Sad on Sunday

Date:                                       Sunday, October 24th, 2010
Word of the Day:                    tocsin(TOCK\sin); an alarm bell, or the ringing of the bell for the purpose of alarm

Weight:                                   210 pounds
Goal:                                      lose 100 pounds in one year duration
Pounds to lose:                      78 pounds
Waist Size:                            45 inches
Rowing Duration:                  88 minutes, five (5) seconds

Somehow or other I managed to lose two more pounds this week, I'll take it, it is helping me get closer to my goal.

I am still missing Winter and Zac, I guess you just get used to other people, and dogs, being around, I especially miss Winter and all of her affection towards me.

I went to dinner last night with Zac's brother, Barry, we went to a restaurant called Borealis.  The food was just okay, I ordered a hamburger with cheddar cheese, and it came with french fries, and Barry had a vegetarian dish .  Barry had a beer on tap, and we both had no dessert, the bill was forty dollars, add the tip to the bill and dinner for two costs fifty bucks, this is rather expensive for two to dine out, I mean the meal (s) was rather simple.

Image via Wikipedia

I was up all night, I couldn't sleep.  It is a good thing that I get alot of channels on the television, even considering that, I still ended up watching reruns of "Mary Tyler Moore," and "Designing Women."  I also rewatched that interrogation of Russell Williams on "The Fifth Estate," as Barry asked me if we could rewatch it, Barry is of the opinion that Russell wanted to get caught, I feel differently.

Have you heard on the news that actor Randy Quaid and his wife are seeking refugee status here in Canada?, oh sure, come to this country, we love criminals!  (I'm sure this comment is apt to get me in trouble, but Mr. Quaid and his wife are wanted by United States authorities, I know, I know, everyone is innocent until proven guilty!)

I have decided today to talk a little bit about dreams, after all, we all have experienced having a dream, have we not?

First off, what is a dream?, (besides being used to describe me, hehe,)  a dream is a succession of images, sounds or emotions that the mind experiences during sleep.   The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood, (although some of my best ideas for stories, and other authors, have come from dreams) though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history.   The scientific study of dreams is known as oneirology, which will sooner or later become one of my words of the day.

Throughout history, people have sought meaning in dreams or divination through dreams.   Dreams have been described physiologically as a response to neural processes during sleep, psychologically as reflections of the subconscious, and spiritually as messages from gods, the deceased, predictions of the future or from the Soul, for symbolism is the language of the Soul.    Many cultures practice dream incubation, with the intention of cultivating dreams that were prophetic or contained messages from the divine.

Despite their power to bewilder, arouse, frighten or amuse, dreams are often ignored in mainstream models of cognitive psychology.   As methods of introspection were replaced with more self-consciously objective methods in the social sciences in 1930s and 1940s, dream studies dropped out of the scientific literature.   

During sleep the eyes are closed, so that the brain to some degree becomes isolated from the outside world.   Moreover all signals from the senses (except olfaction) must pass through the thalamus before they reach the brain cortex, and during sleep thalamic activity is suppressed.   This means that the brain mainly works with signals from itself.   A well-known phenomenon in dynamical physical systems where the level of input and output from the system is low is that oscillation makes spontaneous resonance patterns to occur.   Hence, dreams may be the simple consequence of neural oscillation, and if you don't know what that word means, I suggest you buy a dictionary, which is always a good investment.

Evolutionary psychologists believe that dreams serve some adaptive function for survival.   Deirdre Barrett describes dreaming as simply "thinking in different biochemical state" and believes people continue to work on all the same problems—personal and objective—in that state.   Deirdre Barrett's research finds that anything, math, musical composition, business dilemmas, may get solved during dreaming.

Some people believe that dreams allow the repressed parts of the mind to be satisfied through fantasy while keeping the conscious mind from thoughts that would suddenly cause one to awaken from shock, I totally buy this theory, how about you?

Image via WikipediaFreud suggested that bad dreams let the brain learn to gain control over emotions resulting from distressing experiences.

Jung suggested that dreams may compensate for one-sided attitudes held in waking consciousness.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung identified dreams as an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious.   They also assert together that the unconscious is the dominant force of the dream, and in dreams it conveys its own mental activity to the perceptive faculty.   While Freud felt that there was an active censorship against the unconscious even during sleep, Jung argued that the dream's bizarre quality is an efficient language, comparable to poetry and uniquely capable of revealing the underlying meaning.



Ferenczi, and I have difficulty pronouncing this name,  proposed that the dreams, when told, may communicate something that is not being said outright, which I feel is most interesting, no matter how you interpret it.

Hartmann says dreams may function like psychotherapy, by "making connections in a safe place" and allowing the dreamer to integrate thoughts that may be dissociated during waking life.

It was found that people all over the world dream of mostly the same things.   The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety.   Other emotions include pain, abandonment, fear, joy, happiness, etc.   Negative emotions are much more common than positive ones.

The Hall data analysis shows that sexual dreams occur no more than 10% of the time and are more prevalent in young to mid-teens.   Another study showed that 8% of men's and women's dreams have sexual content.  In some cases, sexual dreams may result in orgasms or nocturnal emissions.   These are colloquially known as wet dreams, which were not going to talk about as I will get rather embarrassed.

While the content of most dreams is dreamt only once, many people experience recurring dreams—that is, the same dream narrative is experienced over different occasions of sleep.   Up to 70% of females and 65% of males report recurrent dreams, how about that?

A small minority of people say that they dream only in black and white.

There is evidence that certain medical conditions (normally only neurological conditions) can impact dreams.   For instance, some people with synesthesia have never reported entirely black-and-white dreaming, and often have a difficult time imagining the idea of dreaming in only black and white, don't you find that fascinating?
Lucid dreaming is the conscious perception of one's state while dreaming.   In this state a person usually has control over characters and the environment of the dream as well as the dreamer's own actions within the dream, these are my favourite type of dreams.

Oneironaut is a term sometimes used for those who lucidly dream.

The recall of dreams is extremely unreliable, though it is a skill that can be trained.   Dreams can usually be recalled if a person is awakened while dreaming.   Women tend to have more frequent dream recall than men, which is not surprising, especially to women.    Dreams that are difficult to recall may be characterized by relatively little affect, and factors such as salience, arousal, and interference play a role in dream recall.    Often, a dream may be recalled upon viewing or hearing a random trigger or stimulus.   A dream journal can be used to assist dream recall, for psychotherapy or entertainment urposes.   For some people, vague images or sensations from the previous night's dreams are sometimes spontaneously experienced in falling asleep.    However they are usually too slight and fleeting to allow dream recall.   At least 95% of all dreams are not remembered.   Certain brain chemicals necessary for converting short-term memories into long-term ones are suppressed during rapid eye movement (REM,) sleep.   Unless a dream is particularly vivid and if one wakes during or immediately after it, the content of the dream will not be remembered, although I frequently remember mine, I attribute this to the fact that I think about my dream after I wake up.
One theory of déjà vu attributes the feeling of having previously seen or experienced something to having dreamt about a similar situation or place, and forgetting about it until one seems to be mysteriously reminded of the situation or the place while awake.

There is alot more I can say about dreams, but it is dry and technical and you can find that out yourself by researching it, which I recommend as you can then enlighten me.

Topics coming soon:

Sex
Carol Channing
Anorexia