A Trip within the Unconscious Mind

Why is sleep important?

Typically, the adult human body needs about 7 hours of sleep every night (1). Sleep allows your body to replenish energy, repair cells, strengthen the immune system, and eliminate toxins from muscles. But when you are sleep-deprived, there can be several negative health consequences; when extreme, it can even be fatal.

 

Sleep deprivation can cause an increase in the level of stress hormones or “cortisol,” which can impact or damage brain cells responsible for learning and memory. It can also cause anxiety and physical problems such as arthritis. Aside from the health benefits of sleep, there is a crucial element called dreams. 

 

What do dreams mean?

 Dreams are scenarios, images, and stories produced by the mind during sleep. They can take many forms; they can be fun, entertaining, scary, or disturbing. Thus, they can result in strong emotions. 

 

We can all recall having a nice dream and waking up refreshed and elated, or having a nightmare and waking up disturbed and scared. Many people try to interpret their dreams and seek the meaning behind them, while others have a hard time remembering.

 

Why do we dream?

Dreams represent one of science’s most unresolved questions. Scientists are not sure why we dream, but several theories try to understand its secrets and mechanisms (2). The idea of dreaming in most cultures has long been primarily based on the supernatural world and its link to gods and demons. In such cultures, sometimes, it is believed that dreams can predict the future. 

The Scientific Understanding of Dreams

Over the past decades, researchers have started to view dreams as the consequence of neural activity. It is believed that during sleep, one goes through different cycles. The notion of sleep cycles was brought about by Nathaniel Kleitman, an American physiologist. According to him, when people sleep, they alternate between two main stages of sleep: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. 

It has been observed that people experience more intense and vivid dreams during the stage of REM sleep. This is a result of higher brain activity. This stage is recognized by eye and bodily movements, a faster pulse, and faster breathing. By contrast, non-REM sleep is intense and is characterized by lower brain activity. 

Moreover, contemporary theories on dreams assume that dreaming doesn’t necessarily mean anything. However, it is different memories from our everyday lives, things we might think about, say, or do, that appear to us in the form of dreams. 

 

 Other theories, however, believe that dreams have complex functions. For example, we can refer to the Father of Psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams, which has revolutionized our understanding of dream interpretation and contributed to its popularity. According to his belief, the dream represents our most repressed desires. Freud suggests that dreams constitute: unconscious wishes, thoughts, motivations, and basic instincts such as life, death, survival, and sexual and primitive instincts. 

 

How the unconscious mind works

In his book titled “The Interpretation of Dreams,” Freud highlights the notion of the “unconscious mind” which, in this context, works as a “receptacle” of everything that is outside our awareness (3). In compliance with this theory, the unconscious mind is seen as an iceberg: we think we know about our thoughts, our dreams, and our desires, while in reality, all we know is a small percentage (the tip of it), while the rest lies deep within and is often inaccessible, submerged underwater. 

There are ways to find out more about the unconscious mind, which is through the Freudian “slips”; either through dreams or verbal slips (like saying something instead of another without being aware) or hypnosis. It is believed that these slips refer to what we repress in our unconscious mind. These thoughts are repressed for the reason that they are socially unacceptable or irrational, especially when it comes to sexuality. They are thoughts that the conscience and society generally disapprove of. 

 

So in this situation, the unconscious mind manifests itself through dreams and slips out to find a way to be expressed. As stated by Freud, dreams have 2 types of content: 

• The manifest content 
• The latent content

 

While the manifest content is based on one’s senses like images, smells, sensations, and the dream scenario. The latent content is more about the hidden meanings; what the dream is trying to convey and what lies beyond the manifest content. Psychoanalysts often refer to the latent content when interpreting dreams and analyzing their symbols, making it more important than the manifest content. 

 

The conscious brain usually censors these hidden thoughts, making them very hard to access. Therefore, for Freud, dream interpretation is considered the “Royal Road” to knowing what goes on in the unconscious mind (4). According to him, for society to be civilized, people need to suppress their drives (aggressive, sexual…). But their suppression means they reappear and find their way to the surface of the conscious mind in disguise, which in this context, is through dreams.

 

When dreaming, the mind is in a state of freedom, and it is prepared to meet itself where the thoughts roam around freely without any censorship. Most of the time, dreams include a symbolic expression which, according to psychoanalysts, would help in understanding the person’s psyche and the aspects that lead to mental health problems and disorders such as neurosis.

 

Contrary opinions about the theory

Freud’s theory has shown a different side to dreams and allowed us to see them from a different perspective. However, many think that this theory has several limitations. In their own opinion, sometimes, dreams don’t necessarily express repressed desires, and these desires don’t motivate all dreams. They can be a simple play of imagination. 

 

In conclusion, psychologists believe that Freud formulated his theory based on his experiences with pathological patients. Hence, generalizing his findings can be misleading, as we cannot extrapolate from outliers onto the whole.  

By: Yasmine Hamrouni (psychologist)