Dreams and dreaming

Dream is a safeguard against life’s little trials and tribulations. A person sleeps away one-third of his life. Dreaming alone accounts for more than 5 years of the average lifespan. Freud, one of the first to analyze dreams, dubbed dreaming as the royal path to the subconscious. Dreams reflect our desires and motivate our behaviour. Some people claim that they do not dream at all. That’s not right.

Everybody dreams. It is quite another matter if upon waking one forgets one's dreams. This depends on many factors, including family traditions. Some people dream in black and white, in colour. Dreaming in colour is more common among emotional people, with a flexible nervous system. Well-balanced, calm people sometimes dream in colour too, but pay less attention to it.

Sleep is composed of consecutive rapid and slow phases. One dreams several times per night, but only during a rapid phase sleep. Dreams are so important, that if deprived of dreams, a person can experience serious psychic changes. A person can be deprived of dreaming by waking at the beginning of a rapid phase.

This moment can be recorded, heart beat becomes more frequent, irregular breathing patterns emerge, eye movements become more rapid. Rapid sleep and consequently dreams are crucial for various reasons.

Falling asleep is like scaling down the stairs of slumber to its extremely deep stages: initially, superficial sleep, followed by moderate sleep and then deep sleep. If this process did not stop, the logical progression would be the comastage — a cerebral state which cannot be reversed. However, a rapid phase of sleep, whereby the brain awakens itself, ensues, bringing the slumber a few steps higher to facilitate another drop. Physiologically, this is absolutely vital. But this is also psychologically crucial.

Books that interpret dreams are based on certain observations, but statistically they are not verified, one cannot generalize proceeding from the information therein. Interpreters of dreams try to foretell a person’s future while the scientific research is to understand the essence of an individual and to penetrate into the subconscious.

Dreaming is a vital mechanism of psychological safeguard against difficulties of everyday life. At night, life seems unbearable, fraught with insurmountable difficulties, but comes morning, the sun emerges inspiring hope and resolving problems. There is a Chinese saying — "We can sneeze away all our problems in our sleep". Nowadays there is an abundance of books on interpreting dreams. But the same images are interpreted in completely different ways depending on the book you choose, much is based on mere assumption, and stretches the ­imagination too far.

Active Vocabulary:

trial, tribulation, to dub, to be deprived of, to emerge, crucial, slumber, comastage, to ensue, to facilitate, to be verified, to foretell, to penetrate, unbearable, fraught with, insurmountable, to sneeze away, abundance, assumption.

Task 1. Answer the following questions.

1. How does Freud define dreams?

2. Do you support his definitions?

3. What do our dreams reflect?

4. Do we remember our dreams?

5. Do we often see dreams in colour?

6. Do people dream all night long?

7. Why are dreams so important for people?

8. What does the Chinese saying state?

9. What do interpreters try to foretell in their books?

10. What is the difference between dream and dreaming?

11. Why do people forget their dreams?

12. Do people dream in black and white or in colour?

13. Where is dreaming in colour more common?

14. What kind of people dream in colour?

Task 2. Divide the text into logical parts, make an outline and speak on it.

Task 3. A survey into people’s sleep habits was carried out, based on the questions below. Answer the questions and then compare your answers with a partner.

1. On average, do you think you get enough sleep?

1. yes; b) no; c) don’t know

2. Do you need to be mentally alert in your work?

1. yes; b) no; c) don’t know

3. How many hours do you usually sleep on weeknights?

1. less than 5 hours; b) 5 to 8 hours; c) more than 8 hours

4. On average, how much sleep do you get on weekend nights?

1. less than 5 hours; b) 5 to 8 hours; c) more than 8 hours

5. When you are sleeping, what do you think your brain is doing?

1. resting; b) working; c) don’t know

Task 4. Read the text and find expressions in it which match to the figures below.

1. 5-15 %; b) 33%; c) 60-80%; d) 51-60%; e) 80-99%; f) 40-49%

Sleep Survey Report

According to recent medical research, sleeping more than nine hours or less than six hours a night can shorten your life expectancy. Those who are likely to live longest are people who regularly get between seven and eight hours a night. A new survey of 1000 adults conducted by the Better Sleep Council (BSC) found that few people understand the important role sleep plays in normal daily brain functions and many people actually reduce their brain power by getting too little sleep.

One in three adults admits that they do not get enough sleep, and lack of sleep is leaving millions of people without the energy to work as hard as they should. Although a large number of people say that they need to be mentally alert in their work, over half of people interviewed say that they sleep just under seven hours a night during the week. On the other hand, most of the people interviewed say that they sleep more than seven hours a night at the weekend. This suggests that a significant number of people try to catch up on their sleep at the weekend instead of getting enough sleep during the week, when they most need it.

According to this survey, nearly half of the population believes that brain rests when the body sleeps. In fact, the opposite is true. Sleep allows the brain to go to work, filing and storing the day’s events. “Most people incorrectly think the brain is resting or recuperating during sleep. Actually, some parts of the brain are more active when you are asleep”, confirms Dr Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. “Your brain is like a cluttered desktop at the end of the day. At night, when you are asleep and no more information can be put on the desk, or in your brain, your brain can then file away the information.”

