Chapter 5: Nightmare-

                       "A Horrible Experience”

           

Why does it occur? 

http://desktop.freewallpaper4.me/download/5690/scary-road

From the sweet fantasies of dreaming, why not talk about its opposite, the one which is scary or frightful—the nightmare.

How and why do people experience nightmares? Is there any relevance into what it was about to the dreamer? How true it is that nightmare is deadly? That when you sleep full (busog), there’s a tendency for you to experience nightmare? These are the things I am curious about and perhaps you too.

           

Of all the things we wish not to experience, nightmare is one. It is because there is rumors that nightmare can cause someone’s death especially when that person doesn’t have any record of illness or accidents.

           

Scientifically, nightmare is a terror scene which enters the mind and can cause a fatal shock reflex. It is fascinating and unpleasant experience feeling in pain, despair and helplessness.

           

Multiple studies have revealed that nightmares occur highly among young adults due to the increase of hormone level. And it is also because youngsters don’t know much how they will handle tough situations compared with the adults. But those people who are anxious experience this too.

           

However, scientific community has not yet determined a definitive answer as to why it occurs. But why do nightmares happen?

According to a study, it may be a way to relieve the pressures of the day and help us cope with the stress of real life.

The root

There were studies that have tackled the causes of nightmare. The very common cause is the post-traumatic stress disorder. A person who encountered severe fear or pain and child abuse is highly possible to experience nightmare.

http://www.wallpaperdj.com/view/death_skull-1152x864

Another is an emotional conflict which may be within the family which causes also family stress or through too much fatigue. Someone who is pregnant, seek or has a fever may also experience nightmare.

           

By the way, the common themes of a nightmare are those situations which are related to school, being chased, sexual experiences, falling, arriving late, death, teeth falling out, flying and car accidents.

The fruit

If you can figure out the cause, then you can probably be able to lessen the severity of the effect. One of these effects is be able to wake up from sleep and at the same time have difficulty in turning back to sleep.

           

If your nightmares occur infrequently, there’s no need much concern. But if it occurs frequently and are already very disturbing, according to a specialist, you should be given careful thought and examination because it might be already a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSO) or an intense fear of grief.

           

source:http://kiradjones.wordpress.com/

According to a study, the person who experienced nightmares will move restlessly in his sleep. Sometimes he will feel in pain, moaning, screaming, coughing but could not get up and the worst is that, he will become afraid and unable to sleep again.

The “t”

Upon knowing some of the causes and effects of nightmares, you would probably ask for ways to treat it. Here are some: first, you should establish or have a regular sleep pattern and make sure to have sufficient sleep; cut out alcohol, drugs and cigarettes; cut any drinks which contain caffeine like coffee which I used to drink in the morning; drink warm, milky drink before going to bed; never go to bed hungry but then avoid eating foods that are hard to digest before sleeping; avoid scary movies and scary books; do not play computer games or any tiring activities before sleeping; relaxed before you sleep and have some exercise during the day.

           

There are other treatments for those who encounter nightmares frequently. These are Imagery Rehearsal and the Lucid Dreaming. Having some talk with a professional specialist often times helps one cope and resolve the traumatic experience which disrupts his daily life.

“Dream-Death Theory”

The sudden death of a friend or relative which occurred while he was sleeping who previously seemed to be in good health is really something questionable. So here are different findings with regards to this matter.

           

First is Dr. Robert Basner, director of Sleep Center of Columbia University, US. According to him, this sudden death is due of congenital cardiac electrical abnormalities called brugada syndrome. This occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep phase or when one is in deep sleep and dreaming. He therefore concluded that it’s not the dreams which causes death but the factor of heart disease.

           

Another doctor which has a scientific explanation for this kind of death is Dr. Alvin V. Majoska, a coroner doctor in Honolulu. He made a list during the last six years that there were 43 healthy young adults who were all from the Philippines found dead in their sleep without any reason that could be detected.

           

When he has studied the bodies, he found out that their death was due to acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis or the bleeding and inflamed of the pancreas. According to him, this kind of disease may attack any time whether a person is awake or asleep but usually pain arise as a warning before a crisis situation develops.

