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Purpose/ Problem
Our central research question is to determine what type of situation creates the best memory recall of dreams.
Hypothesis
We hypothesize that if we manipulate different factors that influence dream recall, we can improve dream recall in our test subjects.
Predictions
We predict that many factors will influence dream recall, such as the amount of sleep, the manner in which one wakes up, and other external influences in one's life such as stress.
We predict that the people who wake up naturally will remember more about their dreams than those who are woken up by an alarm clock. We predict that test subjects will remember their dreams more vividly when awoken from a state of REM. We also predict that test subjects who are under greater stress will recall their dreams more vividly.
Dreams: An Interesting Topic
We are very interested in the process of determining whether or not we can improve dream recall in our test subjects. During the course of the experiment we all plan to keep "dream journals" to pay attention to the way we dream. We thought that it would be interesting to study a topic that is so common that we experience it every night. Yet, we know so little about it. However, as we began discussing our topic and formulating our predictions we began to think about patterns in our own dreams and were able to observe a number of phenomena, that previously, we had largely ignored. It was interesting to see how much "information" our body had saved from our own experiences with dreams that we had never previously accessed. We hope that through our study we can remember our dreams better.
Sleep is a physiological occurrence that humans need in order to survive. Normally, humans go through 5 stages of sleep, including 4 stages of Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep and the last stage of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. These stages form a cycle that usually lasts ninety minutes and is repeated throughout the night.
As the night continues, the first 4 stages become shorter, and REM dominates the sleep cycle. This could be an explanation for people who do not remember their dreams when they have not slept an adequate amount during the night. When a person is in REM sleep, they are paralyzed, unable to move anything except their eyes, which twitch unconsciously. This paralysis occurs so that humans do not act out any irrational or unrealistic dreams.
During the life span of the average human, one will experience 100,000 dreams, which breaks down to about three to four dreams every night. Factors that affect dream recall include alcohol consumption, certain antibiotics, fever, lack of sleep, and unconscious fears about our dreams. The standpoint that scientist Francis Crick takes is that dreams are a method of eradicating useless information from our brains daily.
Generally, our dreams tend to be remembered most easily and are also more eventful towards the end of a sleep cycle because we are more rested at that point of the morning. The content of the dreams that are actually remembered usually represent actual events or emotions that we experience during our awake hours. This is the brain's way of dealing with excess thoughts and erasing unnecessary information. As one awakes from a state of slumber, the dream that is recalled is not an exact replica of the dream actually experienced, but instead is a pieced together version
of what they think actually was dreamt the night before.
Many factors contribute to experiencing more "pleasant" dreams. Some of these
factors include the sleeping environment, the physical condition of the person and
basic things such as having the lights turned off. Another helpful piece of advice
to remembering dreams with more ease would be to go to sleep with as little stress
on their mind as possible.
Books
Antrobus, John S., and Steven J. Ellman. The Mind In Sleep. New York: John Wiley
and Sons Inc, 1991.
This book explores dream recall, experimental studies of dreams, the REM cycle and what happens when one wakes during it.
Christos, George. Memory and Dreams. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,
2003.
This book explains how dreams are made of information collected throughout the day. If we don't review our dreams right when we wake up then the memory quickly fades. Also, our experiences during dreans are continuous and smooth.
Fishbein, William. Sleep, Dreams, and Memory. New York: SP Medicial and Scientific
Books, 1981.
The book talks about how dreams occur in the cortex portion of the brain. Dreams are moved from short term to long term memory during consolidation which allows people to remember them.
Flanagan, Owen. Dreaming Souls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
This book contradicts Freud's theory that dreams come from what we experienced that day. The author says that dreams are meaningless. The book also discusses the difference between day and night dreaming.
Pace-Schott, Edward F. et al. Sleep and Dreaming. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2003.
Functions and causes of dreaming and REM cycles are discussed. Also, dream content relates to awake life events.
Plinski, Marci. Interpreting Your Dreams. New York: Alpha Books, 2003.
This is an overall view of dreams and interpretation. It explains basics such as REM, themes in dreams and an overview of recall.
