A brief presentation on Dreams by Akshrita Dutta, proudly presented by Biomedicz (www.biomedicz.com)

1. Dreams
All that we see or seem is but a
dream within a dream...
- By Akshrita Dutta
Netaji Subhash Engineering COllege

2. Content
– 1. Introduction
– 2. Am I Dreaming?
– 3. Lucid Dreaming
– 4. Work On Your Dreams
– 5. Premonition Dreams
– 6. Sleep Paralysis
– 7. REM Sleep Disorder
– 8. Creativity And Dreams
– 9. Animals Dream As Well
– 10. Not Everyone Dream In Colour
– 11. Yes You Do Dream
– 12. You Know That Ghost You Have Dreamt Of
– 13. Dreams Tend To Be Negative
– 14. Multiple Dreams Per Night
– 15. What Do You Prefer ? Snoring Or Dreaming?
– 16. Generous Dreaming :The Little Cute Fact
– 17. Déjà vu
– 18. The Gender Differences
– 19. Dream Sickness
– 20. The Medical Point Of View
– 21. Conclusion
– 22. Acknowledgement

3. Introduction
Dreams are one of the most fascinating aspects of our sleep state.
The psychology and psychiatry community seems to stand divided
on dreams . There is one school of thought which believes dreams
are just frivolous messages relayed by our mind as it is idle while we
Sleep . The second school of thought believes dreams are strong and
meaningful communication from our mind and if interpreted and
understood appropriately can help us do well in our life. This
communication is given to us in form of symbols , signs , images etc.
As the sub-conscious mind is our data bank and has all information
about us ,it sends us messages at times to warn us about situations
or our behaviours.

4. Am I Dreaming??
You can’t read while dreaming or tell the time..
• If you are unsure whether you are dreaming or not ,
try reading something . The vast majority of people
are incapable of reading in their dreams.
• The same goes for clocks . Each time you look at a
clock it will tell you a different time and the hands
on the clock won’t appear to be moving as reported
by the lucid dreamers.

5. Lucid Dreaming
• There is a whole subculture of people practising
what is called lucid or conscious dreaming .
Using various techniques , these people have
supposedly learned to assume control of their
dreams and do amazing things like flying ,
passing through walls and travelling to various
places or may even
relive their past.

6. Work on your Dreams..
(you can earn fame and respect)
Dreams are responsible for many of the greatest
inventions of mankind.
• The idea of Google-Larry Page
• Alternating Current Generator-Nikola Tesla
• DNA’s double helix spiral form
-James Watson
• The sewing machine-Elias Howe
• Periodic Table- Dmitri Mendeleyev

7. Premonition Dreams
There are some cases where people actually dreamt
about things which happened to them later in the
exact ways they dreamt about . You could say that they got
a glimpse of the future or it might have just been
Coincidence . Some of the most famous premonition
dreams include:
• Abraham Lincoln dreamt of his assassination.
• Many of the victims of 9/11 had dreams warning them
about the catastrophe.
• 19 verified precognitive dreams about the titanic
catastrophe

8. Sleep Paralysis
These phenomenon may also be termed as true
Nightmares . Two characteristics of sleep paralysis are:
• Inability to move.
• Sense of an extremely evil presence in the room.
It doesn’t feel like a dream but 100% real.
Studies show that during an attack , sleep paralysis
sufferers show an overwhelming amygdale activity.
The amygdale is responsible for the flight or fight instinct
and the emotions of fear , terror and anxiety.

9. REM Sleep Disorder
• In the state of REM(rapid eye movement
stage) of our sleep we are normally
paralyzed.
• In rare cases however people act out their
dreams and these have resulted in broken
arms , legs , furniture and even a case of
house being burnt down..

10. Creativity and Dreams
• As mentioned before , dreams are responsible
for inventions , great artworks and are generally
just incredibly interesting . They are also
recharging our creativity . In rare cases of REM
disorder , people actually don’t dream at all .
These people suffer from significantly decreased
creativity and perform badly at tasks requiring
creative problem solving.
**You would associate sleeping with peace and
quiet , but actually our brains are more active
during sleep than during day time.

11. Animals Dream As Well
Watch a cat or a dog sleep and you can see that
they are moving their paws and making noises
like they are chasing something or afraid of
something..
Not Everyone Dream In
Colour
It’s a fact that as much as 12% of people
only dream in black and white..

12. Yes u do Dream
• Many people claim that they don’t dream at all ,
but that is not true . We all dream but up to 60%
people don’t remember their dreams at all.
You Know That Ghost You Have Dreamt Of
It is proven that in dreams we can only see faces
that we have seen in real life or have imagined
with our conscious mind . So beware : that scary
looking lady next to you in the bus can really
play a lead role in your next dream..

