Dreams -- Are They Psychologically Significant psychologically insignificant, or something in between?

The phenomenon of dreaming during sleep has long been a topic of interest to those interested in understanding the human mind. On one hand, there may be reason to believe that dream content and visual imagery in dreams provide clues to the unconscious mind as famously postulated by the psychological theorist who introduced the psychodynamic approach to understanding human psychology. On the other hand, there may be equally good anecdotal evidence that dreaming in humans is not particularly significant, particularly since non-human animals also apparently dream. It may be that human dreams are psychologically significant, but any such conclusion would have to be established by further research distinguishing dream sleep from non-dream sleep in the same manner as previous studies distinguishing REM sleep from non-REM sleep.

Introduction

Sleep is a phenomenon that appears to be universal among all known higher organisms and it is quite clear that it serves a crucial physiological function, largely by virtue of the consequences of any prolonged sleep deprivation. Human beings and other animals alike become extremely stressed when deprived us sleep and humans in particular can suffer psychological breakdown, even death, when that deprivation is prolonged. Nevertheless, it is not yet understood precisely what the physiological function of sleep is or why it is so important for human health. Beyond physiological benefits of sleep, there may also be important psychological functions involved. One clue in that regard is the phenomenon of dreaming during sleep. In fact, the apparent link between dreaming and psychology led Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) to devote his first published work, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) to the topic and it played a significant role in his psychodynamic theory of human psychology that is the basis of all modern psychoanalytic psychology.

Discussion

The Physiology of Sleep

Human beings and other higher organisms all sleep on a regular basis, varying in the amount of time devoted to it by different species with respect to the amount of time spent sleeping, whether they are diurnal or nocturnal, and by chronological age. Generally, human beings sleep approximately one-third...

To date, conclusions about the role of sleep have been based on observation of the physical and psychological consequences of sleep deprivation (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). Without sufficient sleep, human beings become extremely distressed, they experience a tremendous decline in both cognitive and physical capacity, and often suffer psychological breakdown (Brody, 2007). Moreover, sleep occurs in different forms and cycles in which it varies substantially in terms of characteristic brain waves and depth of unawareness of the external environment. The deepest part of sleep occurs in periodic cycles approximately every 90-minutes characterized by rapid eye movement (REM) that also correspond to dreaming (Siegel, 2005). Research into selective deprivation only of REM sleep cycles but not overall sleep strongly suggest that whatever the importance of sleep is, REM sleep is especially significant and necessary (Siegel, 2005).
Contemporary research into the possible function of sleep suggest that during sleep, memories are strengthened and various important hormones (such as human growth hormone) are released, triggered by the minute structures within the eye that signal the pituitary and pineal glands to increase production in darkness (Lamond, Dorrian, Roach, et al., 2003). Some of the most recent research in these areas has even linked specific wavelengths of ambient light, even at very low levels, to disruption of these physiological processes among individuals who must sleep during the day in rooms that are not completely blacked out (Lamond, Dorrian, Roach, et al., 2003).

Freudian Psychodynamics, Unconscious Repression, and Dream Interpretation

Even without knowing what the physiological function of sleep is, the phenomenon of dreaming during sleep has always intrigued us, largely because of the prevalence of vivid imagery in dreams that seems to have direct connections to waking life. For that reason, so-called "psychic healers" and "fortune tellers" and "medicine men" have routinely incorporated dream analyses into their treatment techniques (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). In the late 19th century, Sigmund Freud, a renowned psychiatrist who formulated and introduced the concept of identifying and analyzing unconscious thoughts,…