Student: Jesica Suparo -English Language IV
Review of: In the Dreamscape of Nightmares, Clues to Why We Dream at All.
Source: New York Times.
The original definition of Nightmare was codified by Dr Johnson in his A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and was thus understood to include a "morbid oppression in the night, resembling the pressure of weight upon the breast." This is a beautiful definition to illustrate the mental daily activities which we can not express; but which in sleep time becomes real in perception. Day by day and through our experiences most of our thoughts stay hidden and unknown to us. This intersects with our dreams, taking the lead of our consciousness. We dream whether we remember it or not. We have what we considered good dreams and bad dreams, and also we have nightmares; but the truth behind sleep research is that most of our dreams are bad. Dreams show the worst of our fears; nightmares which make our repressed fears and phobias real. Not all of us remember every dream that we have but we can always recall a nightmare.
According to Dr. Nielsen who is a sleep researcher there are two kinds of nightmares, the ones which leads us to an extreme unpleasant situation but from which we can wake up, and the ones from which we can not wake up when we want. The second type sounds traumatic, and actually it works in that way, while we fight and suffer the nightmare itself takes the leadership of our mind, and when we think it is over, it begins again. People who have suffered from physical abuse and mistreating tend to have persistent nightmares and demand professional treatment. But these kinds of dreams are not restricted only to them. Nightmares are universal and they change according to age, gender – women have more nightmares owed to their higher rates of anxiety and mood disorders- even according to social and cultural backgrounds. Behaviors which are not allowed in certain cultures become terrible nightmares for the members of that particular community. The concept of nightmare extends to social conventions too -for a priest to dream about sex is considered a nightmare that threatens his particular viewpoint of life and clerical principles-. There are nightmares of every shape and color; children may have nightmares related to their daily life, whether if they have been reprimanded by their parents, as a result of a fight with a classmate, or after watching a movie which scared them. In adolescents, nightmares have the shape of insecurity of growing up, and sometimes have the remains of a late childhood. As we become young adults, nightmares and fears may become recurrent; like dreaming of falling or running without going anywhere, or being chased. The answer to the question of why we construct nightmares at all is simple and yet disturbing: “The brain learns quickly what to be afraid of” Dr. Nielsen said. “But if there isn’t a check on the process, we’d fear things in adulthood we feared in childhood.”
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