dreams essay for bsc

Essays About Dreams In Life: 14 Examples And Topic Ideas

Dreams in life are necessary; if you are writing essays about dreams in life, you can read these essay examples and topic ideas to get started.

Everyone has a dream – a big one or even a small one. Even the most successful people had dreams before becoming who they are today. Having a dream is like having a purpose in life; you will start working hard to reach your dream and never lose interest in life.

Without hard work, you can never turn a dream into a reality; it will only remain a desire. Level up your essay writing skills by reading our essays about dreams in life examples and prompts and start writing an inspiring essay today!

Writing About Dreams: A Guide

Essays about dreams in life: example essays, 1. chase your dreams: the best advice i ever got by michelle colon-johnson, 2. my dream, my future by deborah massey, 3. the pursuit of dreams by christine nishiyama, 4. my dreams and ambitions by kathy benson, 5. turning big dreams into reality by shyam gokarn, 6. my hopes and dreams by celia robinson, 7. always pursue your dreams – no matter what happens by steve bloom, 8. why do we dream by james roland, 9. bad dreams by eli goldstone, 10. why your brain needs to dream by matthew walker, 11. dreams by hedy marks, 12. do dreams really mean anything by david b. feldman, 13. how to control your dreams by serena alagappan, 14. the sunday essay: my dreams on antidepressants by ashleigh young, essays about dreams in life essay topics, 1. what is a dream, 2. what are your dreams in life, 3. why are dreams important in life, 4. what are the reasons for a person to dream big, 5. what do you think about dreams in life vs. short-term sacrifice, 6. what is the purpose of dreaming, 7. why are dreams so strange and vivid, 8. why do dreams feel so real, 9. why are dreams so hard to remember, 10. do dreams mean anything, what is a dream short essay, how can i write my dream in life.

Writing about dreams is an excellent topic for essays, brainstorming new topic ideas for fiction stories, or just as a creative outlet. We all have dreams, whether in our sleep, during the day, or even while walking on a sunny day. Some of the best ways to begin writing about a topic are by reading examples and using a helpful prompt to get started. Check out our guide to writing about dreams and begin mastering the art of writing today!

“Everyone has the ability to dream, but not everyone has the willingness to truly chase their dreams. When people aren’t living their dreams they often have limited belief systems. They believe that their current circumstances and/or surroundings are keeping them from achieving the things they want to do in life.”

In her essay, author Michelle Colon-Johnson encourages her readers to develop a mindset that will let them chase their dreams. So, you have to visualize your dream, manifest it, and start your journey towards it! Check out these essays about dreams and sleep .

“At the time when I have my job and something to make them feel so proud of me, I would like to give them the best life. I would like to make them feel comfortable and see sweet smiles on their faces. This is really the one I like to achieve in my life; mountains of words can’t explain how much I love and appreciate them.”

Author Deborah Massey’s essay talks about her dreams and everything she wanted to achieve and accomplish in her life. She also tells us that we must live our values, pursue our dreams, and follow our passions for the best future.

“Fast-forward 5+ years, and my first published book is coming out this May with Scholastic. And now, let me tell you the truth: I don’t feel any different. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity, proud of the work I’ve done, and excited for the book’s release. But on a fundamental level, I feel the same.”

In her essay, author Christine Nishiyama shares what she felt when she first achieved one of her goals in life. She says that with this mindset, you will never feel the satisfaction of achieving your goal or the fulfillment of reaching your dream. Instead, she believes that what fulfills people is the pursuit of their dreams in life.

“My dream is to become a good plastic surgeon and day after day it has transformed into an ambition which I want to move towards. I do not want to be famous, but just good enough to have my own clinic and work for a very successful hospital. Many people think that becoming a doctor is difficult, and I know that takes many years of preparation, but anyone can achieve it if they have determination.”

Author Kathy Benson’s essay narrates her life – all the things and struggles she has been through in pursuing her dreams in life. Yet, no matter how hard the situation gets, she always convinces herself not to give up, hoping her dreams will come true one day. She believes that with determination and commitment, anyone can achieve their dreams and goals in life. 

“I have always been a big dreamer and involved in acting upon it. Though, many times I failed, I continued to dream big and act. As long as I recollect, I always had such wild visions and fantasies of thinking, planning, and acting to achieve great things in life. But, as anyone can observe, there are many people, who think and work in that aspect.”

In his essay, author Shyam Gokarn explains why having a big dream is very important in a person’s life. However, he believes that the problem with some people is that they never hold tight to their dreams, even if they can turn them into reality. As a result, they tend to easily give up on their dreams and even stop trying instead of persevering through the pain and anguish of another failure.

“When I was younger, I’ve always had a fairytale-like dream about my future. To marry my prince, have a Fairy Godmother, be a princess… But now, all of that has changed. I’ve realized how hard life is now; that life cannot be like a fairy tale. What you want can’t happen just like that.”

Celia Robinson’s essay talks about her dream since she was a child. Unfortunately, as we grow old, there’s no “Fairy Godmother” that would help us when things get tough. Everyone wants to succeed in the future, but we have to work hard to achieve our dreams and goals.

“Take writing for example. I’ve wanted to be a professional writer since I was a little boy, but I was too scared that I wouldn’t be any good at it. But several years ago I started pursuing this dream despite knowing how difficult it might be. I fully realize I may not make it, but I’m completely fine with that. At least I tried which is more than most people can say.”

In his essay, author Steve Bloom encourages his readers always to pursue their dreams no matter what happens. He asks, “Would you rather pursue them and fail or never try?”. He believes that it’s always better to try and fail than look back and wonder what might have been. Stop thinking that failure or success is the only end goal for pursuing your dreams. Instead, think of it as a long journey where all the experiences you get along the way are just as important as reaching the end goal.

“Dreams are hallucinations that occur during certain stages of sleep. They’re strongest during REM sleep, or the rapid eye movement stage, when you may be less likely to recall your dream. Much is known about the role of sleep in regulating our metabolism, blood pressure, brain function, and other aspects of health. But it’s been harder for researchers to explain the role of dreams. When you’re awake, your thoughts have a certain logic to them. When you sleep, your brain is still active, but your thoughts or dreams often make little or no sense.”

Author James Roland’s essay explains the purpose of having dreams and the factors that can influence our dreams. He also mentioned some of the reasons that cause nightmares. Debra Sullivan, a nurse educator, medically reviews his essay. Sullivan’s expertise includes cardiology, psoriasis/dermatology, pediatrics, and alternative medicine. For more, you can also see these articles about sleep .

“The first time I experienced sleep paralysis and recognised it for what it was I was a student. I had been taking MDMA and listening to Django Reinhardt. My memories of that time are mainly of taking drugs and listening to Django Reinhardt. When I woke up I was in my paralysed body. I was there, inside it. I was inside my leaden wrists, my ribcage, the thick dead roots of my hair, the bandages of skin. This time the hallucinations were auditory. I could hear someone being beaten outside my door. They were screaming for help. And I could do nothing but lie there, locked inside my body . . . whatever bit of me is not my body. That is the bit that exists, by itself, at night.”

In her essay, Author Eli Goldstone talks about her suffering from bad dreams ever since childhood. She also talks about what she feels every time she has sleep paralysis – a feeling of being conscious but unable to move.

“We often hear stories of people who’ve learned from their dreams or been inspired by them. Think of Paul McCartney’s story of how his hit song “Yesterday” came to him in a dream or of Mendeleev’s dream-inspired construction of the periodic table of elements. But, while many of us may feel that our dreams have special meaning or a useful purpose, science has been more skeptical of that claim. Instead of being harbingers of creativity or some kind of message from our unconscious, some scientists have considered dreaming to being an unintended consequence of sleep—a byproduct of evolution without benefit.”

Author Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, shares some interesting facts about dreams in his essay. According to research, dreaming is more than just a byproduct of sleep; it also serves essential functions in our well-being. 

“Dreams are basically stories and images that our mind creates while we sleep. They can be vivid. They can make you feel happy, sad, or scared. And they may seem confusing or perfectly rational. Dreams can happen at any time during sleep. But you have your most vivid dreams during a phase called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when your brain is most active. Some experts say we dream at least four to six times a night.”

In his essay, Author Hedy Marks discusses everything we need to know about dreams in detail – from defining a dream to tips that may help us remember our dreams. Hedy Marks is an Assistant Managing Editor at WebMD , and Carol DerSarkissian, a board-certified emergency physician, medically reviews his essay.

“Regardless of whether dreams foretell the future, allow us to commune with the divine, or simply provide a better understanding of ourselves, the process of analyzing them has always been highly symbolic. To understand the meaning of dreams, we must interpret them as if they were written in a secret code. A quick search of an online dream dictionary will tell you that haunted houses symbolize “unfinished emotional business,” dimly lit lamps mean you’re “feeling overwhelmed by emotional issues,” a feast indicates “a lack of balance in your life,” and garages symbolize a feeling of “lacking direction or guidance in achieving your goals.” 

Author David B. Feldman, an author, speaker, and professor of counseling psychology, believes that dreams may not mean anything, but they tell us something about our emotions. In other words, if you’ve been suffering from a series of bad dreams, it could be worth checking in with yourself to see how you’ve been feeling and perhaps consider whether there’s anything you can do to improve your mood.

“Ever wish you could ice skate across a winter sky, catching crumbs of gingerbread, like flakes of snow, on your tongue? How about conquering a monster in a nightmare, bouncing between mountain peaks, walking through walls, or reading minds? Have you ever longed to hold the hand of someone you loved and lost? If you want to fulfill your fantasies, or even face your fears, you might want to try taking some control of your dreams (try being the operative). People practiced in lucid dreaming—the phenomenon of being aware that you are dreaming while you are asleep—claim that the experience allows adventure, self-discovery, and euphoric joy.”

In her essay, Author Serena Alagappan talks about lucid dreams – a type of dream where a person becomes conscious during a dream. She also talked about ways to control our dreams, such as keeping a journal, reciting mantras before bed, and believing we can. However, not everyone will be able to control their dreams because the levels of lucidity and control differ significantly between individuals.

“There was a period of six months when I tried to go off my medication – a slowly unfolding disaster – and I’d thought my dreams might settle down. Instead, they grew more deranged. Even now I think of the dream in which I was using a cigarette lighter to melt my own father, who had assumed the form of a large candle. I’ve since learned that, apart from more research being needed, this was probably a case of “REM rebound”. When you stop taking the medication, you’ll likely get a lot more REM sleep than you were getting before. In simple terms, your brain goes on a dreaming frenzy, amping up the detail.”

Author Ashleigh Young’s essay informs us how some medications, such as antidepressants, affect our dreams based on her own life experience. She said, “I’ve tried not to dwell too much on my dreams. Yes, they are vivid and sometimes truly gruesome, full of chaotic, unfathomable violence, but weird nights seemed a reasonable price to pay for the bearable days that SSRIs have helped me to have.” 

In simple terms, a dream is a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal; is it the same as your goal in life? In your essay, explore this topic and state your opinion about what the word “dream” means to you.

This is an excellent topic for your statement or “about me” essay. Where do you see yourself in the next ten years? Do you have a career plan? If you still haven’t thought about it, maybe it’s time to start thinking about your future.

Having dreams is very important in a person’s life; it motivates, inspires, and helps you achieve any goal that you have in mind. Without dreams, we would feel lost – having no purpose in life. Therefore, in your essay, you should be able to explain to your readers how important it is to have a dream or ambition in life. 

Dreaming big sounds great; however, it’s easier said than done. First, you’ve got to have reasons to dream big, which will motivate you to achieve your goals in life. If you’re writing an essay about dreams in life, mention why most people dare to dream big and achieve more in life. Is it about freedom, money, praise from other people, satisfaction, or something else entirely?

For example, you could watch movies, play video games, relax every night, or give up all of them to learn a complex skill – what would you choose, and why? In your essay about dreams in life, answer the question and include other examples about this topic so your readers can relate.

There are many answers to this question – one is that dreams may have an evolutionary function, testing us in scenarios crucial to our survival. Dreams may also reduce the severity of emotional trauma. On the other hand, some researchers say dreams have no purpose or meaning, while some say we need dreams for physical and mental health. Take a closer look at this topic, and include what you find in your essay.

Weird dreams could result from anxiety, stress, or sleep deprivation. So, manage your stress levels, and stick to a sleep routine to stop having weird dreams. If you wake up from a weird dream, you can fall back asleep using deep breaths or any relaxing activity. You can research other causes of weird dreams and ways to stop yourself from having them for your essay about dreams and sleep.

The same areas of the brain that are active when we learn and process information in the actual world are active when we dream, and they replay the information as we sleep. Many things we see, hear, and feel in our everyday lives appear in our dreams. If you want to write an informative essay about dreams and sleep, look into more details about this topic.

Tip: When editing for grammar, we also recommend taking the time to improve the readability score of a piece of writing before publishing or submitting it.

People may not remember what happened in their dreams. Studies show that people tend to forget their dreams due to the changing levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine during sleep. This will be quite an exciting topic for your readers because many people can relate. That being said, research more information about this topic, and discuss it in detail in your essay. 

Although some people believe that dreams don’t mean anything, many psychologists and other experts have theorized about the deeper meaning of dreams. Therefore, your essay about dreams and sleep should delve deeper into this topic. If you’re stuck picking your next essay topic, check out our round-up of essay topics about education .

FAQS on Essays About Dreams in Life

There are many great short essays about dreams; you can write your own too! Some great examples include Do Dreams Really Mean Anything? by David B. Feldman and  Dreams by Hedy Marks.

Writing about your dreams in life is a fantastic creative outlet and can even help you plan your future. Use a prompt to get started, like “What are your dreams in life?” or “What do you aspire to be in ten years?” and begin writing without thinking too much about it. See where the pen takes you and start mapping out your future with this writing exercise.

Meet Rachael, the editor at Become a Writer Today. With years of experience in the field, she is passionate about language and dedicated to producing high-quality content that engages and informs readers. When she's not editing or writing, you can find her exploring the great outdoors, finding inspiration for her next project.

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Essay on Dreams, Types and Causes

Essay on dreams for matric, intermediate, 2nd year, fa, fsc, ba and bsc.

Essay on Dreams is here for the students of Class, 10, Class 12 and Graduation. In Dreams essay we will discuss dreams definition , what is dream, what causes dreams , different types of dreams and the reasons behind them. The psychology of dreams is also a part of this essay on Dreams . There are different reasons behind the different types of dreams . Hereunder is the complete essay on it.

Dreams Essay for Class 10, Class 12, Graduation and other classes

Dreams are as old as human beings are. They are in reality a psychological phenomenon. Only human beings see dreams. According to the psychologists, we see dreams in our sleep because at that time, our mind is awake and our body is asleep. Our experiences of daily life are projected into dreams. The mind wakes up earlier than the body, It does not need as much rest as the body. As soon as it awakes, it begins to weave experiences of daily life into dreams.

In dreams sometimes, the experiences are real, sometimes there is a confused series of experience. Some dreams are very pleasant and romantic. Due to this reason some places are called “Dreamland” in common talk. One gets up early in the morning very much pleased with what one has seen. On the other hand, some dreams are very fearful. They are called “nightmares”. A person is sleeping soundly others are also sleeping near him. All of a sudden, he gives out a terrible shriek. He gets up startled. He tells us that in his dream he has seen a snake or enemy in the dream. The snake was about to bite him.

There are many reasons for dreams.

First, the old thinkers have given importance to the memory element in dreams. It is with the help of our memory that we visualize the real things of life. Aristotle was of the opinion that dreams were due to the impression left by objects seen with the eyes on the body. Plato connected dreaming with the normal working operations of the mind. The old people thought that the ghosts of the dead people visited the dreamer. Modern discoveries about human nature have rejected the views of the old people.

Secondly, the modern psychologist Freud has given his own explanation about dreams. His book “The Interpretation of Dreams” occupies an important place on the subject. He gives us four reasons tor dreams. Firstly, the dreamer is disturbed in his dream by external objects. A mosquito may bite him, the clouds may roar and the alarm bell may ring. These are the external things which disturb our sleep and make us see dreams.

