Theories of Dreaming

Leading Explanations

• Dreams as Unconscious Wishes
• Dreams as Reflections of Current Concerns
• Dreams as a By-product of Mental Housekeeping
• Dreams as Interpreted Brain Activity

Dreams as Unconscious Wishes

• Freud believed that in dreams, we express our unconscious desires, often sexual or violent
• Every dream is meaningful
• Thoughts and objects are represented symbolically
• Manifest (conscious) vs. latent (hidden) content

Reflections of Current Concerns

• Dreams reflect conscious preoccupations of waking life
• Problem-focused explanation means that symbols convey meaning directly
• Supported by observation that dreams often relate to current concerns ("examination dreams" in students)
• Dreaming about a waking problem can help resolve it

Mental Housekeeping

• Physiological explanation
• Dreams occurs as the brain eliminates unnecessary neural connections and strengthens others
• Dreams are snippets recalled from the sorting and assimilation of new information, a process that occurs during sleep
• REM sleep has a big impact on memory

Interpreted Brain Activity

• Activation-synthesis theory explains that dreams are merely the synthesis and interpretation of spontaneous neural activity
• Random firing of signals accounts for bizarre nature of many dreams
• Signals from the part of the brain that handles balance might cause a dream about falling