Dreams, yet again

Perhaps I've already stressed enough the importance of dreams, but here is an article by the BBC for the interested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8638551.stm

It doesn't add on much from what I have already shared.

More on the Jungian Psychology of Dreams

Carl Jung believed there to be two types of dreams: little dreams and big dreams.

Little dreams
Little dreams are dreams about daily problems or things. Such as, if you are in a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend, you might have a dream about them moving away or you two in a big fight. Chances are if you can figure out your dream right away, it's a little a dream.


Big dreams
Big dreams are the unconscious mind trying to send a message or messages to the conscious mind. These dreams consist of archetypes or motifs. They remind us of our psychological needs, and remind us to pay attention to them. Jung also believed that modern Western culture suffers from unhappiness much more because we don't pay enough attention to our dreams. Thus, we don't meet our psychological needs.




A very small list of archetypes:

• Reptiles symbolize aide, medicine, or helping others/self (see American Medical Association logo).

• Ladders represent ascending to something greater (see Jacob's Ladder).

• Male faceless person means your masculine side is trying to talk to you.

•  Female faceless person means that you need to be more in touch with your femininity.

•  Caves elucidate living blindly (read The Allegory of the Cave by Plato).

•  Someone you love dying isn't them actually them dying. It's an old part of you shedding.
  
  
• Unbalanced star symbolizes unbalanced life, or unbalanced gender roles.
  

Cognitive Psychology: Dreams

A few weeks ago I posted about the Jungian perspective of dreams. Today I will talk about the cognitive psychology of dreams and what happens while you are sleeping. We all know that we dream every night, no matter if you remember your dreams or not.

Here is the sleep cycle:

REM is Rapid Eye Movement and most of our vivid dreams happen during this stage of sleep.

In the image above, Stage 3 and 4 briefly mention delta waves. In these stages, your brain is getting rest, whereas in the alpha stages it's your body being rested.

Beta is when we're awake.



The three cognitive theories of why we dream:

1. Filtering
   This explains why other animals have a better memory compared to ours. Our brain trashes everything we don't need, which is why we can't remember what underwear we wore last Monday. Basically, it prunes the unessential.
2. Problem Solving
   Has anyone ever told you to just sleep on a problem? They were not too far off from the truth. While you are sleeping your brain is doing its job of problem solving. That explains the epiphanies in your morning shower. The unconscious mind picks up things beyond our perception, so while you are sleeping, it's putting things together. Instead of racking your brain on a problem, just think about it for a while before sleeping and then have a good night's rest.
3. Processing
   The third theory is that your brain is processing information from the day. It's organizing and filing all the information that was not filtered out.
   

Jungian Psychology: A Closer Look at Dreams

After reading this article, I have completely indulged myself in Carl Jung. The images below are thumbnailed, so go ahead and click on it for full sized view. I promise it's an exceptional article, or else I would have not felt compelled to share it with you.

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