Task 5. Work with a partner. Write five questions to ask people about their sleep habits using the words and expressions in the box. Ask your partner all these questions and write his answers.

dream have nightmares talk in your sleep snore sleepwalk sleep on your back/ side/ front have a nap alarm clock feel sleepy suffer from insomnia yawn fall asleep while travelling fall asleep in front of the TV set early bird night owl go without sleep in a double bed have a lie-in at the weekend

Task 6. Write sentences reporting the results of your survey. Use expressions to help you.

According to recent medical/psychological research…

A recent survey…

A new survey of… conducted by… found that…

On the other hand …

This suggests that…

In fact/ actually…

Task 7. Read the text and translate the sentences given in bold type in writing.

Every day every human being experiences two kinds of sleep that alternate rhythmically throughout the entire sleep period. The discovery of the two kinds of sleep occurred almost accidentally at the University of Chicago. In 1952 Dr. Kleitman became interested in the slow rolling eye movements that accompany sleep onset and decided to look for these eye movements throughout the night to determine whether they were related to the depth or quality of sleep. An entirely new kind of eye movement was noticed at certain times during night, the eyes began to dart about furiously beneath the closed lids.

Dr. Kleitman coined the term “REM” (for Rapid – Eye – Movement sleep) to define the phenomenon he and his colleagues observed. The other kind eventually acquired the name “NREM” sleep. The “NREM” state is often called “quiet sleep”, because of the slow, regular breathing, the general absence of body movement, and the slow, regular brain activity shown in the EEG. The body is not paralyzed during NREM sleep. The first sleep of the night is always NREM one, which must progress through its various stages before the first REM period occurs. REM sleep, which has been called “active sleep”, is an entirely different state of existence. At the onset of REM sleep the sleeper’s body is still immobile, but we can see small, convulsive twitches of his face and fingertips.

Experts speculate that REM sleep protects us from acting out our dreams and hurting ourselves, and that it is not really sleep at all, but a state in which the subject is awake, but paralyzed and hallucinating. The sleeper’s breathing becomes irregular – very fast, and then slow – he may even appear to stop breathing for several seconds. If you gently pull back the eyelids the sleeper seems to be actually looking at something. Cerebral blood flow and brain temperature soar to new heights, but large muscles of the body are completely paralyzed: arms, legs, and trunk cannot move.

The NREM – REM cycle varies from 70 to 110 minutes, but averages around 90 min. In the early part of the night sleep is dominated by the NREM state, but as the night progresses, the periods of quiet sleep become shorter and the REM episodes longer. The first REM period lasts 10 min., but by early morning they can last as long as an hour. So we are believed to go into REM sleep and dream roughly every 90 min. all night long. So most of us sleep in two distinct ways: REM sleep, when we dream, and “quiet” sleep when we simply sleep.

Task 8. Give Ukrainian equivalents of the following.

Cerebral blood flow; as the night progresses; an entirely different state of existence; sleep onset; depth of sleep; to act out our dreams; to stay awake; accidentally; rolling eye movement; to breathe regularly; to pull back the eyelids; brain temperature soar; the discovery occurred.

Task 9. Find English equivalents in the text (task 3).

Відчувати(проходити); чергуватися; зацікавитись; супроводжувати початок сну; швидко рухатись під повіками; запровадити новий термін; дати визначення явищу; спокійний сон; фахівці припускають; великі м’язи паралізовані; варіюватися від…до; дорівнювати в середньому; по-різному.

Task 10. Match the words with the definitions.

1	Awake	A	think in a general w y without really knowing: guess
2	metabolism	B	cause pain to somebody
3	Immobile	C	not asleep
4	Speculate	D	clearly seen
5	Distinct	E	on the outside, outer
6	Trunk	F	all the processes of change which go on in the body
7	Outward	G	not able to move or be moved
8	Hurt	H	body without its arms, legs and head

Task 11. Match the antonyms.

1	Rapid	A	asleep
2	hurt	B	noisy
3	awake	C	inward
4	contrary	D	reach
5	quiet	E	slow
6	outward	F	mobile
7	start	G	similar
8	paralyzed	H	cure

Task 12. Match the synonyms.

1	rapid	A	occasional
2	discover	B	obvious
3	various	C	immobile
4	accidental	D	quick
5	distinct	E	suppose
6	paralyzed	F	calm
7	quiet	G	find out
8	speculate	H	different

Task 13. Check the word in each column which does not belong.

1	Drop Decrease Reach	2	Protection Defence Investigation	3	Ordinary Simple Complex	4	Occur Exist Happen
5	Remarkable Interesting Wonderful	6	Rapid Slow Quick	7	Occasional Accidental Temporal	8	Distinct Clear Complicated

Task 14. Develop the following situations in pairs.

1. You are writing a report on dreaming. Your work is more theoretical than practical but still you are going to carry out a poll. What possible questions would you like to include into your questionnaire? But first ask a respondent:

— if he always remembers his dreams;

— if he dreams more in black and white or in colour;

— if his dreams depend on his mood on the eve;

— what dreams he sees more often;

— if he ever sees horror dreams;

— what he feels after that;

— if he believes that dreams predict our future.

