42 <strong>Momentum</strong> 1· <strong>2009</strong> 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. ✺
“Dreams can shape feelings, scenarios and images in such a vivid and beautiful way that the artist cannot hope to achieve when awake” Emil Nolde (German artist, 1867–1956) <strong>Momentum</strong> 1· <strong>2009</strong> 43
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