Abstract
This paper describes how dreaming is a means of ensuring good health. The author explains though all human beings dream when they sleep (barring some manger of brain injury), it has been largely unclear why this is so. The purpose of this study will be to illustrate what is known about dreaming and its relationship to human health through an examination of the critical theories that have been developed over the years to account for the human dream state.

From the Paper
"For thousands of years, scholars have debated the meaning and significance of dreaming. The importance of sleep is obvious. Without sleep, mental and physical health quickly deteriorates because the body does not have a chance to revitalize itself. Sleep itself is known to boost brainpower and also keep the body healthy (The night shift, 2005). However, though all human beings dream when they sleep (barring some manger of brain injury), it has been largely unclear why this is so. The purpose of this study will be to illustrate what is known about dreaming and its relationship to human health through an examination of the critical theories that have been developed over the years to account for the human dream state. What is known for certain about dreaming is that it is an ubiquitous state of cognition during sleep for all mammals and all birds"

Tags:dream, good, health

Abstract
This paper discusses a wide range of theories involving dreaming, including the dreams of children, adolescents, and women. It also examines the differences in dream content with respect to age and gender, a behavioral perspective of dreaming, the rhetorical theory of dreaming, the causes and effects of post-traumatic nightmares, and a theory of dreaming as an experience of consciousness.

From the Paper
"In children, the REM stage goes from about fifty percent of total sleep in infants, to twenty five percent in two and three year olds, and down to around eighteen percent in older Dreaming 3 children and adolescents. Jean Piaget described three stages in children's understanding of their own dreams. In Piaget's theory, the first stage occurs around the age of five or six. These children are only able to interpret their dreams as something external to themselves and as being insignificant. Stage two, which begins around the age of seven or eight, has the children viewing their dreams as coming from the inside but they still view them as things happening around them, in their bedroom as they sleep. Stage three begins around the age of eight or nine and during this stage, children experience their dreams as a reflection of their innermost thoughts and feelings."

Tags:freud, jung, nightmare, psychology, theory

Abstract
Lucid dreaming is a paradoxical mental state in which dreamers become aware that they are dreaming and, in some cases, deliberately take control of the dream action. This paper provides an overview of why humans sleep and dream, an examination of what lucid dreams are, and their relevance to psychologists and other clinicians today. A discussion of the potential adverse consequences identified by some critics is followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.

Outline
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Why Do Humans Sleep and Dream Anyway?
What Are Lucid Dreams? Cheap Thrills or Divine Insight?
Learning How to Dream Lucidly
Relevance of Lucid Dreaming to Psychology
"Completely Risk-Free" or Not?
Improving Accessibility to Lucid Dreaming
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Because everyone dreams, it would seem easy enough to classify the experience as being "ordinary," and yet the dream experience itself can seem to be anything but "ordinary." Researchers have been investigating why animals sleep and have attempted to determine the biological role of dreams. Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. This consciousness allows people to guide their dreams and explore a potentially infinite number of possibilities. A staunch lucid dream advocate and researcher, Dr. Stephen LaBerge, even maintains that lucid dreaming may help people heal faster and enjoy other benefits, including aiding personal-development, enhancing self-confidence, overcoming nightmares, improving mental (and perhaps, physical) health, facilitating creative problem solving as well as providing "thrilling entertainment." In all fairness, it should be pointed out that LaBerge is also hawking DreamLights and other devices designed to help people learn how to dream lucidly at as much as $1,000 a pop -- and he has sold a lot of them."

Tags:nightmare, rem

Abstract
This paper attempts to define what exactly a dream is, whether it is a story that evolves in the mind in a single flash of inspiration, moving from beginning to end in a few seconds, or whether there more to it than mere fantasy. It examines how many researchers, both past and present, have given numerous definitions for what dreams are and how they can be interpreted.

Outline
The Mechanics of Dreaming
The Sleep Cycle
Body Dynamics
The Healing Power of Dreams
Dream Deprivation
The Meaning of Dreams

From the Paper
"Thanks to these dream researchers, it is now known that there is a regular cycle of sleeping and dreaming during each period of sleep. For most people, a night of sleep begins with certain rituals; sleep then is supposed to come in an instant. Within the first few minutes, the temperature of the body falls, and brain waves begin their regular alpha rhythms, indicating a relaxed state. In Stage One, the muscles lose their tension, breathing becomes more even, and the heart rate slows. In Stage Two, random or nonsensical image may float through the mind, mimicking the dream state. In Stage Three, the body continues its process of slowing down; the muscles lose all tightness, breaths come slowly and rhythmically, the heart rate decreases and blood pressure falls. In Stage Four, the body and the mind are at their most restful periods and may last for many hours."