Thirdly, the dreamer is disturbed by inner disturbance of his body or mind. It happens, in case of his mental or physical illness. In this disturbed state, we see dreams.

Fourthly, we may dream when one of our five senses is disturbed.

Lastly, the ideas stored in our mind, come out in the form of dreams in disguised forms. Freud holds, that there are dreams in which we fulfil our wishes. These unfulfilled desires go into our unconscious mind and come out again at night in the form of dreams. These wishes take a disguised shape. A beggar may consider himself a prince in his dream or an old man may dream of becoming a child.

There are certain dreams which indicate future. These are the dreams of pious and noble people. Such were the dreams of Prophet Jacob (A.S) . Prophet Ibrahim (A.S) and King of Egypt. Prophet Jacob (A.S) saw the sun and stars bowing before him. The King of Egypt dreamt that he saw seven lean cows and seven fat cows. This dream was interpreted by Prophet Joseph (A.S) . He told that the seven lean cows stood for seven years of adversity while the seven fat cows stood for rich and prosperous years.

Hope this essay on dreams explains the types and causes of different types of dreams , you may also like Essay on Honesty.

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Dreams College Essays Samples For Students

1008 samples of this type

During studying in college, you will definitely need to craft a bunch of College Essays on Dreams. Lucky you if linking words together and turning them into meaningful text comes easy to you; if it's not the case, you can save the day by finding a previously written Dreams College Essay example and using it as a model to follow.

This is when you will certainly find WowEssays' free samples catalog extremely helpful as it includes numerous expertly written works on most various Dreams College Essays topics. Ideally, you should be able to find a piece that meets your criteria and use it as a template to develop your own College Essay. Alternatively, our expert essay writers can deliver you a unique Dreams College Essay model written from scratch according to your custom instructions.

Example Of Giancarlo Essay

Giancarlo had a couple of hours in the country and he went to visit some of his relatives. His face shone with sweat, his eyes glowed with sadness and fatigue, his long hair covered his ears and his black beard continued to grow. He greeted all with affection, but he didn’t seem excited. Actually, he does not speak much whenever he arrives. As reality was checking in on him, anxiety of an uncertain future and imminent tragedy overtook his ideas and encouragement.

Good Example Of A Raisin in the Sun Essay

Langston Hughes’ in his poem "Harlem (A Dream Deferred)" and Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun" look at the impact of racial prejudice in the lives of African-Americans. The main idea of both writers is show how the economic effect of how racism leads individuals to dream about a better life. Both writers describe the psychology of having dreams and ambitions, and the how living in a society built on racism conflicts with the success of dreams.

Variations in Consciousness Essay Examples

The idea that sleep was more than just an inactive state for the body changed in 1952 when rapid eye movement (REM) got diagnosed and in extension dreaming; which was another state of consciousness. Consciousness implies being aware of both external and internal stimuli. It flows much like a stream; it wanders depending on the individual’s state of mind; boredom, fatigue or stress. A link between consciousness and the brain exists. Therefore, it is a result of neural activity in the neural pathway network.

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Free View of America Essay Example

View of america.

United States of America is a country of immigrants. Because of the grand opportunities for employment, a lot of individuals venture into finding a job in the United States. For a lot of people, the desire for a life in harmony, freedom, and peace is as significant as values such as independence, individualism, as well as self-sufficiency.

Prevalence of Engineering Essay Example

Everywhere in the world today we can see prevalence of engineering. From pyramids to the Golden Gate Bridge and the Shard of London, we can see miracles of Civil Engineering everywhere. And the excitement and curiosity; to understand how such seemingly impossible projects were materialized into standing realities, was my prime motivation to study Civil Engineering.

Example Of The Importance Of The Scholarship Essay

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Since time immemorial, sensory disabled people especially have been in the background of society, and not being encouraged to follow whatever dreams they have because of the lack of concept about that dream. See, people with sensory disabilities want to live a normal life or be seen as normal, and not just some freak in a wheelchair or some last dating resort. This essay will discuss the importance of sensory disabled people’s abilities human rights, their needs and getting them met, their life plans and how they are capable of living like a normal person despite their disability.

Essay On Hope And The American Dream

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Success means different things to different people, to some people, it means getting down to their ideal weight and for others, success is measured by getting that promotion to head executive with a key to the executive washroom along with a $20,000.00 dollar a year bonus. Success is the endgame goal of a particular task. Case in point, people who work from home make money in their spare time and bring in anywhere from $200.00 to $1100.00 dollars a week then make the same amount of money week after week, month after month; this is the textbook definition of the word success.

Example Of Essay About Suffering in Baldwin’s Sonny’ Blues

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What generally defines poetry connects a number of poems in terms of thematic concerns, stylistic devices employed, mood and the language. According to one of the earliest definition of poetry, William Wordsworth says that poetry is an unprompted flow of feeling recollected in stillness. Themes are connected to the mood of the poem and different authors may fall victims of such impulsive composition environment and themes speak louder that decorative styles like alliterations, assonance, rhymes. In this paper I will discuss the connection between three poems; Noh’s Raven, dog dreaming and the drunken in the furnace by W.S. Merwin.

Stylistic Connection

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The paper looks into an analysis of “The Dream” by Pablo Picasso and why this art work should be considered an example of "new media art". There are details in the essay regarding the artist, his bio, and the history and controversies related to the artist and his work. Most importantly, the essay looks into as to why the work of the artist and his practices are an example of "new media".

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Dream Vs Reality Analytical Essay

Dream vs. reality: essay introduction, dreams: a historical perspective, dreams vs reality, sleeping and dreaming, psychology dreaming, accessing physical experiences, dreams and reality: essay conclusion, works cited.

The concept of dreams has eluded even the most renowned philosophers and psychologists, including Aristotle, Plato, and Sigmund Freud. Plato likened dreams to a presentation that we experience while sleeping (Hamilton, Cairns and Cooper 571). Modern psychology seems to have borrowed the definition of a dream from Plato’s, in that they have defined dreams as sequences of experiences borne of imagination during sleep (Dennett 129).

The aim of this statement of intent is to provide a more holistic definition of dreams from both a historical as well as a modern perspective. There is often a very thin line between “dreams” and “reality”. As such, it is indispensable to examine such a link.

Sigmund Freud commenced his psychoanalytical study on dreams in 1900 with a complaint that philosophers viewed his idea of dreams as second-rate and intellectually unworthy (Freud 5). In his article, ‘Dreams’, Manser opines that Freud had “littler to say about the nature of dreams which is of interest to the philosopher” (415). There appears to be little attention devoted to the concept of dream by philosophers, even as the topic puzzled such renowned philosophers as Aristotle and Plato.

There is a need to define what dreaming is, and how one may distinguish between reality and dreams. From a historical point of view, dreams are a frightening and puzzling phenomenon. Prehistorically, ancestors also viewed dreams as messages sent to them by demons and gods. To the fatalist, dreams are portents or omens of future events.

Ancient Greek philosophers adopted a rather rational naturalist approach to dreams. Aristotle provided the definition of dreams as that experience one has in his/her sleep (Ross 56). On the other hand, Plato defined dreams as the visions that we always recall in our waking hours (Hamilton et al 571). Modern psychology appears to have adopted the Aristotelian stance: dreams are sequences of experiences borne of imagination during sleep (Dennett 129).

Nietzsche’s argument blaming the belief in ghosts, gods, resurrection and life after death on the doorstep of the dream was sensible (LaBerge 231). Supposing that, the idea of soul-body arose from subjective experiences in the dream world, whether or not the soul was an objective reality depended on reality insight placed on the dream.

If, in ancient times, human believed that they had discovered a second real world in a dream, what did that mean? Was it a mere intuitively verifiable existence? Few possibilities exist in an attempt to solve the mystery of these questions. Whether dreams are real and if they are, how do they compare to physical reality in terms of the mental truths (LaBerge 231).

Two issues emerged – one was the extent to which an experience appears to be subjectively real. The second was the extent the experience appears to be objectively real (this was independent of the first). Simple logic affirms that something exists only if it can cause an effect on another thing (LaBerge 233). Therefore, since it is extraordinarily difficult to interact with a dream physically, proving that it existed in reality was exceedingly difficult.

The line between dream and reality is often frightfully thin. Although one can hardly control the contents of their sleep compared with those of waken imagination and daydreams, on the other hand, dreams appear to have a stronger false impression of reality. Baudrillard opines that our cultural products do not distort or reflect a basic existing reality anymore; instead, the absence of reality seems to have been concealed (262).

The emergence of novel computer and media technologies presents yet another challenge to the reality vs. dream issue, because, through this interaction, we can immerse in virtual reality. Consequently, we cease being external observers per se and partake in a synthesis of “cyberspace” borne of our association with computer technology. Virtual reality has effectively ended the conventional technological dream of establishing an ideal illusion of reality.

From the historical perspective, it was understood that dream were mystifying, as human awoke to self-consciousness to consciousness of mortality. Many people came up with religious and magical explanations to explain the strange visions they experienced during sleep (Dennett 130). This introduced thoughts like the ability of the soul to depart the body and travel to other places. The possibility of the dead and the living interacting were a possibility. Some even believed that, dreams in sleep were messages from gods or destiny.

Philosophers like Plato emerged with rational naturalist approaches, characterizing dreams as visions in people (Plato 571), remembered in reality.

Aristotle, on the other hand, put it that dreams were some presentation or imagination, specifically those that occurred during sleep (Dennett 130). Aristotle affirms that dream were not God-sent neither did they present any future predictions (Ross 46). Yet, sometimes, dream could be an inspiration for future happenings.

Plato, being more imaginative, compared mad people with sleepers and found that, their thought were false, for instance, feeling of flying. Plato realized that, however much decent man appeared, there was always a low and licentious point of experiences during dreams (Plato 571). This thought anticipated that Freud’s idea of many-layered organization of human consciousness (Freud, “Introductory Lectures” 21).

Freud’s theory purports rest as a function of sleep, which could be well experienced in dreamless sleep. However, when control of the daytime consciousness was resting in sleep, the subconscious mental process continues to work on an immature level (Freud “Introductory Lectures” 21).

Therefore, dreams were regressive. They go back to visual images, more so the primary sexual desires (Freud, “Interpretation of Dreams” 67). An idea that Freud added to Plato’s theory of dream-work: dreams guaranteed sleep, blocked censorship, by revisiting the original latent dream idea, and then disguising its manifestation (Plato 571).

As people argue, we spend about one third of our lives in sleep, it is crucial to conduct extensive research to understand dream and sleep. Study of sleep and dream shows proof of principal experiences in sleep, for instance, the sleep-wake cycle, sleep disorders, sleep regulations and snoring among others (LaBerge 233).

Based on the nature of scientific studies, the studies of sleep often look at physical signs like body temperatures, eye movement, and blood pressure. philosophers cannot hence be able to use these data to draw conclusions. Philosophy is more interested in a dream while psychology deals with the sleeping process. Therefore, studying dreaming and sleeping will require the use of internal mental processes and reactions to interpret what happens in sleep in external viewpoint (Ross 49).

Connecting the internal and external features becomes intricate. Having no characteristics and stable variables to use for studying dreams, little research is available on the topic compared to other topics like reasoning, memory, Imagination and beliefs. Dreams still puzzle people since the times of Plato, and Aristotle. Concerns of how to identify dreams, individual and social function of dreams, and the logic behind dreaming, lead to metaphysics, mind philosophy, culture and epistemology. Dreaming hence remains fascinating.

Dreaming is a fascinating experience and rather under-researched. Dreams also challenge the real life experiences and the fact that human think they understand consciousness and conscious (Freud, “Introductory Lectures” 21). There are numerous theories of the mind that do not dream and reality.

Hence, they are incomplete. Scholars can be motivated to be more imaginative about dreaming, and to include it in a number of philosophical topics because of they will draw defined pedagogical utilities. The study of sleep and dreaming by use of inventive experiments developed by psychologist form an exceptional way of studying physiology and phenomenology, and experiential and conceptual approaches in the study of mind.

Despite the discovery of the fascinating rapid eye movement (REM) sleep relationship with dreams, there has not been much thoughtful derivative of the mind philosophy. Epistemologists still use dream concepts to address skepticism, has barely influenced the active self-image of mainstream philosophy of mind.

It is often difficult to measure dream for study especially when comparing dream and reality because, one has to do comparison against real-life events (Metzinger 528). However, the better way to study dream and reality is to compare dream metal event against wake mental events. A number of experiences can e improbable in physical reality but intensely easily to imagine in a dream. Only a broad perceptual (Hallucinatory) model of dreaming has compared dream and reality.

There is a new focus on lucid dreaming and lucid. Some evidence has indicated that, people experiencing lucid dream were also likely to fluctuate between viewpoints dream and mental life. A lucid dreamer always knows that the existing world of the dream was not real (Metzinger 530).

Metzinger suggested that a lucid dreamer understood the phenomenon they experienced did not vary with external physical reality in content. To the farthest, lucid dreamer can recollect full memory and remember at least some characteristics of phenomenology of agency (Metzinger 530).

In his study on children’s dream, Foulkes recommended research on the connection between dreaming and skills of imagination and manipulation of patterns (Foulkes 9). Probably, visual-spatial capacities somehow assisted in generation of continuous kinematic imagery typical of happier dreams.

Too young children had rather static dreams. Foulkes connects the continued production of spontaneous kinematics imagery. In a study lab of young adults, participants were to respond on whether they saw themselves the way another person would do, or whether they saw the dream in their own eyes (Foulkes 9). A remarkably small percentage saw themselves in the dream. They did not experience kinematic imagery.

However, seeing the dream in their own eyes saw the dreamers experienced much kinematic imagery. Research that explicitly question subjects to specify a certain perspective of their dream and memory experience is not a vital choice in this fascinating domain. Most people impulsively flip between perspectives and confidence retrospective judgment of the dream is not always high.

Our mental health depends on dreams. Through science, one can understand nature better is by first achieving harmony. However, perhaps we need not be so concerned with turning dreams into reality; instead, we should just let them remain dreams. Are Dreams Functional? Currently, there are many logical reasons of functional and the way dreams appeared different from sense of function.

Even though there are incredible adaptationist accounts for sleep and phases of the sleep-cycle itself, there is reason to perceive that mental activity that took place in sleep was an authentic example of byproduct of what was designed during sleep-wake cycle. If this was right, there would be a situation where dreaming was mysteriously an uncontrolled sequeale, a spandrel and exaptation.

Baudrillard, Jean. The Precession of Simulacra . New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984. Print.

Dennett, Dan. Are Dreams Experiences ? In Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology . Brighton: Harvester Press, 1981. Print.

Foulkes, David. Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1999. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973. Print.

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams . London: Allen & Unwin, 1951. Print.

Hamilton, Edith, Huntington Cairns, and Lane Cooper. The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters . Princeton: Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2005. Print.

LaBerge, Stephen. Dreaming, Illusion, And Reality in Lucid Dreaming . New York: Ballantine, 1985. Print.

Manser, Paul. Dreams, in P. Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Philosophy . London: Collier and Macmillan, 1967. Print.

Metzinger, Thomas. Being No-one: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Print.

Plato, Aristocles. The Collected Dialogues . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961. Print.

Ross, William. Aristotle . London: Routledge, 1995. Print.

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Seven brilliant student essays on your wildest dreams for 2020.

Read winning essays from our spring 2020 student writing contest.

For the spring 2020 student writing contest, we invited students to read the YES! article “ Alicia Garza: How to Prepare for 2020 ” by Kate Werning. Alicia Garza, co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter offered this advice, “Clarity inside of chaos can help us find direction when it seems like everything around us is unstable.” Lots of things may keep students up at night or make them anxious. Students wrote about what they might accomplish in their wildest dreams for themselves or for this nation—and the steps they would take to make this vision a reality.

THE WINNERS

From the hundreds of essays written, these seven were chosen as winners. Be sure to read the author’s response to the essay winners and literary gems that caught our eye.

You can hear four students read their winning essays on the Irresistible podcast. Be prepared to be inspired! Thank you to author and Irresistible’s founding director Kate Werning for sharing these powerful stories.