           

http://eye2eye2.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/sf-radio-death-to-joe-the-plumber/

Lastly, according to Dr. Pedro Brugada who has discovered the unusual pattern on the electrocardiogram which shows electrical activities in the heart, this person had irregular heart rhythm which can cause fibrillation (rapid irregular contractions of the heart muscle which results to lack synchronism between heartbreak and pulse) which makes the pumping chambers of the heart to decrease and for the blood circulation to stop in just a snap. Eventually, this will result for someone’s immediate death. These made Dr. Majoska come up with a conclusion about the dream-death theory. However, the study of nightmare is a “growing field” that’s why no one can figure out yet what it really means to have a nightmare.

           

I was able to construct all these, based from the following sources:

http://www.dream-interpretation.org.uk/types-of dreams/nightmares.htm

http://medicmagic.net/nightmare-could-cause-death.html

www.thedreamingwizard.com

The Means of Dreaming

http://viktorialove.com/tag/dreams/

Perhaps you’ll no longer be asking what does a dream means because it has been so common already. But here are some of the meaning of dreams according to books and foreign personalities which I have searched on the internet.

• Dream is a series of thoughts, images or emotions that occurs during sleep period.
• It is a state of abstraction.
• Its content is shaped by experiences early in life, creating the hope that psychoanalysis could use our dreams to reveal our childhood miseries and can cure human torment and a wish-fulfilment—Sigmund Freud.
• It is bizarre, otherworldly and are likely to be moulded by mundane (practical details of life), humdrum (dullness) and everyday activities as life-changing events—The Daily Telegraph by Harvard University.
• It is little more than mental fireworks; a non-sensational by-product of memory consolidation—other scientists.
• Give profound insights into the mind’s workings—Robert Stickgold (Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Sleep and Cognition)
• Dreams are not neutral rubbish, but are involved in consolidating/unity and making sense of memories—Findings of Telegraph/Harvard Survey
• They are special kind of mental experience which seems to be real and as if it actually happened.
• Messages from God or ancestors.
• They are dynamic mixture derived from current stimuli, past experiences, interests and urges.
• They are myth and religion showing the individual’s path toward self-actualization—C.G. Jung.

The Sisylana  (This means analysis which was spelled backward)

http://www.strategicvisionlimited.co.uk/ourservices.htm

The EEG as it was mentioned records the electrical impulses given by the brain and can tell when a dream occurs but it can never say what the dream is all about because only the dreamer could do that. Through this, the relationship between dreaming and the rhythms of sleep was shown.

We can say that the sleeping person is dreaming through the REM or rapid eye movement. With regards to the blind person, their eyes do not move but rather make use of their sense of feeling and hearing to know what is going on with their dreams.

Scientists also stated that four out five dreams are colored but usually are in gray, black or white and nobody has able to determine it yet why is it so. There were experiments conducted before which proves that what people have eaten or drunk before sleeping doesn’t have any connection with the person’s dream. For those who experienced or are experiencing nightmares, you are most probably under stress or have had experienced traumatic events. But then, it is only common during childhood because you do not know yet how to handle frightening situations.

The Main Line

There are lots of ways in analysing dreams in which whenever new methods of collecting dreams arise, new methods of analysing them arises too.

The principal method used in analysing a dream is the content analysis be it gathered within the laboratory or at home. It refers to the elements of the dream such as people—males or females; familiar or stranger; objects like buildings, implements, clothing, etc.; and animals.  It simply determines the similarities and differences of each dream.

For example, it was found out in a study that male dreamers usually dream about males too wherein they are aggressive and less friendly. But whenever there is an interaction with the females, they are less aggressive and are friendlier in their dreams. While in women’s dreams, interactions with both male and female are just equal.

The Science of Dreaming

http://www.jmls.edu/students/organizations/eblsa/index.shtml

Because of these things, scientists doubted whether dreams have a purpose. According to some researchers, here are the benefits and functions of dreaming.

·         It helps people live normal life because they are able to work out their emotional problems.

·         It helps strengthen new learning by storing it in memory.

·         Helps remove ridiculous or irrational thoughts from people’s mind, can think more clearly and act sensibly when they are awake.

·         Essential to mental, emotional and physical well being.

·         Great balance wheel for cultural repression.

However, the problem with those psychoanalytic theories about dreams is that they can explain any gathered data only to realize that they have explained almost nothing.

But then, Henry David Thoreau said that dreams are the touchstones or key guides to determine once character. That’s why, human’s dreams are still being studied scientifically to discover more on man’s nature.

