ao ,/trLtepit,
to learn
mo;
For most
tru Lt abus"et\
oLliLd,\eer
bad....Itgrea
.
.
think a
.
peopl€, $,hose lives
ples. ChrnginS the
more good rhan almost
ance. Freud called this surface meaning of a dream the manifest contnt and
rhe deepe'. rrue mp.ninglhc lotpr' .aatat.In o-der ro reveal rhe meaninSful
infomadon of a dieam, the manifest content must be interpreted, anabzed,
to chang€ the way
White the ralidity of a great portion of Freud's work has been drawn
into serious question b)' behavioral scientists oi'er t}le past 50 years, his conceptualization ofdreams remains widely accepted by psychologists and Western cuiture in general. (See the reading on Anna Freud for a discussion of
other enduing aspe€t, ofFreud's th€ories.) A.lmost everfone has had the experience ofremembering an unusual dream and thinking, "I wonder what it
really meansl" We belleve that our dreams have deep meaning about conflicts
that are hidden irl rhe unconscious paril ofour psyches.
In the late 1970s, Allan Hobson and Robed Mccarley, both psychiatrist-s
neurophysiologists
and
at Harurd's medical school, putjlished a new theory
of dreaming that shook the scienlfic communiry so deeply that the hemors
are still being felt today. Wrat they said, in essence, vas that dreams are nothing more than your attemp! to interpre! random electrical impulses produc.d automarically in your brain during REM sleeF.
They proposed tharwhile you are asleep there is a part ofyour brain, locared in the bmin stem, that is periodically acti\ated and produces el€ctfical
impulses, This paft of you! brain is related to physical movement and the
processing of input from your senses while you are awake. Wlen you are
asleep, your sensory and motor abilities ar€ shut down, but this part ofyour
brain is nol It continues to generate what Hobson and Mcoarley regarded as
meaningless bursts ofneural static, Some of these impulses reach other parts
ofyour bmin, responsibl€ for higher functjoos such as thinking and reasoning. When this happens, your bmin tries to rynthesize and make some 6ofi of
sense oht of the impulses. To do rhis, you sometimes create images, ideas,
and eren (rorics wirh plols. IlwF a\rker and remember thir cognitive acrivity,
we callit a dream and invest it irifi all kinds ofsignificance which, according
to Hobson and Mccarley, was never there to begin with.
Hobson and Mccarl€y's original article, upon which this discussioi! is
based, is a highly technical ac.ount of the neurophysiology of sleep ahd
dreaming.ldlile fieir leork can be found in nearly all te'rtbooks that includ€
information about dreaming, very little of the deta.ll is offered there, due to
rhe.omple\ oature ol the reserrch€r' ,eporling. We explo'e their arlicle in
,'gnifiLantlv grearer deuil, ,lfiough ror clariq and underutanding, considerable distillation and simplification are unavoidable.
c. (2000) ?}
posib\ billions, of
rstood a few simple princitions deal with sieep will do
conceive, or cerrainlv that was
ever remotell in my grasp to
DenenL tr\'.
Excelook, De-
about Dements work a; Stanford Unn€rsiry s Ce
and Trearmefr otSleep Drsordersr.
a 'tleep'sick socier',," and ser fortl
ent,2000, pp.4-5)
A
exqlaB the
ital0n
dtiah
6e
trr, t094-t097
\!erh, E,
u
, 246-254.
Corh,
K, Callnan,
on du ng
Ptqsiolag:
E., Bo.bell, A.,
&Achero,n
P. (2002) Selecti$e R.EM sleep
dep.i
dal,tin€-I Time cou6e interenrions and rccarery. Atunan laumat
Rtgukkt
intrgratixe and canpatuttuz
lhnotag,
o.l
28J, P.521-R526.
UNROMANCING THE DREAM . . ,
Hobson, J, A,, €I McCarl€y, R. W (1977), The brain as a dream-srare
generator:An activation-syi!heds hypothesis ol the dream process,
Anetican lounal of Psychldtry, 134, 1335-1348.
The wotk ofArerhsky and Demenr explored rhe apparent need for dreaming sleep in humans. Other research has examined lhe reasons why you
dream and some of rhe funcrions dreaming mighr sene. The hisrory of re,
s€arch on dreaming has been dominated bv rhe belief rhar dreams reveal
.omerhing ibour.our.ell rhe,
"rF p odu. r. ot,oul iqner psM hotogr.,l c\.
perience of the world. This view can be rraced back io Sigmund Freud,s psychoanalytic theories of human nature.