Middle School Winner: Theo Cooksey

High School Winner: Kira Walter

University Winner: Athina Amanor

Powerful Voice Winner: Sary Barrios

Powerful Voice Winner: Avery Chase

Powerful Voice Winner: Daniel Cook

“Can I Dream?” Winner: Maitreya Motel

From the author Kate Werning: Response to Essay Winners

Literary gems, middle school winner.

Theo Cooksey

Brier Middle School, Brier, Wash.

Looking Back to Move Forward

I’ve never really looked at long-term goals for myself, as Alicia Garza suggests in the YES! article “How to Prepare for 2020” by Kate Werning. Other than my goal of reaching Eagle Scout before I turn 18, I tend to live day to day. I’m 13, so shouldn’t I just, well, be a kid? Isn’t goal planning and future planning something adults do? To be honest, when I read the article and learned what the topic was, I locked up like a clam. Sharing dreams of how I could positively change the world makes me uncomfortable. Why would I open myself up to that level of critique, especially in middle school? Although I would love to see advancements to reduce the effects of climate change and uneven wealth distribution, I can’t visualize myself impacting these issues right now.

This led me to wonder why I stopped thinking about my ability to influence the future in a way where anything is possible. What made me narrow my scope and start looking down, rather than seeing my potential? I believed I couldn’t possibly change the world if I could hardly impact myself. If you’re always working hard at fitting into a world by other’s standards, how do you have time to dream of your possibilities? This made me ask, “When did I allow this box to contain me?” When I realized I wasn’t accepted as myself.

When I was young, I possessed an immense personality that couldn’t be contained. I was a giant, perpetual motor hurling questions, wanting answers, always moving. However, over years of school, my personality withered, and my motor followed suit. Going from a storm to no more than a summer breeze, my motor was barely able to push paper. Why did that happen? I quieted my voice, so I wouldn’t be told I was too loud. I suppressed my motor, so I wouldn’t be told to stop moving. I spoke less so I wouldn’t constantly be told to stop talking and stop interrupting. 

After spending so much energy shrinking my personality, I hardly had time to look up and think about what I wanted to do. How do I get back to looking up and out into the world? I believe that this assignment has given me the chance to start doing just that. As I uncoil the past, undo the steps and remember the moments that quieted and contained me, stole my voice, and seized my motor, I am determined to recreate what I lost. I will slowly rebuild my motor into an impervious hurricane that will break out of the box that limited me. My opinion will not be hidden from others.

As I lift my head up, I will start with the small things and my familiar spaces. For me, these are working on what affects me directly, like school and what I enjoy outside of school. I will build the forge in our backyard with my dad to pursue blacksmithing together. I will continue to hone my skills in archery. I will dust off my trumpet and give myself the chance to hit the high notes. I will earn Life Scout rank to put me one step closer to Eagle Scout. By keeping my head up and moving forward with a plan, I no longer need to be the kid who internalized everything.

Becoming a better me now, at 13, will make me a better person who may just be able to influence climate change and build a more equitable wealth distribution system when I get older.

Theo Cooksey, an eighth grader from Lynnwood, Washington, is an avid reader and video game player. Theo plays the euphonium and trumpet, and is an expert in Star Wars movies and music. During the COVID-19 quarantine, he is learning to bake and is building a forge.

High School Winner

Kira Walter

Mamaroneck High School, Mamaroneck, N.Y.

Turning Flowers to Trees

 Maybe we used to be trees. Rainforests of friendly monsters, scraping the sky, communicating, and reaching the sun. Maybe roots used to run where we couldn’t see them, connecting us to each other and spreading through the world like telephone lines across our continent. But somehow, though the earth stayed warm and the rain fell on our soil, we evolved from trees into flowers. Flowers alone in our own empty fields, roots too short to reach anything. 

At a high school with over 1,000 students, I notice how we pass each other on the street, in the hallway, lucky if our eyes meet for a moment, if our hearts touch for a second. We are isolated. Although I hope for a world where none go hungry, where violence is absent, where rivers breathe with cold clean life, and wild creatures run through lush green forests, I first hope for a world where we can connect. A world where America’s youth doesn’t have to contemplate whether it is better to live in the light or commit suicide in the darkness. 

My wildest dream for this nation is that people will reach out to those suffering, to America’s youth whose second leading cause of death is suicide. It was not too long ago that a friend approached me about trying to take her own life; she locked herself in a bathroom filled with poisonous gas, waiting for her breath to go soft and blow out like a candle in the wind. We had always been distant, but she chose to share her secret with me because she had no one else to share it with.  

According to the Jason Foundation, 3,069 high schoolers in the U.S. attempt suicide every day. Among this group, four out of five leave clear signs of depression. So why do so many signs, such as drug use, sleep shortages or extreme mood swings, go unnoticed? The answer is isolation. People are so separate from each other that the chances of being discovered are nearly impossible. Although many try to ascribe teen suicide to the pressures of excelling both academically and socially, overcoming these obstacles can be easier than they seem. Easier as long as students have someone to support them through struggles. 

Many teenagers who take their lives are members of healthy families and are surrounded by friends, but they feel as if they can’t share their troubles with them. They fear that this would be a burden on those they care about and so they remain silent. Teens let dangerous secrets collect like water droplets in a jar. One day, this jar reaches its capacity, problems overcome them, and alone, they surrender. In Kate Werning’s YES! article “How to Prepare for 2020,” Alicia Garza explains that “clarity inside of chaos can help us find direction when it seems like everything around us is unstable.” I dream our community will teach suffering teens to find that clarity – that we will help them blossom on a path to success. 

In modern-day society, too many people shame others for attempting suicide. They identify them as troubled and accuse them of being too weak to deal with life’s challenges. To combat suicide, I’ll make sure to do the opposite. I’ll reach out, check in with, and cheer up my peers. I’ll try to comfort those in need of comfort. Because in an ever-changing world of frightening dangers and darkness, we need to be trees with roots linked together in harmonious peace. We need to support each other into a new decade, out of the shadows and towards the sun.

Kira Walter is a sophomore at Mamaroneck High School in New York. Kira writes for the school newspaper and plays on the varsity tennis team. She has enjoyed studying classical piano since she was five years old and volunteers for the American Legion in her free time. When she grows up, Kira aspires to continue her passion for writing.

University Winner

Athina Amanor

Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala.

Woman with No Nation

“You sound like a white girl.” “You’re an American baby now.” “Wow, you actually speak very good English.” “Did you live in a tree?” 

As a Ghanaian immigrant living in the United States, I’ve heard it all. Statements from my own family members living back home and from friends I’ve made in this foreign land serve as reminders that there really isn’t a place for me. I’m too American to be African, yet I am too African to be American. Even college professors have laughed while a fellow student mocked a group of African languages by clicking his tongue at me and asking,  “What did I just say in your language?” disregarding my offense and reinforcing ignorance. Many of my anxieties and doubts about self-worth stem from these types of interactions. I have adapted, self-monitoring to the highest degree, in order to be more palatable and to fit in. 

As an outwardly appearing “African American,” I fight negative stereotypes when interacting with white people, striving for excellence in both academics and athletics and hoping to outrun stereotypes and shatter prejudices. Within the African American community, I appear as a poser. I walk, talk, and think too differently to be welcomed there either. For my relatives, I speak too “American,” too fast, and I stress all the wrong syllables. I’ve carefully created so many personalities, slipping out of one skin and into the next to appease others, that I hardly recognize my true self. So, when I hear words like,” go back to your country,” a tidal wave of confusion hits me. Sometimes I wish I could, but I know the same alienation I feel here would be waiting for me in Ghana because I would still be seen as an outsider. I am a woman with no nation. I worry about being viewed as second class, about not being awarded the same rights and freedoms, about losing my culture, and about losing irreplaceable familial relationships. 

So, what in my wildest dreams do I wish for this nation? I wish for acceptance. I wish for understanding. I wish for kindness and an egalitarian mindset for all. I wish for the extinction of xenophobia and the predominance of support. I wish for a community in which I do not feel the need to prove I am not a threat, where my culture is not a trend, and above all else, where being me is enough. My wishes may seem far-fetched and on par with beauty queens claiming to want nothing more than world peace, but I am aware that I must make efforts on my own behalf and not simply put wishes out into the world.

In this new decade, I continue to fight for my dream by working with refugees and  building bridges between them and other volunteers as both groups work together to create a safe space filled with the same friendship and sense of belonging that I’ve craved for myself. I continue to make strides towards my dream by rejoicing in differences and staying open to immersing myself in new experiences without judgment. I continue to make leaps in my effort to make my dream a reality by engaging in intercultural, interreligious, and interracial dialogues, fanning the flames of mutual understanding.

And, as I look at the next ten years, I plan to make bounds towards realizing my dream by doing something we all struggle to do in life:  to discover who I am outside of the carefully curated personalities I put on and give that person all the support and acceptance I so willingly give to others yet constantly deny myself. This new decade demands that I stop viewing my self-ascribed status as a woman with no nation as weakness, and make way for the potential it holds. 

Athina Amanor is a Ghanaian immigrant who recently completed her undergraduate coursework in cellular and molecular biology. As a recently retired student-athlete, Athina enjoys staying active by taking long walks, going for short runs, and playing tennis with her older brothers. She hopes that her concern for the human condition and openness to helping others serve her well as she pursues a career in pediatric cardiology.

Powerful Voice Winner

Sary Barrios

A Borderless World

As I walk into the kitchen, I see both of my grandmas stirring the masa and my mom putting the tamales de carne on the stove and cutting different fruits to boil in the pot for caliente . It’s Noche Buena and my dad, my siblings, and I are hanging ornaments and lights. At the bottom of the tree, we arrange the Three Wise Men and the animals on one side, Mary and Joseph on the opposite side of each other, and place Jesus in his manger at the center of them all. Lastly, we put the star on top of the tree, and turn on the beautiful lights. At 8 p.m., we gather around the table to eat. We pray to God for all the good things he has brought to us in the past year. Then, we pass the tamales de carne around, talk about our family in Guatemala and how they’d decorate their tree with clementines and light fireworks at Christmas, and laugh at my brother’s jokes. Everyone is together in one place, one day, one moment. But that’s all a dream.

Instead, it’s only my parents and me at the table. Some people are able to see their family every single day or at least once a week, but my parents are forbidden to see their relatives. They went through a lot to get here, and they’ve never gone back to Guatemala. While they are grateful for the opportunities here, the borders they crossed are like a cage, keeping them from seeing their loved ones. So when I dream of a better future, I dream of a world without borders.

These boundaries keep our families apart. A few months before I was born, my dad received a call: my grandpa had passed. My dad had a hard time dealing with not being able to see his father during those last few days he was alive. This was devastating. I see other kids with their siblings, playing soccer, bonding, and telling each other jokes, but I only see my siblings every two years if I’m lucky. I can’t imagine how I would feel if my siblings were here. I know I wouldn’t feel as lonely as I do now. 

It’s not easy to be a child of immigrants, feeling scared every second of your life, and constantly thinking about “what ifs.” Last summer, when I was at camp in Maine, miles away from my parents, immigration police arrived on my first day. I wasn’t allowed to contact anyone, and I had a meltdown. It was heart-wrenching to think about being separated from my parents, and yet these borders have stopped my parents from doing the same—seeing their mothers forever. Can you imagine not being able to see your mother?

A borderless world is like an eagle soaring through the sky, completely free. In a borderless world, families would be united and everyone would live without fear of someone searching for them. In her YES! article “Alicia Garza: How to Prepare for 2020, author Kate Werning says, “We are often called to reflect on our lives, and how we want to mobilize for ourselves and our communities.” I often reflect on this beautiful dream that one day our world would be borderless, a dream that I will fight for.   

At the camp in Maine, I learned about the Hawaiian word ohana . Ohana is the spirit of family togetherness. It means that no one is ever going to be forgotten or left behind; they are stuck with each other no matter what. Ohana can also mean “nest,” which is where birds go to be safe with their families. Just like birds, immigrants want to be with their families in a safe space. Everyone together in one place, one day, one moment. 

Sary Barrios is a Guatemalan American student at Mamaroneck High School. Sary’s passion is to help others and give back to those who are in need of more. She has a huge love for her heritage and family.

Avery Chase

Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo.

There is a French photographer who said: “I will never be able to take a picture as beautiful as I see it in my eyes.”

Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a rare disease—there are less than 200,000 patients in the U.S. I was a competitive gymnast at nine years old. At a tournament,  I awkwardly dismounted from the bars and landed on my ankle. That moment changed my life. For the next eighteen months, I saw six doctors, four therapists, and three psychologists, took three  trips to different pain clinics, and missed about 100 days of school to search for answers to “the sprained ankle that could.” I was one of the “lucky” ones. That summer was a revolving door of experts dismissing me one after another.

The pain I experienced was beyond my ankle. I understand that I grew up differently, that most kids don’t divide their family moving cross-country for chronic pain rehabilitation. I have been living with CRPS for nine years—with a brief remission circa seventh grade—and a prognosis of “years to a lifetime.” Some days I’m better at accepting what I know and what I don’t. Other days it’s easier to lie in bed complacent to the pain. No matter what type of mindset, I must constantly strive to recover and hide disappointment every day that wasn’t pain-free. Outsiders haven’t seen the pictures I’ve seen—not through my eyes. Outsiders don’t know what it’s like to watch a 70-year-old squat better than you or realize that the only “record” you hold is “Longest-Stayed Patient,” not “Highest All-Around Score” in a gymnastics meet (where I really wanted to be).

It’s difficult to paint a picture of when my body physically shakes uncontrollably. My eyes scan it slowly, realizing my helplessness. Or the picture of mornings I wake up with a split lip after having habitually chewed it. Or the days I wish I wasn’t a breathing mortgage for my parents. Or the nights I spend praying for the safety switch, trusting my body will scientifically pass out if pain exceeds a threshold. There are still stories that I can’t tell and stories I don’t want to remember.

In psychologists’ offices, I go mad trying to cling onto any word I can to describe my pain, and, too often, I fail. In my wildest dream, I’m able to paint the masterpiece that finally allows people to understand the years and tears. Currently, I am trying for a picture-perfect life. I’m taking steps to overcome my highest anxieties by listening to doctors, pushing through compulsions, getting out of bed, and challenging cognitive distortions. I am living the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I know that the steps to overcome Chronic regional pain syndrome don’t necessarily mean a pain-free life. I can’t change the existence of the problem itself, but I can change the way I deal with the problem. In my wildest dream I can accept myself and whatever I accomplish, even if it is not perfect.  I can learn to accept that CRPS and everything it comes with will always be a part of my life, my disappointments, and my triumphs.

The pain translates to today. Every day, I make decisions based on that gymnastics meet nine years ago and the hundreds of hours of doctor’s appointments and clinic visits throughout the years. I wonder who I’d be if I skipped gymnastics that night. If Boston is simply a city with smart colleges, not just medical treatments. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to understand a life without my pain. What I do understand though is that being healed won’t change me. I know how it has influenced me, but I doubt I will ever stop learning either. For that reason, my life is a life with CRPS, with and without pain. I am who I am because of these experiences and the circumstances I have yet to face.

Avery Chase lives in St. Louis, Missouri, the city with the most neurotic weather in the country. Avery coaches gymnastics in her free time and has an irrational fear of cats. She plans to attend Kansas University and study social work.

Daniel Cook

Fighting the Undertow

Have you ever been caught in an undertow? Imagine swimming through waves—feeling the cool rush send a shock through your body— when a force begins pulling you away from the shore. You try swimming back to the beach but feel the current’s grip dragging you farther out to sea. After a minute, your arms and legs begin hurting. You start choking on water as you gasp for air. You attempt to yell for help only to be choked on by more water. Your mind is in a state of panic as your body begins shutting down. Suddenly, you remember what your parents told you, “Swim parallel to the shore.” You turn and start swimming again. Every muscle screams in agony, but you keep fighting. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the force stops. Relief floods your mind. You slowly swim to the shore and crawl onto the sand. Falling flat on your back, you breathe peace back into your soul. 

Life is full of undertows. Today we are faced with so much political and social injustice that many people feel as if they are caught in an undertow of emotions. I was caught in this particular undertow for a while. As a gay male living in the Deep South, I have struggled with finding my place in society. I have often asked myself questions such as  “Who do I want to become?,” “What do I stand for?,” and “How can I help others?.” With the start of the new year, I have decided it is time to face these questions. 