Tags:rem, brain, body, waves, sleep

Abstract
This paper examines the tensions between Lourdes and Pilar, the mother and daughter in "Dreaming in Cuban". The paper analyzes how both characters relate to Cuba as individuals and then identifies the personal qualities that enable Lourdes to assimilate so quickly when she moves to Brooklyn.

Outline:
The Tensions Within and Between Each
How They Relate to Cuba as Individuals
The Personal Qualities that Enable Lourdes to Assimilate so Quickly When She Moves to Brooklyn

From the Paper
"In America, she is very strong in her beliefs about capitalism and how people should live, and even the values others should have, especially those around her. This comes into conflict with her daughter Pilar, who has no memory of Cuba, yet as an individual clearly feels the need to rebel and find her own way in the world, against the iron will of her mother. She finds her mother to be very invasive, and imposing of values and world view. To Pilar, the Cuba she has never seen is a dream that is pure and beautiful, and she hopes to see it one day. The implication of the story is that the idyllic memory of her homeland has been robbed very violently and traumatically from Lourdes, as her childhood, and her innocence, was taken away by political events in Cuba such as the revolution that sent her family into exile and brought them to America."

Tags:Lourdes, Pilar, Castro

Abstract
This three-page undergraduate paper discusses the significance of the letters woven throughout Cristina Garcia's novel Dreaming in Cuban in regard to the novel's central themes.

Abstract
This paper examines "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina Garcia, a widely acclaimed novel set against the backdrop of Fidel Castro's Cuba, and reflects on the sociopolitical effects of Cuba turning communist under the leadership of Fidel Castro. It explains how the characters of the story experience various diseases, real or perceived, and reflect the trauma that Cuba was going through at that time.

Outline:
Introduction
Poetics of Disease
Poetics of Rehabilitation
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Female characters in the novel seem to be yearning for transparency perceived as no materiality, setting them free from the biological and geographical barriers. Celia's lover leaves for Spain and unable to cope with the separation Celia becomes so sick that she remains bedridden for eight months and her body atrophies. Despite all the medical tests doctors could not find any medical cause of her illness. Finally Sinatra is consulted who attributes Cilia's problems to a "wet landscape in palm" linking her illness to the environment. Cuba being an island Celia perceives herself as a captive especially when she cant be with her lover who is free to roam around."

Tags:Fidel, Castro, sociopolitical, turmoil, disease, illness, rehabilitation

Abstract
This paper discusses various theories on dreaming. The first part looks at the writing of Sigmund Freud regarding dreams as the royal road to the unconscious. It shows how implicit in Freud's writings is the view that dreams evolved as humans were forced to sublimate their natural desires to live in society. It then looks at the work of J. Allan Hobson, who saw dreams as a result of the natural physiological workings of the brain. The last part examines the work of Owen Flanagan, who seeks a middle ground between dreams as the royal road to the unconsciousness and dreams. However, though he is far from ascribing to dreams with the value which Freud placed on them, it examines how Flanagan also acknowledges that dreams may have values of self-expression.

From the Paper
"If dreams were truly sublimated desires, however, then the young child would be more likely to dream of repressed wants such as the cookie she was not allowed to eat before dinner or the toy he saw while at the supermarket with mommy. After all, children are taught to sublimate their desires at a younger age. Biological research into sleep also shows that many mammals do, in fact, have dreams. Primate research involving gorillas who have been taught sign language often communicate about the images they see in their heads while they are asleep. While such accounts may be explained in Freudian terms as an animal's wish to be free, it also provides a startling challenge to the notion that humans evolved the capacity to dream as a social adaptation."

Tags:freud, flanagan, hobson, unconsciousness

Abstract
This paper explores Descartes' dream argument in order to determine the differences between waking and dreaming cognition and how Descartes' viewed the problem of distinction therein.

From the Paper
"This paper will examine the physiological and psychological interpretations of sleep and dreaming. Prior to the 1940s, scientists considered sleep to be "a passive phenomenon during which major elements of the brain rested" (Long, 1987, p. 796). It has since been discovered that the brain is actually very active during certain periods of sleep. Physiologists have noted two distinct cycles which occur in sleep: the slow wave sleep (SWS) cycle and the rapid eye movement (REM) cycle. During sleep, these two cycles alternate from one to the other approximately once every ninety minutes. During the SWS phase, the sleeper's brain wave patterns slow down dramatically. During the REM phase the brain wave patterns become so active at times that they resemble those of a person who is fully awake (Palca, 1989, p. 352)."