on how the review could have been made even better, would be that they could of explained there findings more, and how they came to those conclusions.
1 aspect that impressed me and that I was not aware of before reading the article was that dreams can prepare you on what will happen during the next day.
Forensics - Ariel Stein
Overall, I thought that the article Kaia chose was very interesting, and I liked that it wasn’t the typical Forensics science topic. Also, I thought she did a good job in her writing style so that it felt like she was making a full response to the article she read, versus simply summarizing the article word for word, which often times is hard to comprehend. Additionally, I feel that it was helpful that she presented the opinions of several scientists instead of stating the words of one as fact. That is, after all, an important point in all sciences – that there are always new things learned that need to e incorporated into the old theories. One thing I think she could have improved on is to note what other types of dreaming there are besides lucid dreaming. So maybe instead of explaining lucid dreaming in such a way, she could’ve just stated some of the other types without expansive description of the other kinds. The second thing I think she could have changed would be to explain what she thinks the type of work scientists have to do in the future may be. It would just be interesting to see someone else’s point of view who is not a scientist of trained in the field of dreams and analyzing them. Something I didn’t know that I learned from Kaia’s article is that dreams could possibly be a test run for what the future may hold. This idea is really impressive, since based on that theory, one could analyze their dreams in an attempt to see what the next days may bring their way.
“A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain,” was a very interesting article about the mystery of dreams. It was well presented how Kaia referred to Dr. Hobson’s opinion of how dreams make people more aware. We also learn that many highly educated psychiatrists have different opinions from each other. In addition, the way dreams are interpreted could be a breakthrough in human psychology.
A suggest for this article would be giving an example of a crime scene where forensic scientists used dream interpretation. As well, it would be interesting to know if psychiatrists testify in court cases and defend or prosecute those who claim to have done things based off dreams. Overall, the article was very interesting. I found it shocking that lucid dreams could lead to unrest, including sleep walking.
The three things I enjoyed about this review were that it provided the reader with an answer for one of man's ultimate questions; why we dream. This is an interesting topic that was equally interesting to read about. Second, the article was very interesting to me personally, because I am fascinated by the psychology of the mind and how the mind functions, and I appreciate such a topic being incorporated more into the world of forensics. And lastly, Kaia did a good job of demonstrating the nature of this current study that it is a hypothetic but nothing is definite.
The things I felt that this article could have done better would have been to first of explain certain terms more (I found myself having to look up terms like REM in order to be able to read the article). Additionally, I found the theory itself, though interesting, to be a little "nutty" so to speak. Without and cold hard evidence, this is just a hypothesis and not something I would believe readily. Dreams are often quite abstract or absurd, so thinking that me dreaming of flying through space in a banana suit is preparing me for things in the day ahead is hard to believe.
Though I may not fully appreciate the theory, I interested in the fact that scientists have not given up on attempting to understand dreams, and I am curious to learn of any new advancements in the topic.
Three aspects of this review that I felt were well presented were that Kaia used many details about the article, especially the references to the the psychiatrist, Dr. Hobson and Dr. Llinas. Another aspect that was presented was that I liked that she put in professional opinions as well as some of her own thoughts. Lastly, I liked that she incorporated the positives and the negatives associated with dreams. Two suggestions on how this review could be even better are if she added what other kinds of work needed to be done in order to reach a definite conclusion about this hypothesis and more of an explanation about the types of dreaming. Overall, I was very impressed with this article and was not aware that dreams are actually part of conscious awareness.
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