I am an activist at heart. It is my purpose. With the help of the YES! article “How to Prepare for 2020” and Alicia Garza, I was able to pinpoint objectives that I should focus on instead of aimlessly treading through life, being swept further away from my goals. I want to be able to hold my husband’s hand in public without eyes glaring in our direction. I want to have a place of worship that accepts me. I want to be able to enroll my children in school without the fear of them being bullied for having gay parents. I want a job without having the fear of being dismissed because of my sexuality. I want to be seen as an equal instead of as an “other.” And most of all, I want to live in a world where I don’t have to fear being murdered like Matthew Shepard. 

In order to achieve all of this for myself and people like me, I have to be more active. The article helped me outline steps I can take within the next year to help myself and others in the LGBTQ+ community. These steps include getting involved with a local LGBTQ+ activist organization, getting trained in how to provide safe spaces for people to freely discuss issues affecting them, and reading more literature and research on LGBTQ+ issues while  making these resources more available to the public. If I can conquer these steps, I will have made 2020 worth wild. 

2020 is the year I have decided I will no longer be a victim of the undertow. By focusing on my goals and following steps to achieve them, I will have the knowledge and ability to get out of the treacherous current of fear and anxiety about being who I am. I will no longer drown in the self-doubt accompanied by not knowing what I stand for. I will glide through the waters of hate and social injustice and hopefully arrive one day on the shores of equality, love, and acceptance. 

Daniel Cook is a proud gay man. Daniel was born and raised in Alabama and embraces his Southern roots while also advocating against the social injustices around him. He wants to use his privilege to help others have their voices heard and dreams of a world where all lives are valued and no one is considered an “other.”

“Can I Dream?” Winner

Maitreya Motel

High Meadow School, Rosendale, N.Y.

Can I Dream?

How do you dream in a nightmare? How do you solve a puzzle when half of the pieces have been stolen? I remember being barely twelve years old when the shooting happened at Parkland. My dad held onto me like I would vanish any second, sobbing while we listened to the news. 

When you’re 12 years old, you’ve thought about death a lot in theory, but rarely in a way that’s grounded in reality. You normally aren’t considering, “Oh, it could happen like this. Someone could have a gun and you could be in the bathroom at the wrong time. Someone could have a gun and your sixth-grade classmates could sneeze at the wrong moment. Someone could have a gun and shoot you. And you won’t be able to say goodbye to your mom and dad or tell them how much you love them. When’s recess?” 

I guess kids used to dream about being movie stars and star football players and millionaires. Now, I look around and we’re praying to make it through high school. And beyond that? Will the planet be liveable? Will our kids be okay? We want answers and guarantees. Are there any guarantees anymore? Our dreams are survival based. How much can you dream before waking up again? 

But I do have a dream.

My dream is to have the luxury of dreaming. My dream is to live in a world where what matters most is that new movie or first date. My dream is for us to be kids again instead of feeling like the future is on our shoulders. If I lived in this world, I could breathe again. Maybe, just this once, I’d get to sleep.

Maitreya Motel, an eighth-grade student at High Meadow School in New York, has been writing and producing her political Vlog “Eye On Politics” since age 10. Maitreya has been a featured speaker at women’s marches, climate change events, and political rallies, and is a member of her town’s youth commission and her county’s climate-smart commission. Her best pals are her two rescue dogs, Jolene and Zena. 

Dear Theo, Kira, Athina, Sary, Avery, Daniel,  Maitreya,

Thank you so much for sharing your writing with all of us (and some of you have shared your essays in your own voice on the podcast, too!). It takes guts to be real and vulnerable in public—to share your struggles and to be audacious enough to have dreams & compelling visions in a world where there is so much suffering.

At Irresistible , we believe that healing and social transformation are deeply connected— and that a critical foundation for both is radical honesty. To face where we feel vulnerable and afraid and powerless. Where we’ve been humiliated, shortchanged, discriminated against, or told to give up. To really feel into those places, because our deepest truth is what connects us and can become the source of our greatest power. We have to be real with ourselves about what hurts and scares us most, and connect with others’ heartbreaks and fears to move in a journey toward change together.

I see that courage in each of you. Avery, we feel you so deeply when you say “It’s difficult to paint a picture of when my body physically shakes uncontrollably. My eyes scan it slowly, realizing my helplessness.” Athina, we connect when you talk about feeling like a “woman with no nation.” Theo, I remember when I’ve been there too when you say “Sharing dreams of how I could positively change the world makes me uncomfortable. Why would I open myself up to that level of critique, especially in middle school?”

Yet despite the discouragement and pain, you still have big dreams—and I want to live in these worlds you are visioning! Maitreya’s world, where kids “have the luxury of dreaming.”Sary’s “borderless world [that] is like an eagle, soaring through the sky, completely free.” Daniel’s world where he is “able to enroll [his] children in school without the fear of them being bullied for having gay parents.” I want to follow your leadership and the leadership of youth organizers all over the country—you truly are “ Generation Transformation .”

As Kira paints for us, “Maybe roots used to run where we couldn’t see them, connecting us to each other and spreading through the world like telephone lines across our continent.” I see each of you growing those intertwining roots through your commitments to working with refugees, volunteering with your local LGBTQ+ activist organization, and training your bodies and minds toward your goals.

Especially now, as 2020 is turning out so completely differently than any of us could have imagined, the moves you are making toward your visions are critical. I’ve often felt like my hard work trying to contribute to liberation movements has been futile, that the world is getting crueler in so many ways. But I also remember that even though I’m only 32 years old, I am amazed at how much has already changed radically in my lifetime— toward a world of more racial justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ & gender liberation, disability justice, and so much more. It does get better.

adrienne maree brown teaches us that in every small action we take, we shape change. Even under the intense conditions we currently face, this remains true. With our big visions as a strong north star, we find the next right move we can make toward freedom.

Keep dreaming, keep taking action, and keep sharing your story with powerful honesty. I’m right next to you on the journey.

—Kate Werning

We received many outstanding essays for the spring 2020 Student Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye:

My wildest dreams would be a world filled with non-judgmental people, self expectations—not anybody else’s expectations of me—being me and loving it, less school stress, and, of course, free puppies! —Izzy Hughes, The Crest Academy, Salida, Colo.

I want to imagine a place where I can go wherever I want without having to worry about another person violating my body. No one should ever touch another person without their permission. That is what I want.  —Ruby Wilsford, Goodnight Middle School, San Marcos, Tex.  

Type 1 diabetes is not a choice or a result of poor life decisions. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks itself. How can Americans justify that it is acceptable to pay seventy-two times the worth of a life-or-death product? —Elise Farris, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala.

I was born on April 26, 2005, in a hospital in Appleton, Wisconsin, the home of the first hydropower plant and the “world-famous” Harry Houdini Museum. Then, at age three, my family moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, a town on the board of Wisconsin and Illinois. My parents sent me and my siblings to a Catholic school 12 miles north in a town called Janesville, Wisconsin. It was like living in two cities at once. My family lived in one and my friends and their families lived in the other. I thought the situation was fine, but as I got older, I started to notice things. I noticed how my friends felt uncomfortable when we went anywhere else in Beloit besides my house. I noticed how adults grimaced when I said I was from Beloit. And, suddenly, I felt my situation wasn’t fine. —Charlotte Mark, Craig High School, Janesville, Wis. 

Pandemics happen when we fail to be aware of how interrelated we really are—when we fail to note the doors we open, the hands we shake, and the spaces we share every day. Mindful of these connections, we realize that the health of one of us affects the health of all of us. We must care for our fellow beings, even if it means personal sacrifice. —Donald Wolford, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

I can help others, but I also need to know what to do when dark thoughts manifest in my own mind. —Natalie Streuli, Brier Middle School, Brier, Wash.  

If I’ve learned anything in the past 13 years, it’s that things never go as planned. Having a rough draft of your life is okay, but never expect it to turn exactly how you imagined. —Emerson Reed, The Crest Academy, Salida, Colo.

There are about 40 million food-insecure people in the United States and 13 million of those people are children … I want these people to go to sleep full and knowing that they will get another three meals tomorrow. —John Francis, Our Lady Star of the Sea, Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.

… I was floating, levitating in midair when the voice began slowly whispering. His voice washed over my body like warm sunlight on a summer day. “This is what inner peace feels like. You tried your best and did the most you can, but to achieve this, you must continue on.” He disappeared and the world collapsed on itself. I was motivated to do better but now looking back I wish I had started sooner.   —Nicholas Tyner, American School of The Hague, Wassenaar, Netherlands

Failure isn’t a dangerous monster we should run from. It is a beautiful seed of a flower yet to blossom. —Jarrod Land, Mamaroneck High School, Mamaronec, N.Y.

I’ve yet to figure out how to complain about my perfectionist nature without it sounding like a twisted form of bragging. As it turns out, whining about being tired of trying so hard just makes it look like you’re fishing for praise. Ironically, you rarely get either.  —Claire Beck, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Mo.

I can never talk to my parents about my feelings directly because what goes into the pot is an argument and what comes out is unsolved problem soup with a side of tears. —Tracee Nguyen, President William McKinley High School, Honolulu, Hawai’i

I’m not exactly sure what I want to be when I grow up, but I am certain that it’s not going to require me to know how to find points on a graph or to understand slope intercept form, well at least not to the point that I need to study the subject for months on end, and why do I need to know how to find the cubed root of a six-digit number on paper? Who doesn’t have access to a calculator? —Lauren Ragsdale, Lincoln Middle School, Ypsilanti, Mich. 

I can’t truly say how many nights I’ve spent tossing and turning because something was crawling around in my head. The anxiety smothering any free thoughts I had, forcing me to stay awake, and to start questioning every choice I’ve ever made. Those nights are always the hardest considering who I want to be: somebody who believes without fear of judgment, somebody who loves who they are, somebody who helps without prompting. —Daniel Heineman, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio

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Essay on My Dreams and Goals

Students are often asked to write an essay on My Dreams and Goals in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on My Dreams and Goals

Introduction.

Dreams and goals are the driving forces of life. They provide a sense of purpose and direction, guiding us towards a fulfilling future.

My dreams are my inspiration. I dream of becoming a scientist, exploring the mysteries of the universe, and contributing to humanity’s progress.

To realize my dreams, I have set goals. My immediate goal is to excel in my studies, especially in science and mathematics, the pillars of my dream profession.

Dreams and goals are intertwined. They motivate us to strive, to grow, and to achieve our highest potential.

250 Words Essay on My Dreams and Goals

Dreams and goals are the driving forces that propel individuals towards their desired futures. They form the blueprint of our future, providing us with direction and purpose, and are deeply intertwined with our personal growth and self-actualization.

The Essence of Dreams and Goals

Dreams are the grand visions we have for our lives, the ideal scenarios we aspire to. They are the manifestation of our deepest desires and ambitions, often transcending the boundaries of reality. Goals, on the other hand, are the concrete steps we take towards realizing these dreams. They are realistic, measurable, and time-bound, providing a clear path towards our dreams.

The Interplay of Dreams and Goals

The relationship between dreams and goals is a symbiotic one. Dreams provide the motivation and inspiration for setting goals, while goals give dreams a tangible form. Goals are the stepping stones that bridge the gap between our current reality and our dream future.

Personal Dreams and Goals

As a college student, my dreams are a blend of professional success and personal fulfillment. I aspire to excel in my chosen field, making significant contributions to society. Concurrently, I yearn for a balanced life, rich in experiences and relationships. My goals, therefore, revolve around academic excellence, skill development, networking, and personal growth.

In conclusion, dreams and goals are essential elements of our lives. They shape our future, motivate our present, and give meaning to our past. As college students, it’s crucial for us to understand the value of dreams and goals, and to strive relentlessly towards them.

500 Words Essay on My Dreams and Goals

Dreams and goals are the propellers that drive us towards our desired future. They are the mental projections of our ambitions, aspirations, and the life we yearn for. As a college student, my dreams and goals are not just a mere fantasy, but a roadmap, a strategic plan that guides me towards my personal and professional growth.

My Academic Goals

My primary academic goal is to excel in my chosen field of study. I aim to graduate with honors, a feat that requires dedication, hard work, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge. This goal is not just about achieving a high GPA, but about gaining a comprehensive understanding of my field, which will serve as a solid foundation for my future career.

My Career Goals

As for my career, I aspire to be a professional who contributes significantly to my field. I dream of working in a position where I can utilize my skills and knowledge to make a positive impact. I also plan to pursue further education, possibly a Master’s degree or a Doctorate, to specialize in my field and enhance my professional competence.

Personal Development Goals

On a personal level, my goal is to become a well-rounded individual. I strive to develop my interpersonal skills, leadership qualities, and emotional intelligence, which are crucial for both personal and professional success. I also aim to maintain a healthy work-life balance, as I believe that personal well-being is equally important as professional growth.

My Social Goals

As a member of society, I have a responsibility towards my community. My goal is to contribute to society by volunteering and engaging in community service. I believe that through these activities, I can make a difference and help create a better world for everyone.

Challenges and Strategies

Achieving these dreams and goals is not without challenges. Time management, maintaining motivation, and balancing academic, personal, and social responsibilities are some of the hurdles I anticipate. However, I am prepared to tackle these challenges head-on.

My strategy involves setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals, staying organized, and maintaining a positive mindset. I plan to leverage the resources available to me, such as academic advisors, career counselors, and peer support, to help me navigate my journey.

In conclusion, my dreams and goals are the guiding stars on my journey through college and beyond. They motivate me to strive for excellence, foster personal growth, contribute to my community, and ultimately, shape my future. I am aware of the challenges that lie ahead, but I am prepared to face them with resilience and determination. I am confident that with hard work, perseverance, and the right strategies, I can turn my dreams into reality.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on My Dream
• Essay on My Dream in Life
• Essay on Farmer

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Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology

1 Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53719

Giulio Tononi

Associated data.

Dreams are a most remarkable experiment in psychology and neuroscience, conducted every night in every sleeping person. They show that our brain, disconnected from the environment, can generate by itself an entire world of conscious experiences. Content analysis and developmental studies have furthered our understanding of dream phenomenology. In parallel, brain lesion studies, functional imaging, and neurophysiology have advanced our knowledge of the neural basis of dreaming. It is now possible to start integrating these two strands of research in order to address some fundamental questions that dreams pose for cognitive neuroscience: how conscious experiences in sleep relate to underlying brain activity; why the dreamer is largely disconnected from the environment; and whether dreaming is more closely related to mental imagery or to perception.

Contemporary dream research

Although dreams have fascinated us since the dawn of time, their rigorous, scientific study is a recent development[ 1 – 4 ] ( Supplementary Fig. 1 ). In The interpretation of dreams [ 5 ] Freud predicted that “Deeper research will one day trace the path further and discover an organic basis for the mental event.” Recent work, which we review in this article, begins to fulfill Freud s prediction.

The study of dreams is a formidable task, because dream consciousness is only accessible via report rather than direct observation ( Box 1 ) and because it is difficult to manipulate dream content experimentally, whether by exposure to stimuli before[ 6 , 7 ] or during sleep[ 7 , 8 ]. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the contents of specific dreams[ 9 ], and most modern dream research tries to relate neuronal activity retrospectively to dream form rather than dream content, i.e. to focus on properties of all dreams rather than to investigate the neural correlates of a particular dream. Yet, as we shall see, encouraging progress has been made in relating the phenomenology of dreams to underlying brain activity, and to studies of brain damage and development.

BOX 1Can reports be trusted to accurately convey internal experiences in sleep?

Do dream reports obtained by awakening a sleeping subject accurately convey subjective experiences in sleep? At one extreme, we could be fully conscious throughout sleep but remember dreams well, little, or not at all depending on the brain state when we are awakened. Indeed, we know that dreaming often goes unreported – some people claim they rarely dream, but systematic awakenings in sleep labs have revealed that we greatly underestimate how often and how much we are conscious during sleep. On the other hand, neurological patients who report loss of dreaming are no more likely to have memory disorders than those who report dreaming[ 22 ], suggesting that lack of dream reports indeed reflects lack of experience rather than changes in memory alone. Further studies may illuminate this issue since, for example, memory-related regions in the medial temporal lobe are highly active in REM sleep ( Fig. 1 ).

