Ricky Hargreaves, age 13, of Omaha, Neb., for his question:
WHY DO WE DREAM?
More than 80 years ago, Sigmund Freud, the man who is called the father of psychoanalysis, called dreams the guardians of sleep. He said that dreams often expressed the unacceptable wishes that people repress when they are awake. The censors of this conscious mind are off guard when we sleep, Freud said, and these forbidden wishes come forward. Freud said we also disguise our dreams with symbols.
Scientists and doctors don't agree on what dreams mean, but they all agree that we do indeed dream while we are asleep. Sophisticated technical equipment has shown that we all dream about four or five times each night. Dreams, the scientists have found, help us to keep our mental and emotional balance.
Dreaming usually happens during the stage of the sleep cycle called REM rapid eye movement. In the REM state, the body is relaxed while the brain is as active as it is when a person is awake. While the eyelids are closed, the eyes still move.
Babies, who sleep about 16 hours a day, are in an REM state about half of the time while adults have about 25 percent of their sleep in the REM cycle.
Doctors tell us that dreaming while asleep helps the mind deal with the experiences of waking life. The mind, some doctors believe, uses dreaming time to sort out the events of the day, classify them in relation to previous experiences and then file them away for future reference.
Dreams build up in strength as the night goes on. It has also been found that they can be influenced by elements in the room, such as a cold draft from a window near the bed or by the telephone ringing.
Some scientists say dreams about unpleasant feelings are much more common than dreams of pleasant ones. Anxiety seems to be the most common emotion found in dreams, with hostility next. Dreams of failure and misfortune also seem to occur more frequently than do dreams of winning and finding success.
Nightmares happen occasionally and are often filled with terror. This type of dream doesn't take piace during the REM state but happens when both the brain and the body are in very deep sleep. Researchers feel that a nightmare can be an expression of uncontrolled anxiety and that it happens when the sleeper is partly aroused and finds himself in a confused state.