Nightmares+EAT

1. What does it mean to be "gainfully" employed (line 3)? 2. Look up the word "Damoclesian". What does it mean that the knife dangled with "Damoclesian contempt"? 3. What did the patient fear at night (2 things)? 4. How did Dr. Leving help this man? 5. When is the last time you had a nightmare you remember? Do you mind sharing it? If not, please do so here... 6. What does she mean when she calls nightmares a "sensorily rich nocturnal roundhouse staffed with characters so persuasive you want to ... strangle them, before they can strangle you."? (paragraph 4) 7. What percentage of dreams are bad dreams? 8. What is REM sleep? (You may need to look this up.) What does it stand for? What happens during REM sleep? How much REM sleep do we get in a typical night's sleep? 9. How much time do we spend dreaming each night? 10. How does the frequency of nightmares change as we age? (Be specific with ages and number of nightmares) 11. Which parts of the brain are active during dreaming (Be specific, name the parts and their function)? 12. What is the possible function of bad dreams? And why are nightmares disfunctional?
 * A NYT article on Nightmares by my favorite author, Natalie Angier**
 * He was happily employed. He liked his job and he lead a pretty normal life.
 * Damoclesian is something that poses a threat or is threatening. The knife dangling with damoclesian contempt means that the knife posed a thread or some sort of danger to the person.
 * He had fears (from memories) of a middle-aged woman intruding in his house/room, and a knife hanging from the fan. These fears came from an intruder that was in his room one night, and the abuse he suffered from as a child.
 * Dr. Leving told him to go through the dream and find alternatives for the blades and the fear that he harbored... the nightmares stopped and he was able to take control again. She basically told him to overcome his fear of the blade and his mother, rework the dream so that he was incharge and in control so that he wouldn't be afraid.
 * I do not remember the last nightmare I had.
 * She is describing and showing how incredible it is that the brain is able to produce a story in our brain why we sleep. She is showing that nightmares are so scary because the brain is able to create an image (sort of movie type image) with characters and plots that seem as though they are happening in real life. Nightmares, while you are in them, is a real-life experience, which is why they are so difficult for people who have reoccurring nightmares.
 * Most of the dreams that people have are bad dreams (about 3/4ths of dreams are bad)
 * It stands for Rapid Eye Movement. This is the part of your sleep where the dreams are (you have you dreams when you are in the REM stage of sleep.) On average a person spends about 90-120 minutes each night in REM. We go through about 4 or 5 REM periods each night... they are shorter at first but begin to get longer. Some people may wake up at the end of an REM stage. There inst a dominate brainwave during REM. Heart rate and breathing rate are irregular during this state, body temperature is poorly regulated, and rapid eye movements (hence the name.) Fingers, legs, arms and other body parts usually twitch during this period.
 * About three hours each night.
 * Dream diaries have suggested that children from age 5-12 wake up at least once a week from a bad dream. Most 55 (and older) people have 1/3 the amount of nightmares the average 25 year-old has. Girls have been found to have more nightmares than boys and men.
 * Sleep is broken into four different stages. Each stage has its own brainwave pattern and neurochemical activity. REM is the dream stage of sleep when the eyes are "flitting behind closed lids." 90% of sleep is spent in the REM stage. during REM the limbic system is very active. (the amygdaka ad anterior cingulate cortex are extremely active during this part- while the prefrontal cortex is shut-off.) The prefrontal cortex is responsible for reasoning... which should explain why we are tricked into believing our dreams- we are incapable of logical reasoning at this time. The visual cortex is also "resting" during this time (which is responsible for receiving images from the outside world.) The secondary visual cortex (responsible for processing images is active... which is where the images for the dreams are.) A certain part of the brain stem is responsible for keeping the body still during dreams (so that the person doesn't physically act out the dreams.)
 * It is the brains way of getting rid of bad memories. It helps the person move on a create a place for new memories in the brain. They help prevent adults from having the same fears they had when they were young kids. If the bad dream doesn't wake us up... then the brain was able to successfully discard/deal with that emotion. Nightmares are dysfunctional because they aren't successful in reliving the person from the fear, rather it is a superficial and is a temporary relief from the fear/emotion.