Meta-analysis of relative increases and decreases in neuronal activity during REM sleep as seen with PET imaging using H2 15 O measurements of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) [ 15 , 16 , 19 ] or [ 18 F]-flurodeoxyglucose measurements of glucose metabolism[ 17 ]. Top row: cortical surface, lateral view. Middle row: cortical surface, medial view. Bottom row: subcortical foci (left) and ventral view of cortical surface (right). Analysis is based on published Talairach coordinates of foci whose activity was significant at p<0.001 corrected (Z-score > 3.09). Circles, squares, triangles, and stars denote activity foci as reported by [ 15 ] (Maquet 96), [ 16 ] (Braun 97), [ 17 ] (Nofzinger 97), and [ 19 ] (Maquet 2000), respectively. Each symbol marks a region’s center-of-mass regardless of its spatial extent. Yellow symbols denote increased regional activity in the (1) mesopontine tegmentum and midbrain nuclei, (2) thalamus, (3) basal forebrain and diencephalic structures, (4) limbic MTL structures including amygdala and hippocampus, (5) medial prefrontal cortex, (6) occipito-temporal visual cortex, and (7) anterior cingulate cortex. Cyan symbols denote decreased activity in the (8) orbitofrontal cortex, (9) posterior cingulate and precuneus, (10) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and (11) inferior parietal cortex.

At the other extreme, one could claim that we are unconscious throughout sleep and merely have a tendency to confabulate during the transition into wakefulness. While such a claim is hard to refute conclusively (just as it is hard to prove conclusively that one is not a zombie when awake), it seems highly implausible; when one has just experienced a vivid dream, it seems hard to believe that it was made up in a flash during an awakening. Indeed, (a) the estimated time in dream report correlates well with the time elapsed in REM sleep before awakening[ 62 ]; and (b) in REM sleep behavior disorder (where muscle atonia is disrupted), movements seem to match the reported dream[ 113 ].

Reports obtained upon awakenings from deep NREM sleep are more difficult to evaluate because of disorientation associated with increased sleep inertia[ 114 ]. However, some evidence indicates that indeed dream consciousness can occur in NREM sleep and does not merely reflect recalls of earlier REM sleep dreams[ 59 ]: (a) It is sometimes possible to influence dream content by sounds delivered in NREM sleep, and to “tag” NREM reports[ 59 ], (b) Some NREM parasomnias (sleep talking, sleep terrors) correspond to reported dream experiences[ 115 ], and (c) “Full-fledged” dreams are sometimes reported upon awakening from the first NREM episode, before any REM sleep occurred [ 59 , 66 ], and even in naps consisting of only NREM sleep[ 67 ].

Nevertheless, it is worth keeping in mind that several factors may render dream reports less trustworthy when compared to reports of waking experience, including: (a) a dramatic state change, since we report about a sleep experience when awake; (b) considerable time delay, since dream reports are obtained after the experience, possibly leading to passive forgetting and interference; (c) difficulties in verbally describing experiences that are mainly visual and emotional; and (d) censorship of embarrassing, immoral, sexual and aggressive material.

Phenomenology of dreams and their relation to brain activity

The level and nature of our conscious experience varies dramatically in sleep. During slow wave sleep (SWS) early in the night, consciousness can nearly vanish despite persistent neural activity in the thalamocortical system[ 10 ]. Subjects awakened from other phases of sleep, especially but not exclusively during REM sleep, report “typical”, full-fledged dreams - vivid, sensorimotor hallucinatory experiences that follow a narrative structure[ 3 , 11 ]. The dreamer is highly conscious (she has vivid experiences), is disconnected from the environment (she is asleep), but somehow her brain is creating a story, filling it with actors and scenarios, and generating hallucinatory images. How does the brain accomplish this remarkable feat? And, conversely, what do dreams tell us about the organization and working of the brain?

Since awakenings from REM sleep regularly yield reports of typical dreams, we will first focus on neural activity during REM sleep, to gain insight into brain states that are compatible with dreaming. It should be emphasized at the outset, however, that dreams can occur in other brain states, such as late NREM sleep, as will be discussed below.

Similarities between dreaming and waking

In order to gain insight into the phenomenology and neural basis of dreams, it is useful to consider both similarities and differences between waking consciousness and dreaming consciousness, and to relate these differences to changes in brain activity and organization[ 11 ]. Perhaps the most striking feature of conscious experiences in sleep is how altogether similar the inner world of dreams is to the real world of wakefulness. Indeed, at times the dreamer may be uncertain whether he is awake or asleep. Certainly, dreams are not created in a vacuum but closely reflect the organization and functions of our brain.

In most dreams, perceptual modalities and submodalities that dominate in wakefulness are heavily represented. Dreams are highly visual, in full color, rich in shapes, full of movement, and incorporate typical wakefulness categories such as people, faces, places, objects, and animals[ 3 ]. Dreams also contain sounds (including speech and conversation), and more rarely tactile percepts, smells and tastes, as well as pleasure and pain[ 4 , 12 – 14 ]. Experiences in typical dreams have a clear sensory character (i.e. they are seen, heard, and felt) and are not mere thoughts or abstractions.

These phenomenological similarities are reflected in neurophysiological similarities between waking and dreaming. For historical and methodological reasons, most electroencephalogram (EEG) and neuroimaging studies have contrasted brain activity during quiet wakefulness with that observed during REM sleep, when subjects are most likely to report dreams[ 15 – 20 ]. At least superficially, the EEG looks remarkably similar in active waking and REM sleep. Positron emission tomography (PET) studies have shown that global brain metabolism is comparable between wakefulness and REM sleep[ 11 , 20 ]. Such studies have also revealed a strong activation of high-order occipito-temporal visual cortex in REM sleep, consistent with the vivid visual imagery during dreams ( Fig. 1 )[ 16 , 17 , 19 ].

There is also remarkable consistency between a subject s cognitive and neural organization in dreaming and waking[ 13 , 14 ]. For instance, children studies demonstrate that dream features show a gradual development that parallels their cognitive development when awake[ 21 ] ( Box 2 ). Patients with brain lesions that impair their waking cognition show corresponding deficits in dreams. For example, subjects with impaired face perception also do not dream of faces[ 22 , 23 ] ( Box 3 ).

BOX 2The development of dreams in children

When do children start dreaming, and what kind of dreams do they have? Since children often show signs of emotion in sleep, many assume they dream a great deal. However, a series of studies by David Foulkes showed that children under the age of 7 reported dreaming only 20% of the time when awakened from REM sleep, compared with 80–90% in adults[ 21 ].

Preschoolers dreams are often static and plain, such as seeing an animal or thinking about eating. There are no characters that move, no social interactions, very little feeling, and they do not include the dreamer as an active character. There are also no autobiographic, episodic memories, perhaps because children have trouble with conscious episodic recollection in general, as suggested by the phenomenon of infantile amnesia. Preschoolers do not report fear in dreams, and there are few aggressions, misfortunes, and negative emotions. Note that children who have night terrors , in which they awaken early in the night from SWS and display intense fear and agitation, are probably terrorized by disorientation due to incomplete awakening rather than by a dream[ 116 ]. Thus, although children of age 2–5 can obviously see and speak of everyday people, objects and events, apparently they cannot dream of them.

Between ages 5 to 7 dream reports become longer, although still infrequent. Dreams may contain sequences of events in which characters move about and interact, but narratives are not well developed. At around age 7, dream reports become longer and more frequent, contain thoughts and feelings, the child s self becomes an actual participant in the dream, and dreams begin to acquire a narrative structure and to reflect autobiographic, episodic memories.

It could be argued that perhaps all children dream, but some do not yet realize that they are dreaming, do not remember their dreams, or cannot report them because of poor verbal skills. Contrary to these intuitive suggestions, dream recall was found to correlate best with abilities of mental imagery rather than language proficiency. Mental imagery in children is assessed by the Block Design Test of the Wechsler intelligence test battery[ 117 ]. In this task, children look at models or pictures of red and white patterns, and then recreate those patterns with blocks. Critically, scores on this test are the one parameter that correlates best with dream report in children. Put simply, it is children with the most developed mental imagery and visuo-spatial skills (rather than verbal or memory capabilities) that report the most dreams, suggesting a real difference in dream experience. Visuo-spatial skills are known to depend on the parietal lobes, which are not fully myelinated until age 7. Thus, linking visuo-spatial cognitive development with brain maturation studies[ 118 ] is an important field of further research.

The static nature of preschoolers dreams is also in accord with the notion that preoperational children can’t imagine continuous visual transformations[ 119 ]. In the “mental rotation” test[ 120 ] a subject is asked to determine whether two figures are the same or different. In adults, reaction times (which are used as the score) increase linearly with the degree of rotation, but children do not show this relationship and do not seem to be mentally imagining movement using visuo-spatial imagery. This is consistent with their dream reports lacking movement[ 21 ].

Along the same line, people who are blinded after the age of 5–7 seem to have visual imagination and dream with visual imagery throughout life, while blinding at an earlier age leads to absence of visualization in both waking and dreaming[ 121 , 122 ], though dreaming in blind individuals is a subject of debate[ 123 – 125 ]. Overall, dreaming appears to be a gradual cognitive development that is tightly linked to the development of visual imagination.

The slow development of full-fledged dreams and their intimate relation with imagination cast doubts on whether animals can dream as we do. It is likely that animals, too, can be conscious during sleep. For instance, lesions in parts of the brainstem that control movements cause cats to seemingly act out their dreams[ 126 ], very much like humans with REM sleep behavior disorder [ 113 ]. However, while a cat may experience images and emotions in sleep, it is less likely that these experiences are tied together by a narrative as is the case in our typical dreams[ 127 ]. Altogether, what kind of dreaming consciousness an animal has may reflect the extent to which it is conscious in general, and both waking and dreaming consciousness are best viewed as graded phenomena[ 80 ].

BOX 3Lesion studies of dreaming

The primary source on neuropsychology of dreaming is a study by Solms[ 22 ] who examined 361 neurological patients and asked them in detail about their dreaming. Overall, lesion studies indicate that dreaming depends on specific forebrain regions rather than on the brainstem REM sleep generator[ 22 , 128 , 129 ]. In most cases, global cessation of dreaming follows damage in or near the temporo-parieto-occipital junction (around Brodmann’s Area 40), more often unilaterally than bilaterally[ 23 , 128 ]. This region supports various cognitive processes that are essential for mental imagery[ 130 ]. Accordingly, patients with such damage typically show a parallel decline in waking visuo-spatial abilities[ 109 ]. These results strongly suggest that mental imagery is the cognitive ability most related to dreaming (though a link between loss of dreaming and aphasia has also been suggested[ 131 ]).

Less frequently, global cessation of dreaming follows bilateral lesions of white matter tracts surrounding the frontal horns of the lateral ventricles, underlying ventromedial prefrontal cortex[ 22 ]. Many of these nerve fibers originate or terminate in limbic areas, in line with increased limbic activity in REM sleep as revealed by functional imaging[ 15 , 16 , 18 ]. The ventromedial white matter contains dopaminergic projections to the frontal lobe which were severed in prefrontal leucotomy, once performed on many schizophrenic patients[ 53 ]. Most leucotomized patients (70–90%) complained of global cessation of dreaming as well as of lack in initiative, curiosity, and fantasy in waking life[ 23 ]. Since dopamine can instigate goal-seeking behavior, these data have been interpreted as supporting the classical psychodynamic view of dreams as fulfillment of unconscious wishes related to egoistic impulses[ 132 ].

Apart from global cessation of dreaming, more restricted lesions produce the cessation of visual dreaming [ 22 , 109 ], or the disruption of particular visual dimensions in dreams. For example, lesions in specific regions that underlie visual perception of color or motion are associated with corresponding deficits in dreaming[ 23 , 109 ]. In general, it seems that lesions leading to impairments in waking have parallel deficits in dreaming.

Some lesions, especially those in medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the basal forebrain, are associated with increased frequency and vividness of dreams and their intrusion into waking life[ 22 ]. Importantly, many brain-damaged patients report no changes in dreaming, indicating that the neural network supporting dreaming has considerable specificity. For example, lesions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, sensorimotor cortex, and V1 do not seem to affect dreaming at all[ 22 ]. The fact that patients with V1 lesions report vivid dreaming argues against the notion that reentry to early retinotopic cortex is a necessary condition for visual awareness[ 133 ].

Dreams also reflect our interests and personality, just like mental activity during wakefulness. Formal content analysis has revealed that mood, imaginativeness, individuals of interest, and predominant concerns are correlated between our waking and dreaming selves[ 12 – 14 ]. Personal anxieties we experience in wake, such as being inappropriately dressed, being lost, or being late for an examination, can appear in dreams that involve social interactions[ 24 ]. Dreams, like our personality in general, are quite stable over time in adulthood[ 12 – 14 ], and share many characteristics across cultures[ 12 – 14 ]. In addition, we feel we are personally participating in many dream events.

Despite these remarkable similarities, what makes dream consciousness so fascinating are the ways in which it differs from our waking experience. Some of these phenomenological differences are accompanied by consistent neurophysiological differences.

Reduced voluntary control and volition

We are generally surprised on awakening from a dream (“it was only a dream”) mainly because we didn’t consciously will that we would dream it. In fact, during dreaming there is a prominent reduction of voluntary control of action and thought. We cannot pursue goals, and have no control over the dream’s content. The fact that we are so surprised, excited and even skeptical about lucid dreaming – possibly a way to control some dreams[ 25 ] - illustrates how dreams normally lack voluntary control[ 9 ]. Interestingly, recent evidence points to the role of the right inferior parietal cortex (Brodmann’s Area 40) in waking volition[ 26 , 27 ], an area that is deactivated during REM sleep[ 15 , 16 ] ( Fig. 1 ).

Reduced self-awareness and altered reflective thought

Our dreaming consciousness consists of a single “track”: we are not contextually aware of where we are (in bed) or of what we are doing (sleeping, dreaming). There is a strong tendency for a distinct narrative of thoughts and images to persist without disruption (“single-mindedness”[ 28 ]). Indeed, reports of mental activity in REM sleep are longer than reports obtained from awake subjects[ 28 ]. Dreaming is almost always delusional since events and characters are taken for real. Reflective thought is altered in that holding contradictory beliefs is common, and a dreamer easily accepts impossible events such as flying, inconsistent scene switches, sudden transformations and impossible objects[ 29 ] such as a pink elephant. There is often uncertainty about space, time, and personal identities[ 30 ]. For example, a character may have the name, clothes and hairstyle of a male friend, but have mother’s face. Reduced self-monitoring in dreams may be related to the deactivation of brain regions such as posterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex[ 15 , 16 ] ( Fig 1 ). Indeed, deactivation of prefrontal cortex has been shown to accompany reduced self-awareness during highly engaging sensory perception in wakefulness[ 31 ]. However, some dreams may have conserved reflective thought processes such as thoughtful puzzlement about impossible events[ 32 ], contemplating alternatives in decision-making[ 32 ], reflecting during social interactions[ 32 ], and “theory of mind”[ 33 ], demonstrating that individual dreams can differ from each other substantially.

Emotionality

Some dreams are characterized by a high degree of emotional involvement, including joy, surprise, anger, fear, and anxiety[ 34 – 36 ]. Interestingly, sadness, guilt, and depressed affect are rare[ 11 ], possibly due to reduced self-reflection. Some claim that fear and anxiety are enhanced in dreams to a degree rare in waking life[ 37 ], in line with Freud’s suggestion that dream narratives originate in perceived threats or conflicts[ 5 ]. Whether or not this interpretation has merits, REM sleep is in fact associated with a marked activation of limbic and paralimbic structures such as the amygdala, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the insula[ 15 , 17 , 19 ] ( Fig. 1 ). However, emotions are feeble in other dreams, and are absent altogether in 25–30% of REM sleep reports[ 34 – 36 ], including in situations where emotions would likely be present in waking[ 34 ], once again highlighting the variability in dream phenomenology.