13. Dreams Tend to be Negative
• Surprisingly , dreams are more often negative
than positive . The three most widely reported
emotions felt during dreaming are anger ,
sadness and fear.
Multiple Dreams per Night
You can have up to seven different dreams per
Night depending on how many REM cycles you
have. We only dream during the REM period of
sleep . Most of the people dream for one to two
hours every night. In a life time of 80 years a
healthy person dreams for about 6 years.

14. What would you prefer..dreaming or
snoring?
A group of researchers claim that a person
snoring is definitely not dreaming at that
point of time.
Generous Dreaming : The little cute fact!
Toddlers don’t star in their own dreams till
they are 1-2 years old . They can gather too
less information about themselves within
that span of time..

15. Déjà vu
• The French term “déjà vu” means already seen. This topic
is rather controversial cause it may be involved with the
dreaming phenomenon according to some scientists who
relate this with sixth sense of human brains while a
school of scholars denies it to be a part of dreaming and
explains it as a mental anomaly. According to them the
human eye capture a quick glimpse of situation which is
captured in the brain memory cells while the person is not
at all concentrating on that particular event. After that
when he gets involved with that situation he receives
signals from his brain which makes him think that he had
been in the same situation or have thought of the same
situation before…

16. The Gender Differences
• Interestingly,70% of all the characters in a man’s dream
are other men , but women’s dream involve an equal
number of men and women.
• Men’s dreams involves a lot more aggression, action and
women’s dreams involve a lot more emotions.
• Men dream more about financial security than women.
• Women’s dreams involve a lot more impossibilities and
extremes than that of men’s.
From studies made for several years based on researches
and interviews it can be said that this differences are
really stable and exceptions are rarely found.

17. Dreaming Sickness
• Dream Addicts-These are the people who love to dream and never
want to wake up. So they take an illegal and extremely potent drug
called Dimethyltryptamine (it contains the synthetic chemical which
the brain produces naturally during dreaming).
• Psychosis-It is very important to sleep during the REM period while
dreaming . If woken up for some reason right at the start of REM stage
a person may fall prey to psychotic disorders such as hallucination ,
irritation etc.
• Sleeping Beauty ‘syndrome` - Luoisa Ball,15years,a British girl suffers
from a rare sleeping disorder ’sleeping beauty sickness` . She sleeps for
days together and no kind of shaking or prodding can wake her up
when she is fast asleep . The symptoms , causes and cure are unknown
to the doctors . However , they say that it strikes only the teenagers
and is likely to vanish by the age of 12-13 years.
There are various other disorders..The REM sleep disorder is already
discussed before.

18. The Medical Point of View
• The process of interpreting dreams is called Psychoanalysis .
This is the psychological therapy originated by Sigmund
Freud.
• It involves free association , dream interpretation and
analysis of resistance and transference used to explore
repressed or unconscious impulses , anxieties and internal
conflicts in order to release the psychic energy for mature
work.
• Psychoanalysis- A method of studying the mind and treating
mental and emotional disorders based on revealing and
investigating the role of the unconscious mind.
• Hypnoanalysis -The use of Hypnosis in conjunction with
psychoanalysis.

19. Conclusion
Dreams have been the focus of curiosity and enquiry since the
beginning of human civilization . The hindu shastras affirm the soul
as ‘Trikaldarshi’(ability to experience the past , present and future
with equal ease).It says the soul can move beyond the periphery of
this world(in the invisible).The junction state is the state of dream
in which the individual self can experience either or both the
worlds . In the western civilization in early days it was believed
that during the state of sleep the soul traverses in a world out of
the body.
Sigmund Freud is regarded as the first among the modern day
psychologists who studied the effect of bodily , mental and
emotional conditions on dreams . He concluded that suppressed
emotions , unfulfilled desires and aspirations in personal and
professional life etc trigger reactions in the conscious and
unconscious domains of mind which are expressed in dreams.
Research works are on progress to find out ways to treat mental
disorders through interpretation of dreams and accordingly the
patient will be provided with proper counselling.

20. Acknowledgement
It has been much interesting to work on this project
under the supervision of our respected teachers. I
would like to thank Sir Tarak Das for guiding me
through this project and giving us the freedom to
choose the topic of our interest. I would like to thank
our respected HOD sir
Dr. Sukumar Roy for providing us with the opportunity
to portray our thoughts through this study.
I would like to thank my fellow classmates to for
helping me out with relevant information whenever
needed .