Rock, Andrea. The Mind At Night. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
The book explains that there is a common thread that all the dreams feel real, from the visual details to emotions they trigger. It discusses how if we are awakened in the midst of a dream, it is the only time we can recall our dreams. However, we are constantly having dreams even if we don't recall.
Online Journals
Hobson, J. Allan. "Sleep and dream suppression following a lateral medullary infarct: A
first person account." Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal
Vol.13 (March 2004)
The article explores relationship between sleep and dreams and neurologic conditions.
Auld, Frank. "Theory and Strategy of Dream Interpretation." Resolution of inner conflict:
An Introduction to Psychoanalytic Therapy. P.189-196 (1991)
The article is a psychoanalytic theory of dreaming and dream interpretation.
Schwartz, Sophie. "Are life Episodes Replayed During Dreaming?" Trends in Cognitice
Sciences P.325-327 Vol. 7 (August 2003)
The article states that life episodes are not necessarily relevant in dreaming.
Dreaming American Psychological Association/ Educational Publishing Foundation.
This is a journal all on dreaming. There are multiple articles that apply to our topic.
Websites
Dreaming
This is the website for the journal Dreaming
The Nature and Function of Dreams
The site discusses the nature of dreams and the REM cycles.
Sleep and Dreams
The site is about interpretations and factors of dream formation.
The Interpretation of Dreams
The site discusses REM sleep in which dreaming occurs.
REM sleep
The site is about stages of sleep and REM.
We plan to begin our study of dreams by conducting a survey of our classmates in the freshmen class of western college. We want to survey an equal number of males and females. We will begin by asking the subject's gender and age, for the sake of uniformity even though these are not key factors in our experiment. We will then follow with a list of questions to determine the subject's typical sleeping habits including average sleep amounts, typical waking habits, and any other unusual or particular habits.
We will also ask questions about the subject's state of mind, such as if they go to sleep with uncompleted projects, or have any other types of issues bothering them that may inhibit normal sleeping patterns. Other questions asked will focus on the prospect of stress in the subject's life.
Finally, our survey will conclude with direct questioning revolving around the specific dreaming habits of our test subjects. We will begin by asking them if they dream Ð a loaded question, since everyone dreams Ð if they do agree, we will ask if they typically remember they had a dream, and take it a step farther, to see if they can remember the content of their dreams.
Following the administration of our survey we plan to analyze the most common factors that appear to enhance dream remembrance and recall. Our hope is that new factors will emerge that appear to lead to a trend of a higher rate of dream recall, and possibly some of our earlier assumptions will be discredited, leading us to rework slightly our experimental design, thus leading to a more successful experiment.
For the final part of our experiment we will set up a group of test subjects numbering ten or fewer. Using the findings from our survey, we will manipulate the factors that we stated in our hypothesis then enhanced dream remembrance such as longer periods of sleeping, waking up without an alarm, and external forces in life such as stress level. We will run a "regular" night of sleeping as a control, and then we will test to see if the subjects remember more dreams when allowed to wake without the shocked interruption of an alarm. We will run a second test involving the dream recall during periods of REM sleep, where we believe a high frequency of dreaming occurs. According to our research of statistics during which REM occurred, we are going to gently awaken our test subjects at time intervals during which REM sleep supposedly occurs. We will then ask if they recall their dream and any detail in the dream. We will run the same test again, only this time awakening subjects during typical intervals of non-REM sleep. We will again ask if they can recall their dream and any detail of the dream. We will compare all of these results to practically test our hypothesis and see if we could indeed improve the dream recall ability in our test subjects.
We will first conduct a survey as stated above which will include our classmates as well as other freshman on Western. We will be changing and manipulating sleep patterns of our test subjects, as described in the specifc research design. We will have them do certain excersizes to change their sleep patterns and observe which sleep patterns yield the best dream recall. In order to conduct this study the sole materials we will need are preexisting alarm clocks and beds.
Timeline
Week 1- Draft our survey
Week 2- Administer the survey
Week 3- Compare survey results
Week 4- Based on results, design experimental portion
Week 5- Conduct experiment
Week 6- Finish experiment
Week 7- Design graphs
Week 8- Write paper
Week 9- Finalize
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