Altered mnemonic processes

Memory is drastically altered for the dream and within the dream. Unless the dreamer wakes up, most dreams are forever lost. Upon awakening, memory for the dream often vanishes rapidly unless written down or recorded, even for intense emotional dreams. It is not clear why this is the case since from a neuroimaging perspective, limbic circuits in the medial temporal lobe that are implicated in memory processes, are highly active during REM sleep[ 15 – 18 ] ( Fig. 1 ). Perhaps the hypoactivity of prefrontal cortex, also implicated in mnemonic processes, plays an important role in dream amnesia. Contemporary theories of dreaming ( Table 1 ) offer different accounts of dream amnesia. For example, according to psychodynamic models, dream amnesia is due to processes of active repression[ 5 ]. According to Hobson s Activation-Input-Mode [AIM] model, dream amnesia is related to a state-change involving inactivity of monoaminergic systems (“aminergic de-modulation”) and deactivation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex[ 11 ]. The neurocognitive model claims that dreams are usually forgotten because they are internal narratives; unless internal experiences are tied to external cues such as times and places they are bound to be forgotten[ 13 ].

Contemporary theories of dreaming

Episodic memory is also impaired within the dream. Indeed, a dream is not like an episode of life being “replayed”. In one example in which subjects had intensively played the computer game Tetris, there was no episodic memory in subsequent dreams that subjects had indeed played Tetris. In fact, dreams of healthy subjects were indistinguishable from those of profoundly amnesic subjects, who could not remember having played Tetris at all. In contrast, both normal and amnesic subjects often reported perceptual fragments, such as falling blocks on a computer screen, at sleep onset[ 38 ]. While ‘residues’ from waking experience are incorporated in about 50% of dreams[ 39 – 41 ], they do so in new and unrelated contexts, and verified memories for episodes of recent life are only found in about 1.5% of dreams[ 42 ]. Such residual recollections have been interpreted by some to suggest that dreaming may have an active role in forgetting[ 5 , 43 ]. Finally, many have the impression that the network of associations stored in our memory may become looser than in wake[ 44 , 45 ], perhaps favoring creativity, divergent thinking, and problem resolution[ 4 , 46 ].

In summary, dream consciousness is remarkably similar to waking consciousness, though there are several intriguing differences. These include reduced attention and voluntary control, lack in self-awareness, altered reflective thought, occasional hyperemotionality, and impaired memory. Traditionally, dream phenomenology has often been compared to madness or psychosis[ 3 , 11 , 47 ], but in fact the hallucinations, disorientation, and subsequent amnesia of some bizarre dreams may be more akin to the acute confusional state – also known as delirium - which occurs after withdrawal from alcohol and drugs[ 48 ]. However, most dreams are less bizarre, perhaps more similar to mind wandering or stimulus independent thoughts[ 14 , 49 , 50 ]. Waking thoughts jump around and drift into bizarre daydreaming, rumination, and worrying far more than stereotypes of rational linear thinking suggest[ 51 ]. Importantly, individual dreams are highly variable in their phenomenology, and only some conform to the typical monolithic template that is often portrayed. Thus, just like diverse waking experiences, “Not all dreams are created equal” , and future studies should consider different kinds of dreams and their neural correlates separately.

What mechanisms are responsible for regional differences in brain activity between waking and REM sleep, and thus presumably for some of the cognitive differences between waking and dreaming? Single-unit physiology indicates that generally, cortical activity in REM sleep reaches similar levels as found in active wake ( Fig. 2 ), but variability between brain areas remains poorly explored. Regional differences may likely stem from changes in the activity of neuromodulatory systems ( Fig. 2 ). During REM sleep, acetylcholine is alone in maintaining brain activation, whereas monoaminergic systems are silent, an observation that could explain many features of dreams[ 11 ]. For example, consistent with imaging results, cholinergic innervation is stronger in limbic and paralimbic areas than in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex[ 52 ], which may explain why limbic regions are highly active in REM sleep while dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is deactivated ( Fig. 1 ). Dopaminergic modulation may also play a role[ 23 ], since dreaming is decreased by prefrontal leucotomies that cut dopaminergic fibers[ 53 ] and is increased by dopaminergic agonists[ 23 ] ( Table 1 and Fig. 2 ).

A comparison of cortical activity (upper panel) and neuromodulator activity (bottom panel) in wake, early NREM (when sleep pressure is high and dream reports are rare), late NREM (when sleep pressure dissipates, and dream reports are more frequent), and REM sleep (when dreams are most common).

(a) Intracellular studies. The membrane potential of cortical neurons in both wake and REM sleep is depolarized and fluctuates around −63mV and −61mV, respectively [ 77 ]. In REM sleep, whenever phasic events such as rapid eye movements and PGO waves occur (gray arrows, events not shown), neurons increase their firing rates to levels that surpass those found in wake [ 77 , 146 ]. In early NREM sleep, neurons alternate between two distinct states, each lasting tens/hundreds of milliseconds: UP states (red arrow) are associated with depolarization and increased firing, while in DOWN states (blue arrow) the membrane potential is hyperpolarized around −75mV, and neuronal firing fades[ 78 , 147 ]. Intracellular studies focusing specifically on late NREM sleep are not available (N.A.).

(b) Extracellular studies. Spiking of individual neurons in REM sleep reaches similar levels as in active wake. In both wake and REM sleep, neurons exhibit tonic irregular asynchronous activity [ 77 , 148 – 151 ]. Sustained activity in wake and REM sleep can be viewed as a continuous UP state [ 78 ] (red bars). In early NREM sleep, UP states are short and synchronous across neuronal populations, and are frequently interrupted by long DOWN states (blue bars). In late NREM sleep, UP states are longer and less synchronized [ 79 ].

(3) Polysomnography. Waking is characterized by low-amplitude, high-frequency EEG activity (above 7Hz), occasional saccadic eye movements, and elevated muscle tone. In early NREM sleep, high-amplitude slow waves (below 4Hz) dominate the EEG. Neuronal UP (red) and DOWN (blue) states correspond to positive and negative peaks in the surface EEG, respectively [ 79 ]. Eye movements are largely absent and muscle tone is decreased. In late NREM sleep, slow waves are less frequent, while spindles (related to UP states and surface EEG positivity) become more common. Eye movements and muscle tone are largely similar to early NREM sleep [ 152 ]. In REM sleep, theta activity (4–7 Hz) prevails, rapid eye movements occur, and muscle tone is dramatically reduced.

(d) Neuromodulator activity. Subcortical cholinergic modulation is highly active in wake and REM sleep (green arrows) and leads to sustained depolarization in cortical neurons and EEG activation [ 77 ]. Wake is further maintained by activity of monoamines, histamine, and hypocretin/orexin (green arrows). In sleep, monoaminergic systems including norepinephrine and serotonin reduce their activity (pink arrows), and are silent in REM sleep (red arrows). While dopamine levels do not change dramatically across the sleep-wake cycle (asterisks), phasic events and regional profiles may differ[ 153 ].

Data are pooled across different species for illustration purposes. Intracellular cat data adapted with permission from Ref [ 77 ]; extracellular and EEG rat data obtained from V. Vyazovskiy (personal communication).

On the whole, relating typical dreams to the neurophysiology of REM sleep has proven to be a useful starting point for revealing the neural basis of dreaming. However, dream consciousness can not be reduced to brain activity in REM sleep. Indeed, some fundamental questions concerning the relationship between the brain and dreaming linger on. We shall discuss three in turn: i) what determines the level of consciousness during sleep; ii) why the dreamer is disconnected from the environment; and iii) whether dreams are more akin to perception or to imagination.

What determines the level of consciousness during sleep?

In principle, studying mental experiences during sleep offers a unique opportunity to explain how changes in brain activity relate to changes in consciousness[ 3 , 54 ]. In fact, if it were not for sleep, when consciousness fades in and out on a regular basis, it might be hard to imagine that consciousness is not a given, but depends somehow on the way our brain is functioning. Traditionally, studies have focused on differences among reports obtained after awakenings from different sleep stages or at different times of night. When REM sleep was initially distinguished from NREM sleep[ 55 ], it was reported that 74–80% of REM sleep awakenings produced vivid dream recall, compared to only 7–9% of awakenings from NREM sleep[ 56 , 57 ]. It was only natural to conclude that, compared to NREM sleep, the distinct physiology of REM sleep, and especially its fast, low-voltage EEG resembling that of wakefulness, was the reason why we are conscious and dream in REM sleep, and not in NREM sleep[ 29 ]. Indeed, for some time, reports of mental activity upon awakenings from NREM sleep were assumed to be recalls of earlier REM sleep dreams, or considered analogous to sleep talking[ 3 ], or treated as confabulations made up by subjects confused upon awakening[ 9 ] ( Box 1 ). However, when changing the question from “tell me if you had a dream” to “tell me anything that was going through your mind just before you woke up,” reports of conscious experiences in NREM sleep ranged between 23% and 74%[ 9 ]. Subsequent studies demonstrated clearly that NREM sleep awakenings yielded reports of mental activity[ 58 , 59 ].

Specifically, reports from sleep stage N1 are extremely frequent (80–90% of the time), though they are very short[ 60 ]. Usually people report vivid hallucinatory experiences, so-called hypnagogic hallucinations . In contrast to typical dreams, hypnagogic hallucinations are often static - like single snapshots[ 11 , 47 ], and usually do not include a self character[ 14 ]. Some activities performed before sleep (e.g. video games) may influence the content of hypnagogic dreams[ 38 , 61 ]. Awakenings from NREM sleep stages N2 and N3 yield reports about some experienced content 50–70% of the time[ 59 ], although there is great variability throughout the night and between subjects. Early in the night, when stage N3 is prevalent and many large slow waves dominate the EEG, awakenings yield few reports[ 62 ]. Moreover, these reports are often qualitatively different than typical REM sleep reports, being usually short, thought-like, less vivid, less visual and more conceptual, less motorically animated, under greater volitional control, more plausible, more concerned with current issues, less emotional and less pleasant[ 9 , 11 , 63 ]. Also, the average length of REM sleep reports increases with the duration of the REM sleep episode while this is not true for NREM sleep reports[ 62 ]. However, late in the night NREM sleep reports are considerably longer and more hallucinatory. Indeed, 10–30% of all NREM sleep reports are indistinguishable by any criteria from those obtained from REM sleep[ 64 , 65 ]. Since NREM sleep accounts for 75% of total sleep time, this means that full-fledged NREM sleep dreams actually account for a significant portion of all typical dreams.

Thus, the initial equation of a physiological state (REM sleep) with a mental state (dreaming) was incorrect, or at best, an oversimplification. Moreover, neuropsychological evidence indicates that dreaming and REM sleep can be dissociated: forebrain lesions may abolish dreaming and spare REM sleep, whereas brainstem lesions may nearly eliminate overt features of REM sleep without abolishing dreams[ 23 ] ( Box 3 ). But if dream reports can be elicited during any stage of sleep[ 11 , 47 , 59 , 66 , 67 ], and conversely some awakenings may yield no report, no matter in which sleep stage they were obtained[ 59 ], where do we stand today with respect to the relationship between brain activity and consciousness during sleep?

The one thing that seems clear is that we need to move beyond the REM/NREM sleep dichotomy and beyond traditional sleep staging. Though staging is useful, it treats brain activity as uniform in space (only a few electrodes are used) and in time (for 30 sec epochs). Inevitably, subtler features of brain activity, which may well influence the presence, degree, and reportability of consciousness, are missed both in space and in time.

In the spatial domain, increasing evidence suggests that different brain regions may be in different states at the same time. For example, preliminary findings suggest that during sleepwalking, thalamocingulate pathways may be active as in wake, while the rest of the cerebral cortex is in NREM sleep[ 68 ]. A related notion of dissociated states is derived from the study of parasomnias, where wake-like behaviors occur during sleep[ 69 ]. For instance, the study of REM sleep behavior disorder shows that, contrary to common assumptions, wakefulness, REM sleep and NREM sleep may not be mutually exclusive states[ 69 ]. In the current context, it has been suggested that dreaming in NREM sleep is related to ‘covert’ REM processes that occur locally[ 59 ]. Thus, refined spatial analysis using fMRI or high-density EEG (hd-EEG) could potentially identify regionally-specific predictors of dreaming, and possibly indicate, in real time, whether dream reports will be obtained.

In the temporal domain, some attempts have been made to relate transient, phasic activities[ 70 ] to dreaming. For example, various studies have tried to link dream recall to eye movements[ 71 , 72 ], PGO waves[ 73 ], and EEG power bouts in specific frequency bands[ 74 ] but limited success has been achieved, and little has been done for NREM sleep[ 11 , 75 , 76 ]. We now know that slow waves in NREM sleep reflect a slow oscillation of cortical neurons between UP and DOWN states ( Fig. 2 )[ 77 , 78 ]. Perhaps long UP states are necessary for dreaming to occur. This is normally the case in REM sleep since slow waves are absent. As for NREM sleep, we would expect that higher occurrence of recalls, and especially of typical dreams in the morning hours, would reflect longer UP periods upon dissipation of sleep pressure ( Fig. 2 )[ 79 ]. In general, focusing on (rather than avoiding) “gray zones” where it is more difficult to predict whether a dream report will be obtained, for example in early REM sleep or late NREM sleep, may be a promising strategy for identifying psychophysiological correlates that go beyond traditional staging.

Finally, theoretical considerations suggest that the level of consciousness may depend on the brain s ability to integrate information[ 80 ]. Indeed, during wakefulness external perturbations such as TMS pulses (transcranial magnetic stimulation) cause changing patterns of activation across distant interconnected brain regions[ 10 ]. In REM sleep, evoked activity propagates much like it does in wakefulness[ 81 ]. By contrast, in deep SWS early in the night, when consciousness is most likely to fade, the response evoked by TMS remains either local (loss of integration), or spreads nonspecifically (loss of information). Apparently, the brain s capacity for information integration is reduced whenever neurons become bistable between UP and DOWN states. Intriguingly, the brain s response to a TMS pulse may offer a more sensitive measure of the inner state than spontaneous EEG. For example, such perturbations can uncover inherent bistability in short stretches of NREM sleep even when the EEG shows a wake-like low-voltage pattern[ 82 ].

Why is the dreamer disconnected from the environment?

The most obvious difference between dreaming and waking consciousness is the profound disconnection of the dreamer from his current environment. Such disconnection, of course, is a key feature of sleep: by definition a sleeping person shows no meaningful responses to external stimuli, unless they are strong enough to cause an awakening. This feature is known as “high arousal threshold”, and it persists in REM sleep despite its wake-like low-voltage EEG[ 83 ]. Moreover, stimuli not only fail to elicit a behavioral response, but also largely fail to be incorporated in the content of the dream[ 8 , 84 – 86 ] (though some stimuli, such as a spray of water, pressure on the limbs, and meaningful words have a slightly higher chance of incorporation[ 84 , 85 ]). This striking disconnection occurs even when subjects sleep with their eyes taped open and objects are illuminated in front of them[ 8 ]. Surely just before awakening, stimuli such as the sound of an alarm clock can enter our dreams, but when sleep is preserved, such relations are by and large surprisingly weak and dream consciousness is remarkably disconnected from the external environment.

The disconnection of the dreamer poses an intriguing paradox, especially if one considers that dreams involve vivid sensory experiences, and that they can occur upon a state of strong cortical activation. Several possibilities come to mind. For example, it has been suggested that during sleep a thalamic “gate” may close and sensory inputs may not reach the cortex effectively[ 87 ]. However, evoked responses in primary sensory cortices are largely preserved during REM sleep[ 88 , 89 ]. Also, olfactory stimuli are not directly incorporated in dreams[ 90 ], though they are not routed through the thalamus (their emotional valence, however, may affect dreams). A related notion is that of a cortical “gate” leading to diminished inter-cortical propagation[ 91 ], as seems to be the case in the dissociation of primary visual cortex (V1) from high-order visual cortex in REM sleep[ 18 ]. It would be interesting to establish whether direct activation of cortical areas can overcome the disconnection from the environment. For example, can TMS over V1 or area MT bypass thalamic or cortical “gates” and produce sensations of phosphenes or movement in dream consciousness?

