Nightmares-CMP

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

It means that the patient worked a reasonably profitable job, though nothing too extravagant. Damoclesian means any situation threatening imminent harm or disaster (Dictionary.com). The phrase refers to a flatterer who, having extolled the happiness of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was seated at a banquet with a sword suspended over his head by a single hair to show him the perilous nature of that happiness (Dictionary.com). It is essentially a symbol for disaster. The majority of his nightmares were about an intruder in the form of a middle-aged woman, and a knife suspended from his ceiling fan above him. Dr. Levine taught the patient how to "reframe the dream and rehearse alternatives to swinging blades and frozen fear." He taught him how to control his nightmares by turning them into other, more pleasant dreams. I rarely have nightmares, and can in fact on remember two that I've ever had in my life, and the most recent one happened to be last Thursday. I dreamed that I was taken to work on a farm, where all the workers were zombies. It was my job to carry something (I can't remember what) to an old warehouse and I had to walk down this long pathway, lined with trees and cornfields (which I am terrified of) on either side. Each time I passed a tree, a zombie would crawl out from behind it and start chasing me. So I started running... but then I woke up. The author means that some nightmares are so life-like that they are often thought to be real. This phrase comes from the question of how our brain can invent and produce such realistic images in the subconscious. A majority of dreams are bad dreams. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. It is characterized by the flitting of eyes behind the eyelids when closed. Around 90% of the time a person sleeps at night is in REM sleep. In the hours that a person is asleep each night, 60-70% of that time is spent dreaming or in a dreamlike state. This is around three hours. In children ages 5-12, roughly 25% report being woken up by a nightmare at least once a week. An average 55-year old has around 1/3 as many nightmares as a 25-year old, which implies that there is a correlation between age of a person and the number of nightmares they have. Also, women tend to report having more nightmares, potentially due to the fact that females are more sensitive to mood disorders and anxiety. The cortical precincts in the brain change colors while scanning images to cause arousal. The limbic system becomes more active, causing a person to be more emotionally on-edge. The primary visual cortex is relatively tranquilized, which is what connects the brain to visual signals of the outer world.
 * 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)?**