Emma-Nightmares

1. What does it mean to be "gainfully" employed (line 3)? - Gainfully employed means to be self employed 2. Look up the word "Damoclesian". What does it mean that the knife dangled with "Damoclesian contempt"? - Damoclesian is similar to a threat. The knife dangled with Damoclesian contempt means that the knife is in a situation to threaten imminent harm or danger. 3. What did the patient fear at night (2 things)? -He feared a middle aged woman breaking into his house and a knife hanging from the ceiling fan over his head. 4. How did Dr. Leving help this man? -She told him to "re-frame" the dream and think of alternate endings. Specifically changing the "swinging blades and frozen fear" in his mind until the dream went away. 5. When is the last time you had a nightmare you remember? Do you mind sharing it? If not, please do so here... -I have a hard time remembering my dreams but i have pretty frequent dreams about my parents dying. 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) -She is explaining how real dreams seem and how crazy it is that our minds are able to construct these realistic images. 7. What percentage of dreams are bad dreams? -Three quarters of our 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 stands for Rapid Eye Movement during dreaming. During REM sleep extensive physiological changes, such as accelerated respiration, increased brain activity, eye movement, and muscle relaxation. Also during REM the brain is extremely active, almost more than when we are awake. We spend about 2 hours in REM sleep. 9. How much time do we spend dreaming each night? -We spend 60 to 70 percent of somnolence dreaming or in a dreamlike state called sleep mentation, which works out to three hours nightly spent in a state of anxiety or frustration 10. How does the frequency of nightmares change as we age? (Be specific with ages and number of nightmares) Twenty five percent of children ages 5-12 report having nightmares at least once a week. Nightmares have a pattern of increasing during adolescence, peaking in young adulthood and then decreasing. The average 55 year old has one third the amount of nightmares as a twenty five year old. It is also known that girls have more nightmares because they have "higher rates of anxiety and mood disorders" 11. Which parts of the brain are active during dreaming (Be specific, name the parts and their function)? -The limbic system becomes incredible awake, even more so than when you're awake, during the REM stage, which is why dreams seem so realistic and cause you to be emotionally on edge. The amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex which are apart of the limbic system are also turned on and are also known as "the axis of fear". In relation the "the prefrontal cortex, seat of rational thought and critical reasoning, is on lunch break" meaning unrealistic images are overlooked and considered normal.While the primary visual cortex, which receives visual images from the outside world, is on hold the secondary visual cortex is alert and creating the wild dreams. It's also important to know that REM sleep paralyzes the body so no harm can be done attempting to act out the action packed dreams. 12. What is the possible function of bad dreams? And why are nightmares disfunctional? -Dreaming is known as a way to scrambe, detoxify and discard old fearful memories. This is important because no one wants their childhood fears of the bogyman to haunt them in their adulthood. Bad dreams are functional because you sleep through them and are able to move on, while nightmares are bad dreams that wake you up and therefore the process of ridding them is left undone. Nightmares allow you to "escape prematurely" and therefore still hold the opportunity to haunt.
 * A NYT article on Nightmares by my favorite author, Natalie Angier**

outside sources: http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/stages/