So much for that, I myself often experience dreaming at night. I used to make myself busy because I feel bored upon doing nothing. During night times, whenever I don’t have anything else to do, sometimes I make use of reading until I fall asleep. I don’t want to be thinking anything before sleeping because that might just be the cause for me to have dreams about it. That’s why, I used to tire up myself. So tired that once I go to bed, I could immediately fall asleep.

This ends another chapter of my blog. For the next topic, come to think of something which is somehow related into dreams which is also related into science. And just to add up, dreams are also considered as “meaningless biology.”

By the way, here are some links just in case you want to know the means of the color in your dreams, its symbolism and other things.

• http://petrix.com/dreams/color.html
• http://www.mydreamsvisions.com/dreams
• http://lucidity.com/LD8DFM.html

REFERENCES

• The New Book of Knowledge (D)
• Encyclopedia Americana Volume 9
• The Encyclopedia Americana Volume 9
• Academic Americana Encyclopedia Volume 6
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3320339/science-the-science-of-dreams-the-results.html
• http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/dream
• http://www.yoga-age-com/modern/dreams.html
• http://www.sleeps.com/basics.html

Chapter 4: Dreams-

          "The Royal Road to the Unconscious"

SLEEP! SLEEP! SLEEP!

There’s a saying that states, “Why do we need to spend much time sleeping, where we can have it when we die?” But for me, a dead is dead unlike to someone who’s only sleeping, he still alive. Anyways, did you know that having enough hours of sleep matters a lot? 

Scientists have said that loss of night-time sleep may cause irritability, become moody and lessens interest in doing something. Person’s speech capability slows down and would experience emotional flatness or the tendency to react slowly.

Sleeping is where the mind and body are being refreshed but upon sleeping, there would come ‘the royal road to the unconscious’ which refers to dreaming.

A normal person who sleeps eight hours at night may have a total of about one to two hours of dreaming period and each dream may have different scenes which last within five to 50 minutes.

There were researchers who decided to find out what would happen if they stopped people in dreaming. And their finding says that, people who were not allowed to dream have experienced rapid eye movement frequently while sleeping. They got nervous, easily upset and hungrier the next day.

Researchers were able not to allow their volunteer from dreaming through the use of EEG or the Electroencephalograph. This EEG tells whenever the dream has to occur and that gives the researchers the signal to awaken the person.

And as the people have taken a sleep without interruption, researchers found out that they had more dreams than usual as if they are catching up with their dreams. The following day, their nervousness get lost and felt normal again.

Color Blindness

http://www.moviewallpaper.net/w/Julianne_Moore_in_Blindness_Wallpaper_1_800.html

But all this color's symbolism (Roloc's Msilobmys) are worthless when you cannot see the color of a particular thing. People’s visual deficiency in perceiving colors around them is called color blindness.  There are two main types of color blindness namely red and green defect and the yellow and blue blindness.

Red and Green Defect

It is something wherein someone has a great deficiency in things that are red and green in color. For them, red and green only differ in terms of their brightness. They didn’t even recognize their related colors such as orange, blue-green and violet. What they can only see is that the world is shaded with yellow, blue and gray.

In spite that, they still use the terms red and green like red berries and green vegetables. But then for them, they are just merely names and so are not perceptions of color.

According to the studies, it is being inherited and usually males are the victims of it because they have this X-chromosomes which may have a color-defect gene. Once there is, surely he will have color-vision defect. Unlike with the females, they have two X-chromosomes and both should carry the color-vision defect gene because if it only takes one, then it would be unlikely to happen.

Yellow and Blue Blindness

http://www.indiatalkies.com/2011/04/raja-key-accused-2g-spectrum-case-presented-court.html

Compared to red and green defects, yellow and blue blindness is rare; has dichromatic color vision and could see only two neutral or colorless in the spectrum. They could see the world shaded only by red and green also black, white and gray.

This kind of vision defect can be acquired when a person has a complication in his retina like having a cataract or sometimes it is due to hereditary condition.

The Most Severe

It is a rare type of color vision defect but it is the most severe one—the monochromatism. It has two forms, the typical and atypical.

The one with typical monochromatism has very poor visual ability because his eyes are very sensitive to light. Unlike with the atypical form of monochromatism, the person is still have a normal visualization only that he suffers loss of color vision. He can only see things in black, white and gray.

So generally, monochromatic deficiency can also be inherited but unfortunately scientists can’t identify yet what genetics are involved.

The Significance of Colors

Ø  Without colors, everything will seem to be lifeless.

Ø  Colors make our environment more interesting and attractive.

