Dream interpretations lack solid support due to failures in remembering details, new research has arrived at explanations on when dreams can be recalled vividly.
Importance of Dream Recall in Facilitating Accurate Dream Interpretation
Dream recall or فسر حلمك مباشرة in Arabic, is important because the vivid details of a dream, especially if recurring, are the bases of accurate interpretations. Unless these are provided, paying for dream interpretation services cannot be supported by the scientific findings of psychologists who linked dreams to human emotions and aspirations.
Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that dreams served as a communication tool between the gods and humans. During the period, anyone who can interpret dreams is revered because he possesses prophetic powers.
In more modern periods, scientists like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung centered their dream theories on the psychological significance of dreams. They deem dreams as instruments for sorting out repressed desires and unresolved aspirations.
University of Rome Scientists Explain When We Remember Our Dreams
Most dreams cannot be interpreted because people tend to forget their dreams the moment they wake up. Yet some dreams are recurring, which make the affected person highly interested in what the dream conveys.
Cristina Marzano together with peers at the University of Rome (UR) have succeeded in arriving at a conclusion to explain the instances when humans can vividly recall their dreams. The UR scientists regarded their study as successful because they were able to predict at which point there is a likelihood that a person will recall his or her dream.
Ms. Marzano and her colleagues found this out when they used technology that records the signature pattern of the human brain waves. Using electroencephalography (EEG), the scientists distinguished the electrical brain waves into four types: alpha, beta, delta and theta.
Each type of brain wave stands to represent a different speed harnessing varying oscillating electrical voltages. The UR researchers used the technology on
65 students who slept for two consecutive nights in the research team’s UR laboratory.
In the first night of the study, the goal was to let the participants get accustomed to the sound-proofed and temperature-controlled conditions of the rooms. It was during the second night that the brain waves of the sleeping students were measured in various sleep stages,
During the night, the participants were intentionally awakened at different times so they can fill out a logbook. They were asked to record whether or not they dreamt of something, and of how often they have dreamt about the same dream. Most important of all is to indicate whether or not they recall the details of their dreams.
In reviewing and evaluating the information written by the students in their individual logbook, it was evident that dreamers are more inclined to recall their dreams vividly during the Rapid Eye Movement or REM phase of a person’s sleep period. Reference to the REM phase of sleep is pertains to that period when the eyes move rapidly even as the eyelids are closed. In this phase, a sleeping person’s brain activity increases, while his heart, breathing and blood pressure rates accelerate. At the same time, the leg and arm muscles are temporarily immobilized.
In relation to the REM findings, the UR researchers found out that students who had more low frequency theta waves in their frontal lobes are capable of vividly remembering their dreams.