NH+Nightmares+Article

=**A NYT article on Nightmares by my favorite author, Natalie Angier**=

//-He had a good job that paid well.//
 * 1. What does it mean to be "gainfully" employed (line 3)?**

//-At a banquet given by Dionysus, there was a sword hanging over Damocles by a single thread.This must have been the case in the patients nightmare.//
 * 2. Look up the word "Damoclesian". What does it mean that the knife dangled with "Damoclesian contempt"?**

//- intruders and swinging blades//
 * 3. What did the patient fear at night (2 things)?**

//-Dr. Levin helped the patient to find and focus on alternatives to swinging blades and frozen fear. The nightmares finally went away and the patient could get on with his life.//
 * 4. How did Dr. Leving help this man?**

//-To tell you the truth, I don't remember the last nightmare i had. I rarely remember dreams. I remember one from when I was little. All i remember is that a witch was chasing me on her broom//.
 * 5. When is the last time you had a nightmare you remember? Do you mind sharing it? If not, please do so here...**

//When we dream, we make up an alternate/ "virtual" reality in our sleep that seems extremely real. The nightmare comes in when there are people trying to kill you or anything that scares you. You feel like you need to protect yourself even though it is just a dream.//
 * 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)**

//60-70% of our dreams are spent in sleep mentation.//
 * 7. What percentage of dreams are bad dreams?**

//REM sleep is a point in your sleep when your brain is almost as active as it is when you are awake. REM stands for rapid eye movement. REM sleep is usually associated with dreaming. About 20-25% of our sleep is REM sleep.//
 * 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?**

//60-70% of the time//
 * 9. How much time do we spend dreaming each night?**

//Preschoolers usually don't have nightmares but 25% of children from ages 5-12 get at least 1 nightmare per week. 55 year olds have one third the amount of nightmares that 25 year olds do. Women have significantly more nightmares than men.//
 * 10. How does the frequency of nightmares change as we age? (Be specific with ages and number of nightmares)**

//The amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex are active while dreaming. These parts of the brain are called the "axes of fear" most likely because they are what cause you to get scared. The prefrontal cortex (rational thought and critical reasoning) and the primary visual cortex (gets visual signals from the outside world) are inactive. But, the secondary cortex which processes these signals remains active. Other sensory and motor systems stay active but while dreaming part of the brain stem paralyzes the body so that you don't act out your dream.//
 * 11. Which parts of the brain are active during dreaming (Be specific, name the parts and their function)?**

//Bad dreams could possibly be around to get rid of fears, so that we don't have the same fears in adulthood as we did in childhood (aka a monster under the bed). Bad dreams allow you to get through the most intense, emotional part of the dream with out waking up. Nightmares, on the other hand, cause you to wake up, meaning that there was no resolution in your dream.//
 * 12. What is the possible function of bad dreams? And why are nightmares disfunctional?**