You'll recall that Freud believed rhar dreams are rhe expression of unconscious wishes for things we ar€ unable ro hai,e l'hile awake. Therefore,
dreams offer insights inro the unconscious rhat are unalailable in waking
though!. However, ihe psvchoanalytic approach also cont€nds that many of
these wishes are unacceptabl€ !o lhe conscious mind and, ifexpressed openly
in dreams, wouLd disrupt sle€p and crearc anriery. Thus, to protect the indi
vidual, the true desires contained in the dream are disgxised in ihe dream's
images by a hypothetical censor Consequenth, the rheorv alserrs rhe true
meaning of most dreams lies hidden beneath rhe dream's outward appear,
THEORETICAL PROPOSITIONS
Hobson and I4cCarley believed
$rr rodem neuropht€iological
evidence "per-
miis and n€cessitates important rcvisions in ps),choanalltic drean theory Th€
activation{tnthesis h}pothesis . . . alserb that many fonnal aspec(s of t}Ie dream
experi€nce may be the obligatory and .elatjvely undistofted psychological con-
50
Pettabtion an.l. Cotu\.iou\n ss
.PeftePtion and Cmsciousness
comitant of rhe regutarly recurring and physioloeically determined brain
slate called 'dreaming sleep"' (p. 1335). wlat they meant bI this t{as simPly
that dre4ms are triggered automalically by basic Physiological processes, and
there is no caffrr distorting the lrue meaning ro Protect you from your unconscious wishes. Moreov€r, th€y contend that the strangeness and distortions often aisociated with dreams are nor disguises, but the results of the
physiology ofhow the brain and mind work durin8 sleeP
The most important parr of rheir theort 1\'as thal the brain becomes activated dudng REM sleep and generates irs o'm original information. This actlvation is then compared with stored memories in order lo st'nthesize the
acrivation inro som€ form ofdream contenl In otherwords, Hobson and Mc'
Carley claim that what is referred to as REM sleep actually causes dreaming,
instead ofthe opposing popular view that dreams Produce REM sleeP.
MEIHOD
ln &eir article, Hobson and Mccarley incorPorated h^/o mefiods ofresearch
One m€thod war to study and review Previous work bl many rcsearchers in
the area ofsl€ep and dreaming. In this single article, the authors cite 3? leferences that pertain to their hporhesis, including several earlier studies oftheir
o]!n. The second method they used wff research on the sleeP and dreaming
parterns ofanimals. They did not !.-y to claim that nonhuman animals dream,
since fiis is someihing no one can know fo. sure. (You may believe your pet
dreams, bur hai your dog or cat ever told you what th€ dream was about?)
Ho ever, all mammals exp€rience stages ofsle€p similar to fiose in humans
Hobson and Mccarley rsenr o.ne slep furrher and claimed thar ther€ is no significanr difi€rence between humans and other animals in the physiology of
dreaming sleep. So they chose cats for their exPerimental subjects. Usingvari
ous laboratory techriqu€s, they were able io srimulale or inhibit certain Parts
ofthe animals' brains and record the effect on dreaming sleeP
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Th€ \arious flndings d€tailed bt Hobson and Mccarley were used to demon"
strate different aspects of *1eir theory Th€refole, their results wili be combin€d with th€ir discussion of the findings here. The evidence generated by
the researchers in support of their theory can be summarized in the follolting poin$:
1. The part of the brain in the brain st€m that conlrols physical mol€ment
and incoming informatlon from the senses is at least as activ€ during
dreaming sle€p (which they called the , rrdr.) as it is when you are
awake. However while you are asleep, sensory inPur (infomarion com'
ing into your brain ftom the environment around you) and motor outpui (voluntary movement of your body) are blocked Hobson and
Mccarley ,uggest that thes€ phFiological process€s, rather than a Psychoiogical censor, may be responsible for protecting sleep.
You l\'ill remember from the prelious arricle that you are para\zed
during dreaming, presumably to protect you from rhe potential danger
ofacting outyour dreams. Hobson and Mccarley r€po*€d that fiis immobilization actually occurs at rhe spinal cord and nor in the brain irself. Therefore, the brain is quite €apable ofsending motor signals, bur
the body is not able to express them. The authors sugges.ed tha! rhis
may accounr for the strange patterns of moremenr in dreams, such as
your inabiliq' to run from dang€r or rhe perception thar you are moving
2.
The main exception to rhis blocking ofmotor responses is in the muscles and nen'es controlling the eles. In part, rhis explains why rapid eye
movemeni occurs during D stare, and may also explain how visual im-
during dreaming.
