[How About This Book] People Dream Every Day... Some Days They Remember, Others They Don't

Research on Sleep and Dreams Interpretation
'REM sleep' repeats every 90 minutes during sleep
80% remember dreams if awakened during REM sleep
Only 7% recall content during non-REM sleep

Your Dream Is Not a Coincidence | Written by Antonio Zadra & Robert Stickgold | Translated by Jang Hye-in | Chusubat | 368 pages | 20,000 KRW

Is there anyone who does not dream? It is commonly believed that some days we dream and some days we do not, but the authors of this book state that 99.5% of people dream every day. They emphasize that the only difference is whether or not one remembers the dreams upon waking. The authors comprehensively review research on sleep and dreams, interpreting what dreams are, why we dream, and what meanings they hold based on accumulated research data.

Regarding Freud, who opened new possibilities in dream research by calling dreams “wish fulfillment” and “guardians of sleep” in his 1900 book The Interpretation of Dreams, the authors take a critical stance. While acknowledging the significant influence of The Interpretation of Dreams on dream research, they criticize Freud for “disdainfully and selectively explaining previously studied dream theories and research,” which led to the academic consensus that the dream functions he proposed lacked supporting evidence, causing scientific dream research to lose momentum. They also point out Freud’s overly narrow focus on repressed childhood wishes as the source of dreams and that the claim that dreams protect sleep fails to explain nightmares.

However, they do not deny the meaning dreams hold, the fact that they reflect worries during waking hours, or the concept that dreams are clinically useful to humans. This book sheds light on the potential of dream research based on existing study results.

The authors argue that in December 1951, the existing notion of dreams encountered a new paradigm. Eugene Aserinsky, who studied sleep, discovered clues to so-called REM sleep. He found that rapid eye movements, indicating a light sleep state, occur repeatedly every 90 minutes throughout the night. Based on subsequent experiments, the authors explain that people generally dream continuously during sleep, but when awakened during REM sleep, there is an 80% chance of remembering the dream content, whereas only 7% remember dreams when awakened during non-REM sleep.

So why do we dream? The authors explore various hypotheses and possibilities, but the scientific community has yet to identify a definitive cause. However, traces of efficacy regarding the function of dreams have been found. Dreams appear to aid problem-solving; according to a maze experiment introduced by the authors, performance records before and after dreaming about the maze differed by about tenfold. The difference was smaller for dreams unrelated to the maze.

They also mention interesting facts about nightmares. Defining nightmares as “anxiety-provoking dreams that wake the sleeper,” the authors explain that “a characteristic is that only fragmented images are remembered.” Nightmares involving falling or paralysis are attributed to “hypnagogic jerks.” Hypnagogic jerks are unpleasant experiences or behaviors commonly occurring at the boundary of sleep. Examples include sleep onset jerks (sudden twitches or falling sensations when falling asleep) and sleep paralysis often experienced upon waking.

Regarding lucid dreams, the authors claim that simply practicing asking oneself “Am I dreaming?” can enable some experience of lucid dreaming. They state that about half the population has experienced lucid dreams, and 20?25% have them about once a month. When something surprising or strange happens, the habit of asking “Am I dreaming?” helps recognize lucid dreams. The authors explain that self-suggestion such as “I will have a lucid dream tonight” and visualizing oneself becoming aware within the dream influence lucid dreaming.

However, they emphasize that lucid dreaming and dream control are different. Both experiences can occur simultaneously, and indeed sometimes do, but one cannot change the direction of the dream. They say, “Lucid dreamers can consciously direct their actions in the dream, but at best, they can only ‘influence’ how the dream unfolds.”

Although research on dreams has revealed the above, much remains to be discovered. While the discovery of REM sleep was an important milestone for dream research, it has not met researchers’ expectations. The authors also point out that the optimistic formula “REM sleep = dreaming” is an overly simplistic interpretation. Scientists have yet to find clues to understanding mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or psychosis as they had hoped.

However, the situation is not bleak. It has been scientifically confirmed that dreams significantly affect learning and memory, and public interest in the distress related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) nightmares is growing. The authors urge that the number of doctors, philosophers, experimental psychologists, and neuroscientists studying dreams is at an all-time high and hope that the human brain’s reason for dreaming will be revealed.

This book explains questions about dreams in detail based on scientific foundations. However, since many cases have not yet been scientifically proven, many answers to the questions mentioned in the book remain incomplete.