About dreams

By MARY JANE HOLT
Contributing Writer

A friend told me recently about a recurring dream that has been with her for decades. It began in adulthood, but in it she is a young child. She is on a playground at school. She is swinging and only has on a blouse. She can't stop swinging and come down because people will see she only is wearing a blouse.

Our conversation prompted me to recall a dream I had for many years though it has probably not recurred now for more than a decade. I was always at school and usually at the lunch table or at a desk in a classroom and I'm not wearing shoes. In my dream, I can't leave the desk or table because my classmates will see that I have no shoes.

I have had a dozen or so theories about why my dream kept recurring. Now that I realize I have not had the dream in about ten years, I suspect I am finally content with who I am and I no longer feel unfinished or not properly educated. Just a theory ...

This conversation prompted me to do some Internet research on dreams. Was I ever surprised at the content available on dreaming!

I found a Web site for The Association for the Study of Dreams, a nonprofit, international, multidisciplinary organization dedicated to the pure and applied investigation of dreams and dreaming. They promote an awareness and appreciation of dreams in both professional and public arenas; to encourage research into the nature, function, and significance of dreaming; to advance the application of the study of dreams; and to provide a forum for the eclectic and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and information. Their 2003 annual convention is coming up this month.

I surfed on and discovered a paper by G. William Domhoff, University of California at Santa Cruz, entitled "The Repetition Principle in Dreams: Is It a Possible Clue to a Function of Dreams?"

Ordinarily, I hesitate to quote anybody or write about anything coming out of California (yep, this Southern girl is somewhat prejudiced) but I was impressed with his paper.

Domhoff says traumatic dreams are legitimate, "real" dreams that occur in all stages of sleep, including REM, and they are experienced as dreamlike by the dreamers. Second, these dreams deal, quite obviously, with emotional problems that have overwhelmed the person. Third, to the degree that the experience is gradually assimilated, to that degree the dreams decrease in frequency and become altered in content. Fourth, the way in which the experience sometimes reappears when new problems arise suggests that the old traumas have become metaphors for new stressful situations.

He continues, "Traumatic dreams, then, reflect a preoccupation with problems we have not resolved. This is a possible starting point for understanding the nature of dream content. However, such dreams can hardly be called 'functional' in that they are so disturbing to the dreamers. Most posttraumatic stress disorder patients say they would prefer not to have them. They think that these dreams set them back. Indeed, it may be that such dreams serve to perpetuate the condition by reminding the person of the terrible experience."

Before making too much of one type of dream, Domhoff suggests looking at the closest relative of traumatic dreams, the recurrent dream, to see what conclusions can be drawn from studying it. He concludes that most recurrent dreams are very similar to the dreams of posttraumatic stress disorder and writes, "More exactly, they are watered-down versions of such dreams. They have their origins in some sort of stressful situation, usually in childhood or adolescence, they are repeated, and they are mostly unpleasant. They differ from the dreams of those diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder in that they usually do not contain elements or memories from the stressful situation. Instead, they seem to be more metaphoric in content, with wild animals, monsters, scary strangers, or natural disasters chasing, attacking, or entrapping the dreamer."

The site (www.dreamresearch.net or http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/) offered a commendable FAQ section, worth checking out if the subject interests you. Also FYI, Amazon.com offers 173 titles on dreams and dreaming. I also checked out my own book shelves while doing this column and found seven dream titles. I was reminded that this subject has always interested me!