2009 Momentum - Glashütte Original

42 Momentum 1· 2009
Tendence Time and dream
to relate their dreams to family and friends is very familiar with
that frustrating feeling of not being able to properly describe them
using mere words. Dreams are very hard to pin down. Petra
Gehring, a professor of theoretical philosophy, says, “Dreams are
fascinating. We want to dissect them and analyse them, yet they
seem to slip from our grasp; they are remote from science, unreal,
misty and obscure.”
The stuff of which dreams are made usually comes
from the specific memory and experiences of the sleeper. Dr. Michael
Schredl, head of the sleep laboratory at Mannheim University’s
Central Institute of Mental Health: “Many different things leave
impressions on our subconscious minds; everything we see and
experience, from our own upbringing to the mass media, is stored
in our memories, which our dreams then dip into. That means that
our dreams are influenced to a large degree by our culture.”
Nocturnal journeys into history such as that experienced by Alfred
Maury are rare – as are dreams that take us to past events in our
own lives. Contrary to popular belief, elderly people do not dream
about their childhood any more frequently than young people do.
What is quite common, however, is for us to dream of certain elements
from our past, such as our old school, the house where we
lived as a child, or friends and acquaintances from long ago.
“But,” Schredl tells us, “the subjective feeling of being younger in
our dreams than we are in real life is not very common. Dreams
usually take place in the present.” He goes on to explain that in
our dreams we are usually pretty much the same person as we
are in our waking lives. “Dreams that are set in the future are rare,
too. Dreams tend to pick up on those topics that are of current
relevance to our lives – though not always in the form of obvious
images; dreams reflect the way we feel about things we have
experienced that day.” And these dreams therefore often really do
just address mundane everyday occurrences – refuting Nietzsche’s
claim that “Either one does not dream at all, or one dreams in an
interesting manner.”
But while the average dreamer primarily tackles the same issues
in her sleep that have been occupying her throughout the day,
there are people who seem to spend most of the night dreaming
and who report that throughout their dreams different dream ele-
ments and temporal levels interweave in fascinating ways; according
to their recollections, their dreams have their own past, present
and future. “These people even dream of things that they have
seen in earlier dreams, things they have never set eyes on in their
waking lives,” Schredl reports.
During our dreams we do not find anything particularly
peculiar about leaps in time or illogical events. Our current
partner morphs to become a previous lover, our own house is
suddenly placed in an unfamiliar setting, a friend who died many
years ago is engaging us in a compelling conversation – all perfectly
normal. According to neurologist Michel Jouvet, the fact that
we regard such paradoxes as normal has a scientific foundation.
He states that certain neurons in our brain need to switch off
every once in a while to regenerate, although others do not. Thus,
while we sleep, those neurons that allow us to think critically are
also out for the count.
Much of the field of sleep research remains a mystery, but there is
one thing that scientists can agree on: not only are dreams meaningful,
they are also essential for maintaining health. Experiments
during which the test subjects were not allowed to enter REM
sleep revealed that without dreams we become irritable, de pressed
and at severe risk of mental and physical illness. So, dreaming is
a good thing.
The actual function of dreaming is a topic of speculation for scientists,
religious scholars and philosophers. Whatever their purpose,
dreams can enrich the life of anyone who recalls them, ponders
their meaning and discusses them with friends or writes them
down. They expand our horizons, introduce us to unexplored
levels of consciousness and encourage us to look at things differ -
ently. The alert dreamer can profit from addressing the topics that
come up in his or her dreams – and may thus be better prepared
for the future. ✺