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Module 1.5c

Dreams

What do we dr
oposed for
1.5-10
1.5-10 What do we dream, and what functions have theorists proposed for
eam, and what functions have theorists pr
dreams?
dreams?
Now playing at an inner theater near you: the premiere of a sleeping person’s vivid dream. This
never-before-seen mental movie features captivating characters wrapped in a plot so original
and unlikely, yet so intricate and so seemingly real, that the viewer later marvels at its creation. dream a sequence of images,
emotions, and thoughts passing

REM dreams are vivid, emotional, and often bizarre ( Loftus & Ketchum, 1994 ). Wak- through a sleeping person’s
ing from one, we may wonder how our brain can so creatively, colorfully, and completely mind.
construct this alternative world. In the shadowland between our dreaming and waking con-
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
sciousness, we may even wonder for a moment which is real. Awakening from a nightmare,
a 4-year-old may be sure there is a bear in the house.
Discovering the link between REM sleep and dreaming began a new era in dream
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
research. Instead of relying on someone’s hazy recall hours later, researchers could catch
dreams as they happened, awakening people during or
shortly after a REM sleep period to hear a vivid account.
What We Dream
Many of our dreams are anything but sweet. For women
and men, 8 in 10 dreams are marked by at least one neg-
ative event or emotion ( Domhoff, 2007 ). Common themes
include repeatedly failing in an attempt to do something;
being attacked, pursued, or rejected; or experiencing misfor-
tune ( Hall et al., 1982 ). Dreams with sexual imagery occur
less often than you might think (though more often after
consuming sexual media [Van den Bulck et al., 2016 ]). In one
study, only 1 in 10 dreams among young men and 1 in 30
among young women had sexual content ( Domhoff, 1996 ).
More commonly, a dream’s storyline incorporates traces of
recent experiences and preoccupations ( Nikles et al., 2017 ):
• Trauma and dreams. After suffering a trauma, people

commonly report nightmares, which help extinguish
daytime fears (Petrov & Robinson, 2020). Survivors of
the Auschwitz concentration camp, Palestinian children
living amid conflict, and Americans after the 9/11 terror-
ist attacks all have experienced frequent trauma-related Mark Parisi/Atlantic Feature Syndicate
dreams ( Owczarski, 2018 ; Propper et al., 2007 ; Punamäki &
Joustie, 1998 ).
• Music and dreams. Compared with nonmusicians,

musicians report twice as many dreams of music ( Uga
et al., 2006 ).
• Vision loss and dreams. Studies in four countries have found people who are blind AP Science Practice
®
mostly dreaming of using their nonvisual senses ( Buquet, 1988 ; Taha, 1972 ; Vekassy,
1977 ). But even people born blind sometimes “see” in their dreams (Bértolo, 2005). Research
Likewise, people born paralyzed below the waist sometimes dream of walking, stand- By conducting studies on blind-
ing, running, or cycling ( Saurat et al., 2011 ; Voss et al., 2011 ). ness and dreaming in multiple
countries, the researchers ensure
• Media experiences and dreams. In a study of 1287 Turkish people, “participants who that their results are more gener-
consumed violent media tended to have violent dreams, and participants who con- alizable to all individuals who are
blind and not just a select group.
sumed sexual media tended to have sexual dreams” (Van den Bulck et al., 2016 ).

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