Ø  Gives pleasure and refreshment in our eyes.

Ø  It is useful not just to us but also to the animals because they use it disguise against their enemies.

Ø  Indicates dress coding upon applying for jobs, attending an event, etc.

Ø  Essential in art, crafts, decorating, clothing, photography, printing and many other things in the business and industry.

Ø  Essential in technology such as for traffic signs and color coding for electronic wirings.

Ø  Identifies a dangerous and non-dangerous animal. For example, brown frogs are harmless while those in red or even green are poisonous.

Ø  Identifies different kinds of medicines for specific usage.

Ø  Identifies the living from the dead.

http://wallpaperscrunch.com/view/artistic-colorful-night-wallpaper-7382-other.html

Someone have said that the “ability to see color is not necessary for human survival.” In some point of view, he may be right in saying so but for me, it is important. It is because the color of the thing matters for its easy, clearer identification as we encounter new discoveries of life.

REFERENCES 

·         Encyclopedia Americana (C)

·         The New Book of Knowledge

Roloc’s msilobmys (color’s symbolism)

 

RED—it is the color of love; it signifies courage, excitement and danger. In India, it is considered as a holy color while in China, it represents joy.

 

GREEN—implies the ever-renewing plant/life which also signifies hope and life.

PURPLE—signifies royalty because kings and queens wore purple robes as sign of high rank.

BLACK—according to many cultures, it signifies death, evil and fear of unknown thing.

WHITE—represents purity, spirituality or innocence but other cultures consider it as a sign of sorrow.

YELLOW—symbolizes warm, cheerful and exciting effect. As for the yellow rose, it means friendship.

 

 PINK—symbolizes compassion, nurturing and love, self-worth, tenderness, caring and acceptance. It diminishes stress, violence and aggression.

 BLUE— symbolizes cool, calmness and tranquillity. No wonder why I love anything that is light/sky blue in color.

Did you know what blue rose means? Actually, blue roses are only artificially made. But what does it indicate once someone gives you a blue rose? That means you are someone who id mysterious wherein there are hidden information in you in which other people find it hard to understand.

According to the ‘Blue Flowers,’ it is the Holy Grail in the world of flowers while for the ‘Rose File,’ that also means to say that you are unattainable yet special, unique and is still being desired. 

Pandan:http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A2KJkIXrulRO33IAavyJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F_adv_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dpandan%2Bleaves%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701-s%26b%3D1%26tab%3Dorganic&w=1024&h=768&imgurl=www.pandanleaves.com.au%2Fresource%2Fimg%2Fcontent%2Fpandan_shrub.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pandanleaves.com.au%2F&size=289.3+KB&name=Pandan%2C+fresh+by+mail+order.&p=pandan+leaves&oid=e5afe78206fdc3758451f386ff4762d5&fr2=&fr=yfp-t-701-s&tt=Pandan%2C+fresh+by+mail+order.&b=0&ni=28&no=9&tab=organic&sigr=10vf8aa58&sigb=13c4tmehq&sigi=11tm3qdbr&.crumb=njs1xnuebBZ

 

Cashew: http://ph.images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fph.images.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3F_adv_prop%3Dimage%26va%3Dcashew%2Bfruit%26fr%3Dyfp-t-711-s&w=988&h=1024&imgurl=i538.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fff343%2Fninnaganda%2FNature%2FCashew_fruit_leaf.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pep.ph%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Ftopic%3D2706.47685&size=477k&name=Cashew+fruit+lea...&p=cashew+fruit&oid=82891ccc19b66728&fr2=&no=9&tt=8453&sigr=11i4muhdu&sigi=129m00kv7&sigb=12u17nf51&.crumb=Zcp/55bGL5f

Caimito:http://ph.images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fph.images.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dcaimito%2Bfruit%26ei%3Dutf-8%26y%3DSearch%26fr%3Dyfp-t-711-s&w=400&h=487&imgurl=www.tangub.com%2FStar%2520Apple%2520Fruit%2C%2520Brgy%2520II.JPG&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tangub.com%2FBarangay!I.htm&size=53k&name=Star+Apple+Fruit...&p=caimito+fruit&oid=6ee805b4fbd7deac&fr2=&no=2&tt=189&sigr=114rqs5jk&sigi=11kl6e04b&sigb=130agkod4&.crumb=Zcp/55bGL5f

These are the pictures of the medicinal plants I have posted before.