3. Hobson and Mccarley pointed out another aspecr of dreaming thar
emerged from a physioloBical anal)sis of rhe D stat€ and that could not
be €xplained by a psychoanal,vtic inrerpretation. This was rhat the brain
enters REM sleep at regular and predictable inter€ls du ng each
nighCs sleep and remains in rhat srate for sp€ciIic lengths of time.
There is nothing random about thls sleep cycle. The aurhors interprcted this to mean that dreaming cannot be a respons€ to waking
evenis or unconscious wishes, because this ould pmduce dr€aming at
any moment during sleep, according to the whims and needs ofth€ person's psyche. Instead, the D state appeared to Hobson and Mccarley ro
be a preprogrammed even! in rhe brain that functions almost like a
neurobrologidl clo(k.
4. The researche$ pointed ro findjngs by others that demonstrated thar
all mammals cvcle through RENI and NREM sleep. This sleep cycle
varies accordjng to the body size of rhe animai. A mr, for example, $'ill
shift berween REM and NREM every six minures, while for an elephant
a single cycle tak€s rl'\'o'and-a-half hoursi One explanation for rhis difference may be ihat the more ninerable an animal is to predators, the
shorrcr are its periods of sound sleep during which ir is less alert and
thus in greater danger ofattack. Wlatever the reason, Hobson and McCarley .ook these flndin$ as additional evidence rhar dreaihing sleep is
ages are triggered
purely physiological.
Hobson and Mccarley claimed !o have found the trigger fie power
supply, and the clock of the "dream siate generator" in the brain. They
r€ported rhis to be rhe ponrine brain srem, located in the back and near
the base ofthe brain. Measuremene ofneural activiry (the frequency of
firing of n€urons) in lhis part of the bmin in carr found siSnificant
peaks in acrivity corresponding to periods of REM sleep. rhen this paft
of the brain was artificially inhibited, the animals wenr for week rvith"
out any REM sleep. Furthemore, reducing the a{tivity of rhe pontin€
caused the length of time between periods of D state sleep ro increase,
'
..'-.....
Conversely, stimulation of the brain stem caused REM sleep to occur
earlier and increased rhe lengrh of R-EM periods. Such increases in
REM have been attempted through conscious behavioral techniques,
but these have been mosth unsuccessful. The aurhors'inrerprerarion of
fiese findings rBs that since a part of rhe brain complerely separat€
from the pontine brain stem is invoLved in consciousness, dreaming
cannot be driven by psychological forces.
6. The Iirst fi\'e points summarized from Hobson and Mccarley s research
fo€used on the a.ri"aliou portion of their rheofl. They mainrained rhar
the trtrrrr of this activation is what produces rour experience of
dreaming. The psychologicai implicarions of rh€ir theory were detailed
by rhe authors in foul basic renetsl
(a) "The primary modvrting force for dreaming is not psychological
but physiological, since the time of occurrence and duration of
dreaming sleep are quite constan!! suggesting a preprogrammed,
neurally determined genesis" (p. 1346). They did allow that dreams
may have psy€hological meaning, but suggested that this meaning
is much more basic than the psychoanalytic view imagines it ro be.
They flrrther contend€d that dreaming should no longer be considered to have purely psychological significance.
(b) Dudng dreaming, the bmin stem is nor responding to sensory
input or producing motor output based on the wortd around you:
instead it is activating iiself inrernauy. Since rhis acdvarion odginates in a relatirely primiiive part of the brain, ir does nor contain
any ideas, emotions, .stories, fears, or wishes. It is simple electrical
energy. tu the activation reaches the more advanced, cognitive
sructures of the brain, vou t+, to make sense out of it. "In other
words, the forebrain may be making the best of a bad job in producing even paftially coherent dream imagery from rh€ relarively
noisy signals sent up ro it from nhe brain stem" (p. 1347).
(c) Thercfore, this elaboration of randon signals into dreams is interpreted io be a conslrucfi,e process, a rynrhesis, instead ofa disbrtion process by lvhich unacceptable wis'hes ar€ hidden from your
.onviolsnFs. Images ,re .rlled
mFmoq :a an rrtempr lo match the dara genelaled by rhe brain stem's acrivarion. lr
is precisely because ofthe randomness olthe impulses, and the difficult task ofthe brain to try lo inject lhem wilh some meaning, that
dreams are often bizarre, diiointed, and seemingl)' mysterious.