An intriguing possibility concerns the putative antagonism between externally oriented cortical networks and internally oriented, default-mode networks[ 92 , 93 ]. Perhaps in dreams intrinsic activity dominates, as it does during stimulus-independent thoughts in wake[ 50 ]. This may occur at the expense of the processing of external stimuli, leading to disconnection from the environment. Indeed, both PET and magnetoencephalography (MEG) suggest that medial prefrontal cortex, a part of the default network, is highly active in REM sleep[ 16 , 17 , 94 ] as it is during wakeful rest ( Fig. 1 ). Conversely, other components of the default network, including posterior cingulate and inferior parietal cortices, are deactivated in REM sleep[ 15 , 16 ], as in highly-engaging waking tasks ( Fig. 1 ). The exact cognitive task associated with the default-mode network is still not well understood[ 95 ] and it may be primarily driven by self-related introspective processes rather than general mind wandering[ 31 , 96 , 97 ]. Indeed, since most nodes of this network are deactivated in REM dreaming and mental imagery[ 98 ], cognitive states that are oriented internally but away from the self do not seem sufficient to elicit activity in this network.

Another possibility is that dreams may be analogous to altered states of consciousness in which attention is profoundly altered, as may be the case in extreme absorption, hypnosis, neglect[ 99 ], and Balint s syndrome, when visual experience may persist for single but unlocalizable objects (simultanagnosia)[ 100 , 101 ]. The reticular thalamic nucleus has been implicated in redirecting attention across modalities[ 102 , 103 ] and its activity in sleep may underlie some aspects of disconnection. It would also be interesting to determine whether neuronal correlates of momentary lapses of attention[ 104 ] occur regularly while dreaming.

Finally, as we have seen, the neuromodulatory milieu changes drastically in sleep ( Fig. 2 ). Specifically, the levels of norepinephrine, serotonin, histamine, and hypocretin are greatly reduced in REM sleep compared to wake, so the presence of one or more of these neuromodulators may be necessary for external stimuli to be incorporated into our stream of consciousness. This search can be narrowed down by considering cataplexy, which affects people with narcolepsy[ 105 ]. Cataplexy is a transient episode of muscle tone loss in which humans report that awareness of external stimuli is preserved, and presumably animals are likewise aware of their environment during cataplectic attacks. Neuromodulatory activity in cataplectic dogs is largely similar to that in REM sleep except that levels of histamine are high, much like during wakefulness[ 105 ]. It thus seems that levels of histamine are correlated with our ability to incorporate sensory stimuli into conscious experience. It would be important to establish whether histamine is indeed necessary for such incorporation, and how it may do so. For instance, could it be that in wakefulness histaminergic tone facilitates transmission of feed-forward sensory inputs in cortical layer 4, at the expense of backward signal propagation?

Are dreams more like perception or imagination?

Whether dreams are generated in a “bottom-up” or a “top-down” manner is a question that has been asked since at least Aristotle[ 106 ]. To put the question in a modern context, do dreams start from activity in low-level sensory areas, which is then interpreted and synthesized by higher-order areas, as is presumably the case in waking perception? Or do they begin as wishes, abstract thoughts, and memories deep in the brain, which are then enriched with perceptual and sensory aspects, as in imagination? Of course, it is possible that such a dichotomy is misguided, and dreams may be best conceptualized as global attractors that emerge simultaneously over many brain areas. However, as we shall see, the available data do indeed suggest that there may be a privileged direction of dream generation.

In the 19th century, sensory experience was often regarded as the source of dreams, which were considered to be an attempt of the mind to interpret somatic nerve-stimuli ( Supplementary Fig. 1 ). A similar notion was later adopted by Henri Beaunis, and recently championed by Allan Hobson ( Table 1 )[ 4 , 11 , 47 ]. According to his AIM model, internally generated signals originating in the brainstem during REM sleep, such as PGO waves, excite visual cortex and are later processed and synthesized by higher-order areas. High levels of acetylcholine in the absence of aminergic neuromodulation may enhance feed-forward transmission and suppress back-propagation[ 3 , 107 ]. By contrast, Freud and some of his followers asserted that dreams originate from psychic motives that are later instantiated as sensory percepts, much like mental imagery[ 5 ].

Deciding between these alternative views will most likely require difficult experiments in which the direction of signal flow during dreaming sleep is evaluated and compared to that during waking perception and imagery[ 108 ] ( Box 4 ). However, various lines of evidence already suggest that dreaming may be more closely related to imagination than to perception. From lesion studies ( Box 3 ) we know that dreaming requires an intact temporo-parieto-occipital junction[ 22 , 23 ] and lesions in this region also affect mental imagery in wakefulness[ 109 ]. Cognitive studies indicate that the skill that maximally correlates with dream recall in adults is visuo-spatial imagery[ 110 ]. In children, dream recall develops hand in hand with visuo-spatial imagery ( Box 2 ). In epileptic patients, direct electrical stimulation in high-order regions such as the medial temporal lobe, rather than in visual cortex, can elicit “dream-like” experiences[ 111 ], although such patients are simultaneously aware of their surroundings. Other evidence comes from lucid dreamers[ 25 ] who report that it is impossible to focus on fine-grain details of visual objects, as is the case in mental imagery[ 112 ]. Perhaps top-down connections lack the anatomical specificity to support detailed representations. The rare occurrences of smells or pain in dreams may also be related to our difficulty in imagining them vividly when awake. However, one important difference between dreaming and mental imagery is that while imagining we are aware that the images are internally generated (preserved reflective thought).

Box 4Future directions

1. Signal propagation in dreams

During wakefulness, sensory responses precede responses in higher-order areas by more than 100ms[ 134 , 135 ]. Does neural activity during dreaming sleep show a similar feed-forward progression as in perception? Or does neural activity propagate backwards, from higher to lower areas, as it is thought to do during imagery? This issue, which is crucial to our understanding of dream generation, could be resolved by examining unit and field potential recordings from the same neuronal populations in wake and REM (or late NREM) sleep in both animals and humans[ 135 ]. One can also apply directional measures of signal propagation (e.g. Granger causality) to hd-EEG data, and check whether the main direction of signal flow inverts between wake and sleep. Finally, one could use TMS with concurrent hd-EEG during both wake and REM sleep, and examine whether there may be a preferential direction of the brain s response to perturbations depending on behavioral state[ 10 ].

2. Functional networks underlying dreaming

So far, most regional studies of brain activity during sleep have employed PET. While PET allows for quantification of cerebral blood flow and comparison across vigilance states, functional MRI (fMRI) offers superior spatial and temporal resolutions. Event-related fMRI has been already used to map brain activity associated with phasic events such as slow waves[ 136 ] and eye movements[ 137 , 138 ]. Studies of functional and effective connectivity[ 139 ] may be especially well suited to map the functional networks underlying dreaming. Notably, perceptual awareness is associated with specific functional connectivity patterns within sensory modalities[ 140 ], between modalities[ 141 ], and with a striking segregation between sensory systems and the default-mode/intrinsic system[ 31 , 93 , 104 ]. Are such connectivity patterns also a hallmark of activity in the dreaming brain? What regional brain activity underlies dreaming in NREM sleep? How do functional networks of mental imagery and dreaming compare in the same subjects? Finally, hd-EEG may be particularly suited for sleep imaging since it (a) allows for relatively undisturbed sleep, (b) upon source modeling can provide a spatial resolution roughly comparable to PET, (c) offers high temporal resolution suitable for evaluating signal propagation, and (d) can be combined with TMS during sleep.

3. Initial steps towards studying dream content

Progress in signal decoding may ultimately enable us to investigate the neural correlates not only of dream form – what is common to all dreams – but also of dream content – what is specific to a particular dream. This can be done, for instance, by using classification techniques applied to fMRI or hd-EEG data[ 142 ]. At least initially, it may be worthwhile to consider some coarse properties of individual dreams, such as the frequency of occurrence of faces or places in a dream report, the amount of movement, or the dominant affective valence. In principle, it should be possible to predict not only the likelihood of a report upon awakening, but also the likelihood of specific features based on preceding brain activity. An important step in this direction would be to identify the contents of internally generated mental imagery using the same approach[ 143 ]. Furthermore, some patients with epilepsy or post-traumatic stress disorder who experience recurring dream contents[ 144 , 145 ] may provide a unique opportunity to relate specific dream content to its neural basis.

If the flow of brain activity during dreaming were shown to be largely backwards, as one would expect in imagery, rather than forwards, as in perception, many of the seemingly bizarre properties of dreams, such as blended characters and scene switches, would be easier to explain, as they are standard features of our imagination. Such a top-down mode may disrupt the encoding of new memories, and thus underlie dream amnesia. In addition, top-down mental imagery could obstruct the processing of incoming stimuli and disconnect us from the environment. If this view is correct, waking consciousness is more like watching the news in real time, while dreaming is more like watching a movie created by an imaginative director[ 81 ]. As in some B-movies, the director is not particularly choosey and any actor, dress, means of transportation, or object that is readily available will do. Albert Einstein said that “imagination points to all we might yet discover and create”, and indeed, dreaming may turn out to be the purest form of our imagination.

Concluding remarks

In summary, dream consciousness is remarkably similar to waking consciousness, though there are several intriguing differences in volition, self-awareness and reflection, affect, and memory, and there is great variability between individual dreams. The neurophysiology of REM sleep, and in particular recent insights into its regional activity patterns, offers a useful starting point for relating dream phenomenology to underlying brain activity. However, the initial equation of REM sleep with dreaming has been shown to be inaccurate. Thus, it is time we moved beyond sleep stages when trying to link dream consciousness to neuronal events, and focused on more subtle features of brain activity in space and time. Our profound disconnection from the external environment when dreaming poses a central unsolved paradox, the answer to which may be instrumental for understanding dreams. Converging evidence from multiple fields of study, including phenomenology, development, neuropsychology, functional imaging, and neurophysiology, support the notion that dreaming may be closely related to imagination, where brain activity presumably flows in a “top-down” manner. Viewing dreams as a powerful form of imagination can help explain many of their unique features, such as sudden transitions, uncertainty about people and places, poor subsequent recall, disconnection from the environment, and offers testable predictions for future studies.

Supplementary Material

Acknowledgments.

We apologize to those whose work was not cited because of space constraints. We thank Michal Harel, Lior Fisch, and Vlad Vyazovskiy for help with figures; Chiara Cirelli, Rafi Malach, Simone Sarasso, Brady Riedner, and Fabio Ferrarelli for helpful discussions and comments; our anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions. Y.N. is supported by an EMBO long term fellowship and the Brainpower for Israel Fund. G.T is supported by an NIH Director’s Award DP1 OD000579 and NIH Conte Center Award P20 MH077967.

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Why your brain needs to dream, research shows that dreaming is not just a byproduct of sleep, but serves its own important functions in our well-being..

We often hear stories of people who’ve learned from their dreams or been inspired by them. Think of Paul McCartney’s story of how his hit song “Yesterday” came to him in a dream or of Mendeleev’s dream-inspired construction of the periodic table of elements.

But, while many of us may feel that our dreams have special meaning or a useful purpose, science has been more skeptical of that claim. Instead of being harbingers of creativity or some kind of message from our unconscious, some scientists have considered dreaming to be an unintended consequence of sleep—a byproduct of evolution without benefit.

Sleep itself is a different story. Scientists have known for a while now that shorter sleep is tied to dangerous diseases, like heart disease and stroke . There is mounting evidence that sleep deprivation leads to a higher risk of obesity and Alzheimer’s disease . Large population studies reflect a saddening truth—the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life . Not only that, sleep helps us to hold onto our memories and to learn facts and skills faster, making it important for everyone including infants, students, athletes, pilots, and doctors.

Much of this I outline in my new book, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams , which summarizes the many findings we have about sleep and its function in our lives.

But what about dreaming? Does it also have a purpose?

Recent work in my neuroscience lab and the work of other scientists has shown that dreams may have a very particular function important to our well-being. Here are the two main ways dreams help us.

Dreaming is like overnight therapy

It’s said that time heals all wounds, but my research suggests that time spent in dream sleep is what heals. REM-sleep dreaming appears to take the painful sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional episodes experienced during the day, offering emotional resolution when you awake the next morning.

REM sleep is the only time when our brain is completely devoid of the anxiety-triggering molecule noradrenaline. At the same time, key emotional and memory-related structures of the brain are reactivated during REM sleep as we dream. This means that emotional memory reactivation is occurring in a brain free of a key stress chemical, which allows us to re-process upsetting memories in a safer, calmer environment.

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Learn why sleep is key to peak performance .

How do we know this is so? In one study in my sleep center, healthy young adult participants were divided into two groups to watch a set of emotion-inducing images while inside an MRI scanner. Twelve hours later, they were shown the same emotional images—but for half the participants, the twelve hours were in the same day, while for the other half the twelve hours were separated by an evening of sleep.

Those who slept in between the two sessions reported a significant decrease in how emotional they felt in response to seeing those images again, and their MRI scans showed a significant reduction in reactivity in the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain that creates painful feelings. Moreover, there was a reengagement of the rational prefrontal cortex of the brain after sleep that helped maintain a dampening influence on emotional reactivity. In contrast, those who remained awake across the day showed no such dissolving of emotional reactivity over time.

That in itself doesn’t say anything about the role of dreaming. But we had recorded each participant’s sleep during the intervening night between the two test sessions, and we found that specific brain activity that reflected a drop in stress-related brain chemistry during the dream state determined the success of overnight therapy from one individual to the next.

Dreaming has the potential to help people de-escalate emotional reactivity, probably because the emotional content of dreams is paired with a decrease in brain noradrenaline. Support for this idea came from a study done by Murray Raskind on vets with PTSD, who often suffer debilitating nightmares. When given the drug Prazosin—a medication that lowers blood pressure and also acts as a blocker of the brain stress chemical noradrenaline—the vets in his study had fewer nightmares and fewer PTSD symptoms than those given a placebo. Newer studies suggest this effect can be shown in children and adolescents with nightmares, as well, though the research on this is still in its infancy.

The evidence points toward an important function of dreams: to help us take the sting out of our painful emotional experiences during the hours we are asleep, so that we can learn from them and carry on with our lives.

Dreaming enhances creativity and problem-solving

It’s been shown that deep non-REM sleep strengthens individual memories. But REM sleep is when those memories can be fused and blended together in abstract and highly novel ways. During the dreaming state, your brain will cogitate vast swaths of acquired knowledge and then extract overarching rules and commonalties, creating a mindset that can help us divine solutions to previously impenetrable problems.

How do we know dreaming and not just sleep is important to this process?

In one study , we tested this by waking up participants during the night—during both non-REM sleep and dreaming sleep—and gave them very short tests: solving anagram puzzles, where you try to unscramble letters to form a word (e.g., OSEOG = GOOSE). First, participants were tested beforehand, just to familiarize them with the test. Then, we monitored their sleep and woke them up at different points of the night to perform the test. When woken during non-REM sleep, they were not particularly creative—they could solve very few puzzles. But, when we woke up participants during REM sleep, they were able to solve 15-35 percent more puzzles than when they were awake. Not only that, participants woken while dreaming reported that the solution just “popped” into their heads, as if it were effortless.

In another study , I and my colleagues taught participants a series of relational facts—such as, A>B, B>C, C>D, and so on—and tested their understanding by asking them questions (e.g., Is B>D or not? ). Afterwards, we compared their performance on this test before and after a full night’s sleep, and also after they’d had a 60- to 90-minute nap that included REM sleep. Those who’d slept or had a long nap performed much better on this test than when they were awake, as if they’d put together disparate pieces of a jigsaw puzzle in their sleep.

Some may consider this trivial, but it is one of the key operations differentiating your brain from your computer. It also underlies the difference between knowledge (retention of individual facts) and wisdom (knowing what they all mean when you fit them together). The latter seems to be the work of REM-sleep dreaming.

“It’s said that time heals all wounds, but my research suggests that time spent in dream sleep is what heals”

Dreaming improves creative problem solving, too, according to another study . Participants learned to navigate a virtual maze using trial and error and aided by the placement of unique objects—like Christmas trees—at certain junctions in the maze. After this learning session, the group was split in two, with half napping and half watching a video for 90 minutes. Nappers were occasionally awoken to ask about the content of their dreams; those watching a video were also asked about thoughts going through their minds.

