Once, people were sure that dreams are a kind of bridge between this world and the afterlife. Dreams were given a mystical meaning, there were even professions of dream interpreters. But with the development of science, everything has changed.
Today the American psychophysiologist Stephen LaBerge and the sociologist Howard Reingold in their book "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" argue that dreams can be controlled and enjoyed. So far, this has not been confirmed by the scientific world.
It became possible to study dreams on a scientific basis after the electronic amplifier tube was invented at the beginning of the 20th century, which made it possible to measure the brain during sleep. It was then that the German neuropsychiatrist Hans Berger recorded the "alpha rhythm" known all over the world, indicating a state of relaxation during sleep. And scientists at Harvard University who continued these studies have established that we see dreams only in the so-called superficial stage of sleep. And the main object of interest was the images that a person sees.
There are many scholarly works on this topic, ranging from Freud and Jung to modern research. Today, for example, there is a scientifically unconfirmed theory that colored dreams are seen only by patients with schizophrenia or those close to this state. Scientists from the University of San Antonio in Texas generally argue that vivid color dreams are characteristic only of patients in psychiatric clinics. However, it is not.
In the USA, under the guidance of Professor Bravin Stent, an experiment was conducted with three groups of volunteers. The first consisted of patients with schizophrenia, the second - those who had inherited symptoms of this disease, and the third - mentally healthy people. The age of the subjects was from 25 to 47 years. Experts monitored the members of the groups throughout the year, recording the brain activity, quality, brightness, color, and plot of the images. It turned out that 20 times more often and more colored dreams, but in the form of nightmares, were seen by schizophrenics. Rarely, but still healthy people saw them.
But what really interested scientists was the plot of dreams. In 2009, American experts conducted research on students. Two groups were selected, one of which consisted of more than 30 healthy people, and the second included 20 people who had chronic anxiety and depression. They were woken up 10 minutes after falling into a superficial sleep, and then asked to write down what they saw, convey feelings, and formulate self-esteem.
The experiment showed that the participants in the second group (those who had increased anxiety and a tendency to depression) were more likely to have dreams with scenes of aggression in which they themselves were victims. The subjects of the first group saw such dreams extremely rarely.
According to the scientists who conducted all these experiments, dreams are mostly scraps of our emotions, experiences, doubts, fears, aggression, delight, joy, satisfaction and much more that make up our everyday life. In a dream, these scraps merge into a single picture, which we cannot always explain. More emotions - brighter dreams. Should they be associated with mental disorders? To a certain extent, yes, as the experiments showed.
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But sleep is not a diagnosis. Moreover, not a diagnosis that speaks of mental problems. Doctors say, rather, the opposite: sleep disturbance is direct evidence of a person's mental disorder. Professor of psychiatry and behaviorism Maurice Ohayon is sure that about 50 percent of sleep disorders are associated with mental disorders, namely: neuroses, anxiety disorders, depressive conditions, post-traumatic mental disorders, neurodegenerative (deafening) diseases, schizophrenia.
For example, in the United States, more than 35 percent of the population has sleep disorders. A study carried out in the Chuvash Republic of the Russian Federation showed sleep disturbance in 20 percent of the republic's residents.
The main medicine is drugs that help to sleep soundly and calmly.
Don't be afraid of your dreams. It is much worse when, in principle, you cannot sleep normally.
Maria Pavlova