AP+NightMare+Article

1. What does it mean to be "gainfully" employed (line 3)? Gainfully employed means he grew up as a normal adult.
 * A NYT article on Nightmares by my favorite author, Natalie Angier**

2. Look up the word "Damoclesian". What does it mean that the knife dangled with "Damoclesian contempt"? The knife dangled with contempt as if it were going to kill him.

3. What did the patient fear at night (2 things)? Swinging blades and frozen fear

4. How did Dr. Leving help this man? He tells him to reframe the dream and to think of different ways to get around his fears until his nightmares are gone

5. When is the last time you had a nightmare you remember? Do you mind sharing it? If not, please do so here... I dont know if you would call it a nightmare but i had a dream and someone had shot my dad. It scared me so much and i think i started to cry. I also know i had a dream and i think i was running and i ran and thought i was falling off a cliff but i was laying on he edge of my bed.

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) It means that you want to hurt the characters before they kill you. Because if you die in your dream them you wont wake up.

7. What percentage of dreams are bad dreams? All of your dreams are bad.

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? REM is when your eyes move in your sleep. It stands for rapid eye movement. During REM sleep your eyes move back and forth during a dream. At least 90 percent of dreams occur during REM.

9. How much time do we spend dreaming each night? 60-70 percent

10. How does the frequency of nightmares change as we age? (Be specific with ages and number of nightmares) Preschoolers ages 5-12 Avg. 55 yr. old girls and women have more nightmares than men
 * 25 percent
 * waken at least once a week due to dreams
 * one third avg. 25 yr.old

11. Which parts of the brain are active during dreaming (Be specific, name the parts and their function)? The amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex are located in the limbic system and is where your fear comes from. The prefrontal is where you have critical reasoning and rational thought is at rest during a dream. Tranquilized is the primary visual cortex and receives visual signs from the outside world. The secondary visual cortex is where the brain can process and interpret the unusual signs in your dream to make them make sense.

12. What is the possible function of bad dreams? And why are nightmares disfunctional? The possible function of bad dreams is dealing with intense emotion. Nightmares are disfunctional because you wake up from them and you can solve a scenario.