Afterwards, the participants again tried to solve the maze, and those who napped were significantly better at it than those who didn’t, as expected. But the nappers who reported dreaming about the maze were 10 times better at the task than those who napped and didn’t dream about the maze. There’s a reason you’ve never been told to stay awake on a problem.

Looking at the content of these dreams, it was clear that the participants didn’t dream a precise replay of the learning experience while awake. Instead, they were cherry-picking salient fragments of the learning experience and attempting to place them within the catalog of preexisting knowledge. This is how dreaming helps us be more creative.

While the benefits of dreaming are real, too many of us have problems getting a full eight hours of sleep and lose out on these advantages. Alternatively, we may think we’re the exception to the rule—that we’re one of those people who doesn’t happen to need a lot of sleep. But nothing could be further from the truth. Research clearly shows that people who overestimate their ability to get by on less sleep are sadly wrong.

Five ways to enhance your sleep

So how can we be sure to get enough sleep and experience a dream state? While we may be tempted to use sleeping pills to get to sleep, this has been shown to be detrimental to dreaming. Instead of taking pills, here are some simple ways to enhance your sleep:

1. Make sure your room is dark and that you are not looking at bright light sources—i.e., computer screens and cell phones—in the last hour or two before going to bed. You may even want to start dimming lights in your house in the earlier parts of the evening, which helps to stimulate sleepiness.

2. Go to bed and wake up at approximately the same time every day. This helps signal to your body a regular time for sleeping. It’s no use trying to sleep in a lot on weekends. There is no way to make up for regular sleep loss during the week.

3. Keep the temperature in your house cool at night—maybe even cooler than you think it should be, like around 65 degrees. Your body temperature needs to drop at night for sleep, and a lower room temperature helps signal your brain that it’s time to sleep.

4. If you have trouble falling asleep, or wake in the night feeling restless, don’t stay in bed awake. That trains the brain that your bed is not a place for sleeping. Instead, get up and read a book under dim light in a different room. Don’t look at your computer or cell phone. When sleepiness returns, then go back to bed. Or if you don’t want to get out of bed, try meditating. Studies suggest it helps individuals fall asleep faster, and also improves sleep quality.

5. Don’t have caffeine late in the day or an alcohol-infused nightcap. Both of these interfere with sleep—either keeping you awake or stimulating frequent wake-ups during the night.

Sleep is the single most effective thing we can do to rest our brain and physical health each day. Atop of sleep, dreaming provides essential emotional first aid and a unique form of informational alchemy. If we wish to be as healthy, happy, and creative as possible, these are facts well worth waking up to.

About the Author

Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, and the director of the university’s Center for Human Sleep Science .

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Essay on My Dream for Students and Children

500+ words essay on my dream.

Everyone has a dream in his life which they want to achieve when they grow up. Some kids want to become rich so that they can buy anything and some want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. But only you know that for achieving these goals you have to work hard and stay attentive to it. In this essay on my dream, we are going to discuss the basic things that will help in achieving my dream .

Determination

For turning a dream into reality the first thing that you need is determination. This will help you in a lot of ways. Firstly, it will help you decide the course of action for doing anything. Besides, it will also help you to plan the journey ahead. Also, it will help to take things slow and maintain a steady pace towards the dream.

Moreover, no matter how big my dream planning and setting short term goals will always help. This is important because rushing to your dream will not going to help you in any way. Besides, there is some dream that requires time and they follow a process without following it you cannot achieve that dream.

Staying Motivated

Lack of motivation is one of the main causes that force a person to leave his dream behind. So, staying motivated is also part of the goal. And if you can’t stay positive then you won’t be able to achieve the dream. There are many people out there that quit the journey of their dreams mid-way because they lack motivation .

Keep Remembering Goal

For completing the dream you have to keep your dream in the mind. And remind this dream to yourself daily. There come hard times when you feel like quitting at those times just remember the goal it helps you stay positive . And if you feel like you messed up big times then start over with a fresh mind.

Reward Yourself

You don’t need to cover milestones to reward yourself. Set a small target towards your dream and on fulfilling them reward yourself . These rewards can be anything from toffee to your favorite thing. Besides, this is a good way of self-motivation.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Take Some Breaks

Working towards your goal not mean that you work day and night without stopping. Apart from that, due to continuous efforts, people soon start to become de-motivated. So, taking a break will help your body and mind. For doing so, take a break in between your schedule for some time an engage yourself in other activities.

Stay Among Positive People

Your company affects you in a lot of ways than you can imagine. So, be with people who appreciate you and stay away from people who distract and criticize you.

Don’t Hesitate to Make Mistakes

To sum it up, we can say that dreaming of a goal is far easier than achieving it. And for fulfilling your dream you need a lot of things and also have to sacrifice many things.

Above all, for fulfilling your dream plan and work according to it because it will lead you to the right path. And never forget to dream big because they help in overcoming every obstacle in life.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [{ “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “What’s the best way to achieve a dream?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “There is no best way for achieving your dream. However, there are certain things that can help you in achieving your dream like being clear to your goal, keep trying, being determinant and several other qualities.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “What can be the biggest dream of anyone’s life?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”:”From my point of view being healthy and happy can be the biggest dream of anyone’s life. “} }] }

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Dream — The Difficult Path: My Dreams and Goals in Life

The Difficult Path: My Dreams and Goals in Life

• Categories: Dream Life Goals

About this sample

Words: 1934 |

10 min read

Published: Jun 5, 2019

Words: 1934 | Pages: 4 | 10 min read

Works Cited

• Emmons, R. A. (2003). Flourishing: The positive person and the good life. American Psychologist, 58(1), 100-110.
• Hubbard, E. (n.d.). Elbert Hubbard quotes. Goodreads. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/412-there-is-no-failure-except-in-no-longer-trying
• Latham, G. P. (2004). The motivational benefits of goal-setting. Academy of Management Perspectives, 18(4), 126-129.
• Pausch, R., & Zaslow, J. (2008). The last lecture. Hachette UK.
• Stapp, B. (2009). Myths and realities of professional singing. Indiana University Press.
• Turkay, S. (2015). Setting goals: Who, why, how? Journal of Instructional Psychology, 42(1), 8-13.

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Important English Essay Topics For BA, BSc Exams List

Table of Contents

Important English Essay Topics for BA, BSc Exams List is available here for all those who are going to attempt the annual examination. These essay topics are the same for private and regular candidates. Also for those students who are going to attempt BA, BSc examinations annually or supplementary. So if you are also among those candidates who are going to attempt English papers then you are here on the right way to get the list of important essay lists. Candidates, there are a huge number of essays that lies in the BA, BSc syllabus but according to the board paper point of view, there are almost 15 to 20 essays that are more important. Here on this page, we will provide you with the list and the most important essays are bold. Well, you are suggested to read these all essays as these are very important to increase your English vocabulary. Essays also increase your general knowledge.

No Matter you are appearing in the annual exams for BA or BSC English is a Compulsory Subject for all students from all over Pakistan whether it is Punjab University, Sargodha University, Faisalabad University, Karachi University, Peshawar University, Gujrat University or any other University of Pakistan. The down complete list of Important English Essay Topics For BA and BSc are prepared while taking consideration from the expert paper makers of bachelor exams. So students if you need to get good passing marks in the annual examination then you need to prepare all these Essay Topics which are given below on this page.

Important Essay Topics For BA English

• English Essay on the Role of Women in Society
• English Essay on Pollution
• English Essay on The Best Day of My Life
• English Essay on Education
• English Essay on The Main problems facing Pakistan
• English Essay on Benefits of Having a Sea Port
• English Essay on Cities
• English Essay on My Favorite Hero in History
• English Essay on My First Day of School
• English Essay on Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
• English Essay on Allama Iqbal
• English Essay on Music Addiction
• English Essay on Unity of Muslims of the World
• English Essay on Social Evils in Pakistan
• English Essay on The effects of World War II on Pakistan and the World
• English Essay on Science and Arts
• English Essay on Corruption
• English Essay on Load Shedding
• English Essay on Overpopulation
• English Essay on Dengue Fever
• English Essay on Terrorism
• English Essay on Democracy
• English Essay on Energy Crisis in Pakistan
• English Essay on Life in a Big City
• English Essay on the Importance of Science

So these are all the Important English Essay Topics for BA, BSc Exams List. You are suggested to learn all these essays so that if this time the authority changes the topic then you should be able to write any essay by your own vocabulary.

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As a Professional career consultant, I am dedicated to providing educational services to students through ilm.com.pk. My primary objective is to provide all educational news to the students on time.

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Guest Essay

A.I.-Generated Garbage Is Polluting Our Culture

By Erik Hoel

Mr. Hoel is a neuroscientist and novelist and the author of The Intrinsic Perspective newsletter.

Increasingly, mounds of synthetic A.I.-generated outputs drift across our feeds and our searches. The stakes go far beyond what’s on our screens. The entire culture is becoming affected by A.I.’s runoff, an insidious creep into our most important institutions.

Consider science. Right after the blockbuster release of GPT-4, the latest artificial intelligence model from OpenAI and one of the most advanced in existence, the language of scientific research began to mutate. Especially within the field of A.I. itself.

Adjectives associated with A.I.-generated text have increased in peer reviews of scientific papers about A.I.

Frequency of adjectives per one million words

Commendable

A study published this month examined scientists’ peer reviews — researchers’ official pronouncements on others’ work that form the bedrock of scientific progress — across a number of high-profile and prestigious scientific conferences studying A.I. At one such conference, those peer reviews used the word “meticulous” more than 34 times as often as reviews did the previous year. Use of “commendable” was around 10 times as frequent, and “intricate,” 11 times. Other major conferences showed similar patterns.

Such phrasings are, of course, some of the favorite buzzwords of modern large language models like ChatGPT. In other words, significant numbers of researchers at A.I. conferences were caught handing their peer review of others’ work over to A.I. — or, at minimum, writing them with lots of A.I. assistance. And the closer to the deadline the submitted reviews were received, the more A.I. usage was found in them.

If this makes you uncomfortable — especially given A.I.’s current unreliability — or if you think that maybe it shouldn’t be A.I.s reviewing science but the scientists themselves, those feelings highlight the paradox at the core of this technology: It’s unclear what the ethical line is between scam and regular usage. Some A.I.-generated scams are easy to identify, like the medical journal paper featuring a cartoon rat sporting enormous genitalia. Many others are more insidious, like the mislabeled and hallucinated regulatory pathway described in that same paper — a paper that was peer reviewed as well (perhaps, one might speculate, by another A.I.?).

What about when A.I. is used in one of its intended ways — to assist with writing? Recently, there was an uproar when it became obvious that simple searches of scientific databases returned phrases like “As an A.I. language model” in places where authors relying on A.I. had forgotten to cover their tracks. If the same authors had simply deleted those accidental watermarks, would their use of A.I. to write their papers have been fine?

What’s going on in science is a microcosm of a much bigger problem. Post on social media? Any viral post on X now almost certainly includes A.I.-generated replies, from summaries of the original post to reactions written in ChatGPT’s bland Wikipedia-voice, all to farm for follows. Instagram is filling up with A.I.-generated models, Spotify with A.I.-generated songs. Publish a book? Soon after, on Amazon there will often appear A.I.-generated “workbooks” for sale that supposedly accompany your book (which are incorrect in their content; I know because this happened to me). Top Google search results are now often A.I.-generated images or articles. Major media outlets like Sports Illustrated have been creating A.I.-generated articles attributed to equally fake author profiles. Marketers who sell search engine optimization methods openly brag about using A.I. to create thousands of spammed articles to steal traffic from competitors.

Then there is the growing use of generative A.I. to scale the creation of cheap synthetic videos for children on YouTube. Some example outputs are Lovecraftian horrors, like music videos about parrots in which the birds have eyes within eyes, beaks within beaks, morphing unfathomably while singing in an artificial voice, “The parrot in the tree says hello, hello!” The narratives make no sense, characters appear and disappear randomly, and basic facts like the names of shapes are wrong. After I identified a number of such suspicious channels on my newsletter, The Intrinsic Perspective, Wired found evidence of generative A.I. use in the production pipelines of some accounts with hundreds of thousands or even millions of subscribers.

As a neuroscientist, this worries me. Isn’t it possible that human culture contains within it cognitive micronutrients — things like cohesive sentences, narrations and character continuity — that developing brains need? Einstein supposedly said : “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” But what happens when a toddler is consuming mostly A.I.-generated dream-slop? We find ourselves in the midst of a vast developmental experiment.

There’s so much synthetic garbage on the internet now that A.I. companies and researchers are themselves worried, not about the health of the culture, but about what’s going to happen with their models. As A.I. capabilities ramped up in 2022, I wrote on the risk of culture’s becoming so inundated with A.I. creations that when future A.I.s are trained, the previous A.I. output will leak into the training set, leading to a future of copies of copies of copies, as content became ever more stereotyped and predictable. In 2023 researchers introduced a technical term for how this risk affected A.I. training: model collapse . In a way, we and these companies are in the same boat, paddling through the same sludge streaming into our cultural ocean.

With that unpleasant analogy in mind, it’s worth looking to what is arguably the clearest historical analogy for our current situation: the environmental movement and climate change. For just as companies and individuals were driven to pollute by the inexorable economics of it, so, too, is A.I.’s cultural pollution driven by a rational decision to fill the internet’s voracious appetite for content as cheaply as possible. While environmental problems are nowhere near solved, there has been undeniable progress that has kept our cities mostly free of smog and our lakes mostly free of sewage. How?

Before any specific policy solution was the acknowledgment that environmental pollution was a problem in need of outside legislation. Influential to this view was a perspective developed in 1968 by Garrett Hardin, a biologist and ecologist. Dr. Hardin emphasized that the problem of pollution was driven by people acting in their own interest, and that therefore “we are locked into a system of ‘fouling our own nest,’ so long as we behave only as independent, rational, free-enterprisers.” He summed up the problem as a “tragedy of the commons.” This framing was instrumental for the environmental movement, which would come to rely on government regulation to do what companies alone could or would not.

Once again we find ourselves enacting a tragedy of the commons: short-term economic self-interest encourages using cheap A.I. content to maximize clicks and views, which in turn pollutes our culture and even weakens our grasp on reality. And so far, major A.I. companies are refusing to pursue advanced ways to identify A.I.’s handiwork — which they could do by adding subtle statistical patterns hidden in word use or in the pixels of images.

A common justification for inaction is that human editors can always fiddle around with whatever patterns are used if they know enough. Yet many of the issues we’re experiencing are not caused by motivated and technically skilled malicious actors; they’re caused mostly by regular users’ not adhering to a line of ethical use so fine as to be nigh nonexistent. Most would be uninterested in advanced countermeasures to statistical patterns enforced into outputs that should, ideally, mark them as A.I.-generated.

That’s why the independent researchers were able to detect A.I. outputs in the peer review system with surprisingly high accuracy: They actually tried. Similarly, right now teachers across the nation have created home-brewed output-side detection methods , like adding hidden requests for patterns of word use to essay prompts that appear only when copied and pasted.

In particular, A.I. companies appear opposed to any patterns baked into their output that can improve A.I.-detection efforts to reasonable levels, perhaps because they fear that enforcing such patterns might interfere with the model’s performance by constraining its outputs too much — although there is no current evidence this is a risk. Despite public pledges to develop more advanced watermarking, it’s increasingly clear that the companies are dragging their feet because it goes against the A.I. industry’s bottom line to have detectable products.

To deal with this corporate refusal to act we need the equivalent of a Clean Air Act: a Clean Internet Act. Perhaps the simplest solution would be to legislatively force advanced watermarking intrinsic to generated outputs, like patterns not easily removable. Just as the 20th century required extensive interventions to protect the shared environment, the 21st century is going to require extensive interventions to protect a different, but equally critical, common resource, one we haven’t noticed up until now since it was never under threat: our shared human culture.

Erik Hoel is a neuroscientist, a novelist and the author of The Intrinsic Perspective newsletter.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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