2. Once among the books in the bookcase (the collection belonged to your grandmother) you found the book "Your dreams and what they mean". You were puzzled and surprised. You ask your friend to share your emotions. Ask him:

— if he has ever read anything of the same kind;

— if he believes that a journey in a dream may signify anxiety;

— how psychologists interpret dreams;

— who was the first to analyze dreams;

— what our dreams may reflect;

— if different people can see the same dreams.

3. On the eve of the examination your close friend saw a dream in which he failed his exam. Now he feels afraid and anxious. You ask him about the state and try to support him emotionally. Ask him:

— if he feels ill-prepared for the exam or he revised all the material completely;

— why he believes that dreams foretell a person's future;

— if he thinks that our dreams reflect future or past events;

— if he doubts the idea that dreaming is simply a psychological safeguard mechanism;

— what dream he saw on the eve of the last exam;

— what he experienced in dreaming.

4. Your friend has just attended a lecture on dreaming given by a famous psychologist. But you didn’t manage to attend this lecture. That’s why you ask your friend about it as you are deeply concerned with the problem of the unconscious. Ask him:

— what sort of people dream most;

— if it is possible to choose what to dream;

— if people dream all night long;

— what people can experience if deprived of dreams;

— what books interpreting dreams are based on;

— if our dreams may come true.

Task 15. Translate the words in brackets into English. Give a two-minute summary of the text.

The Secrets of Sleep

The secrets of sleep were a mystery for centuries simply because there was neither the (a - засобів) to explore them, nor the need. Only when candles gave way to gaslight, and gas to electricity, when man became (b-здатен) to convert night into day, and double his output by working shifts (c-цілодобово), did people seriously start wondering if sleep could possibly be a (d - марнування) of time. Our ability to switch night into day is very recent, and it is questionable if we will ever either want or be able to (e -позбутися) our habit of enjoying a good night sleep. However, a remarkable (f - дослідницький) project in London has already discovered a few people who actually enjoy insomnia. Even chronic insomniacs often get hours more sleep than they think. But, by placing electric contacts beside the eyes and on the head, it is possible to check their complaint by studying the tiny currents we generate which (g - показує) the different brainwaves of sleep and wakefulness. This has shown that for some people seven or eight hours of sleep a night are quite unnecessary.

A lot of recent work has shown that too much sleep is bad for you, so that if you are (h - пощастило) enough to be born with a body which needs only small amount of sleep, you may well be healthier and happier than someone who sleeps longer.

Every (i - спроба) to unravel the secrets of sleep, and be precise about its function, (j -викликала) many problems. The sleeper himself cannot tell what is going on and, even when he (k - прокидається), has only a very hazy idea of how good or bad a night he had. The research is expensive and often unpopular, as it inevitably involves working at night. Only in the last few years have experts (l - займаються) with theories about the function of sleep and the laws which may (m - керувати) it.

The real advance in sleep research came in 1937 with the use of the electroencephalogram.

Task 16. Read the text and answer the questions.

American sleep experts are sounding an alarm over America’s sleep deficit. They say Americans are a somnambulant nation, stumbling groggily through their waking hours for lack of sufficient sleep. They are working longer days — and, increasingly, nights — and they are playing longer, too, as TV and the Internet expands the range of round-the-clock entertainment options.

By some estimates, Americans are sleeping as much as an hour and a half less per night than they did at the turn of the century — and the problem is likely to get worse: "The 24-hour society is here, and it's growing", says one of the slumber scientists. (Physiologically, we just cannot adapt that well).

The health repercussions of sleep deprivation are not well understood, but sleep researchers point to its ranging from heart problems to depression.

In a famous experiment conducted at the University of Chicago, rats kept from sleeping died after two and a half weeks. People are not likely to drop dead in the same way, but sleep deprivation may cost them their life indirectly, when an exhausted doctor prescribes the wrong dosage or a sleepy driver weaves into someone’s lane because driving while tired is very similar to driving drunk.

What irritates experts most is the fact that much sleep deprivation is voluntary. "People have regarded sleep as a commodity that they could shortchange", says one of them. "It's been considered a mark of very hard work and upward mobility to get very little sleep. It's macho attitude." Slumber scientists hope that attitude will change. They say people have learned to modify their behaviour in terms of lowering their cholesterol and increasing exercise. Doctors also think people need to be educated that allowing, enough time for sleep and taking strategic naps are the most reliable ways to promote alertness behind the wheel and on the job.

1. Why are Americans called a somnambulant nation?

2. What are the consequences of sleep deprivation?

3. What experiment was conducted at the University of Chicago?

4. What are sleep experts irritated by?

5. What are the ways to promote alertness?

6. Is it possible not to sleep at all? Give your arguments.

7. Can you study while asleep?

Task 17. Are you in favour of or against the statements? Prove your point of view.

a) TV and Internet as night entertainment options;

b) sleep deprivation as a macho attitude;

c) taking strategic naps;

d) night work;

e) therapeutic caffeine use.