Yeah, I threw the BBC one in there because it was the first one I came across and I was amused at their take on it, i.e. Take a nap, you'll learn better! Because I certainly haven't found that translates when napping after learning kanji. T_T

I had a dream just the other day where everybody was speaking Japanese, but I didn't understand a word of it.  Does that mean I'm better at not understanding Japanese now?

Um.

So we know that many of us have had one of these sudden insights in our dreams because dreaming helps us think about things differently when we're not bound by reality and our brain is associating all kinds of stuff. There are loads of stories of scientists who thought up new inventions in their sleep.

This experiment showed people who were performing on a task that tests multiple cognitive abilities, one of which is the subject's memory of earlier attempts at the task. Through, supposedly, dreaming their task performance improved.
Okay.

Assuming that it really was the dreaming, how do they know it was the subject's memory that improved, instead of the subjects' solving method? I may be missing something here but it's just so weird everyone seems to assume it was memory reinforcement that gave such a high boost...

Edit: Oh and by the way, ever seen a cat play in its sleep, like clawing around for a rat or whatever? I have zero backing for this but I don't think it's so far out there to hypothesize that animals simulate what they need to do in their sleep and so carry out the same mental tasks while not actually moving during sleep paralysis so they can practice while not expending energy.
(Now this, I know, is way more out there:)
And for our ancestors/other primates this 'simulation' would play a crucial role in taking them to a higher level of thinking where they made associations they would not usually make in any other state (because the first steps weren't reinforced) and so 'forcing' them into taking the first steps toward 'intelligent' thinking that after development became self-rewarding because it enabled them to do so much more.
After all, if I was spending all day hunting for food and just, you know, living, I probably wouldn't do much of intentional heavy thinking when I get back to my cave so the most abstract I'd get is probably dreamland.
Now I've got a mental image of caveman-me riding a pink pony in world filled with cave drawings and bloody cadavers. Nice.
(thanks for bearing with this tangent)

Last edited by Surreal (2010 April 25, 1:41 am)

For dreams I hear that unconsciously everything you see, even when you where a kid. You can remember everything you saw even though in reality you don't remember it in you're active memory. So when you remember something in your dream, chances are you've seen it in reality many times or even just for a second.

I took a class called "myths,dreams,consciousness". It was an interesting course. Basically everything you dream about is related to your current situation in life and it can give you possible solutions to the problem and even future problems.  So when people have random dreams or so, it actually is trying to tell you something. The only thing that makes it hard to decode is because where not familiar with the languages of dreams. I've managed to decode some of my dreams, but it's best to record them fast because overtime you will forget that dream.

@Mcjon01
actually lol. Dreams never give you a direct answer if it did you're dreams would scare you to no end. Dreams are never direct with you. If you're naked outside chances are it's not telling you, you'll go outside naked randomly. Best thing is to break it down, but yes dreams are not so easy to know what the heck they are telling you at times. I've had my fair share of random dreams, some I've never knew how to decode it.

The thing about dreams is that, no one accept the person dreaming can decode it fully. There are dream dictionaries out there but they can only go so far, because every individual has their own way of thinking,etc.

But on the other hand, I hear yea. It could just be brain junk during dreams. But what's unusually is that people did have dreams and something similar to that happened in real-life. Could just be a coincidence and all, but if it happens more than once I don't think so. I've had some of those dreams where I was like what the heck is going on here. Then a week later, I was like ok, this exact same thing happen in my dream.

Last edited by ta12121 (2010 April 25, 1:28 pm)

@ta121212 - You don't really believe that stuff do you?

I mean uh, not that there's anything wrong with that. The world is uh, very mystical and mysterious and opinions may vary on how to interpret it, but are all equally worthwhile, and stuff. Totally.

Last edited by nest0r (2010 April 25, 2:21 pm)

ta12121 wrote:

It was an interesting course. Basically everything you dream about is related to your current situation in life and it can give you possible solutions to the problem and even future problems.  So when people have random dreams or so, it actually is trying to tell you something.

I wish that was the case. For me, those times I remember a particular dream, often because they are a bit different than usual, the dream imagery just tell me something I already know.

Teeths falling out for example, doesn't seem to be brain junk. I noticed I have this particular image in times of change in my life, when I try something new, or when I am afraid of loosing something. For the ego even a positive change is a menace of loosing the "good old self". The ego doesn't want change, it wants you to live the same predictable life, day after day, till your last breath. So anything you do that goes outside the routine, if you pay attention you'll notice the different imagery in your dreams.

@ta12121: If you meant actually accessing new information through dreams.. well there is a lot of theories on that, but that's "fringe science" (or "pseudo science") and is not very well received in this forum   (for loss, imho). There is the theory of the noosphere, "A Big Theory Of Everything" which presents the reality as an information field basically, etc.

ta12121 wrote:

I took a class called "myths,dreams,consciousness". It was an interesting course. Basically everything you dream about is related to your current situation in life and it can give you possible solutions to the problem and even future problems.  So when people have random dreams or so, it actually is trying to tell you something. The only thing that makes it hard to decode is because where not familiar with the languages of dreams. I've managed to decode some of my dreams, but it's best to record them fast because overtime you will forget that dream.

While I'm sure it is interesting and could help you draw some inspiration from your dreams, remember that even though it's an actual course which I assume was taught at some formal institution, that doesn't mean it's scientific. The wikipedia page on dream interpretation wasn't that good so I'd recommend to check out http://psychology.about.com/od/statesof … erpret.htm for a start and then look up some more info on Domhoff and others who hold that dream interpretation is overestimated. (seriously, "dream dictionaries" are overall worthless because even if/when there are things to interpret it doesn't make sense that everyone would be using the same symbol system for their individual dreams)

Speaking of Domhoff, I found this:http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/domhoff_2004b.html
It made me remember someone, Csíkszentmihályi I think, that wrote about how drugs boost creativity mostly by jumbling about your mind so you can see things differently, giving us material for when we are in a sober state when the actual creative work takes place.
So that's another possibility: the dreams warped the subjects' cognitive map of the maze system and interpreted it differently, when they later woke up their sober mind brought some order to these warped models and found a better solving method through them.
Note that I don't have any 'belief' or 'attachment' to this, I just want to further point out that the "improved memory" is only one of the possible factors at work in the experiment, and in the likely case of multiple factors not necessarily the most important.



Last note: "that type of science isn't backed up by scientific fact." oh lordy lord
Edit: I'm sorry if this was interpreted as ill meant (ironically, I googled and noticed that this is "swenglish")- I thought it was funny because it symbolizes the general confusion about what is/should be 'science'/'scientific fact'. Ridiculing ta's use of the English language was not my intention though I can easily see how you'd read it like that.

Last edited by Surreal (2010 April 26, 11:51 am)

I'm also skeptical about deeper meanings of random dreams, but I have had dreams where I repeatedly solved the same problem (maths or otherwise) over and over again in different ways until I woke up and was actually able to solve a problem I couldn't before. Also being absentminded, I often forget the dates of things (like when I'm flying to a different country or something) so I used to have dreams that I'd already missed some important deadline and would wake up and remember in time. This didn't always work out unfortunately. :\

On the other hand I consistently have dreams where armies of zombies and vampires go to war but I am stuck in the middle between them because I have to tend to a vegetable garden. I am hoping this has no foundation in reality.

Caveat: this is all anecdotal and in no way constitutes science.

@surreal

What part of psychology is scientific fact again? There's no need to rain on people's parade.

kazelee wrote:

@surreal

What part of psychology is scientific fact again? There's no need to rain on people's parade.

lol haha. I know

Last edited by ta12121 (2010 April 26, 12:05 pm)