(d) Freud's explanation for our forg€uing dreams was repression, He
belieled that when the content of a dr€am is loo disturbing for
some reason, you are motivated to forget it. Hobson and McCarley,
acknowledging that dream recall is poor (atleast 95% ofall dreams
are nor remembered'. orfered a pu.e ph$rological e\planarion
that was concordant with the rest of aheir activation-synthesis hy-
pothesis. Theyclaim€d tharwhen we awaken, rhere is an immediate
change in the chemisrry of the brain. Certain brain chemicals necfor converting short-term memories into long-r€rm ones are
,uDDrc(ed durirg REM cteep. So unless a dream i, pardculartr
vivid 'mFaning
ir is produced b) a larBe amounr otacdlalion)
'har
and you awak€n during or immediately after ir, rh€ contenC of t}le
dredm will nor be
essary
'emembe.ed.
Figur€ 1 illusrrates Hobson and Mccartet's comparison between rhe psychoanalldc view ofrhe dream process and rheir actir,ation*ynrfiesis modeli
IMPTICATIONS AND RECENT APPI.ICATIONS
lobson and Mccarley have conrinued !o conduct rcsearch in support bf
their revolutionary hl?othesis of dreaming. Their new conceptuatization has
not been universally accept€d, but no psychological discussion of dreaming
would be considercd complet€ wirhour ir, inclusion.
Twelve years after the app€amnce of Hobson and Mccartey,s original
.
adcle on the acdvation synrhesis model, Altan Hobson published his 6ook
called, rimply, S&4. In n\is work, he exptains his rheory of dreaming in €x_
panded ard Ireatly simptified terms. He also elaborates on his vieri about
whar impa€t rhe lh€ory may have on ihe inrerpreration of dream cont€nt.
And, he allo\as, dreams are nor devoid ofm€aning, bur should be iDrerprer€d
in mor€ straightiorward ways. Hobson stares his view as fouows:
For all thejr nonsense, dreams hale a ctear inpor! a,d a d€epty personal one.
Their merrrng woJld s,pm. I a$Ffi. lrom rhe nece$iry in RLr.{
ih;
br n.m,nd ro r.r Lpon ir5 oM inro.mdlion and ac.ora;ns Lo iEsleeD for
Uctrls.
Lhu.. I !ould lrke ro rpr"in rhe emphass or psr(hoanatvsis upon the powir of
o;
FICURE
I
Psychoanal)
lAdapted trom p. I146.1
ric rheory and activalionaynthesis hypothesis comparcd.
54
Perctprion an.J Conseiousnrr,
Peruption and Cansciousnets
dleams ro reveal de€p dpects about ou6elves, but without recours€ to the concept of djs$rise and censonhip or to the no$ famous Freudian s]mbols. My lendency, then, is 1p dcribe rhe nonsense to brain-mind dysfunction and fte sense
to irs compensatory effort to create order out ofchaos. That order is a function
ot our okn peFonal view of rhe hor ld. our cJ , er t preo' ruprr'onq. ou' remore
memories, ourfeelings, and our beliefs Tbafs all. (Hohon, 1989, p. 166)
Another dream researcher took Hobson's sentiments a step further
Foulkes (1985), a leading researcher on daydreaming, also subscribes to the
notlon that night dreams are generated by spontaneous brain activiq dudng
sleep. He has suggested that while dreams do not contain hidd€n unconscious messages, ihey may provide us ri'ith a great deal of psychological information. Foulk€s maintains that the way lour cognltive system places form and
sense onlo the random impulses in your brain releals information about the
importance ofcertain ofyour memories and provides insight into your thinking processes. He also believes that dreams serve several us€ful PurPoses
One of rhese arises from dreams you have about experiences that have not
actually happened to you. These dreams may assist in Prepaing you to encounrer new or unexpected events-somethinS like a coSniti\e rehearsal, or
"\^'harwouldI do if ... ?".
And the research continues. Many studies seek to challenge Hobson
and Mcoarley's conceplualization of the origin and function ofdreams. One
such study demonsrnted how the controversl among sleep and dream theorists lives on. The Freudian-based, psychoanalytic community continues to ex'
press their annoyanc€ that Hobson and Mccarley's theories leave litde room
for the lreudia.n view that dreams are messages lrom the unconscious ln a
journal devoted to Freudian dsychoanalysis, Mancia (1999) demonstrates $e
differences between the psychoanalyti€ notion of dreaming and the theory
propos€d by Hobson and Mcoarley, often referred to a3 the "neuroscientific"
approach. Mancia d€scribes the clash betl\'een these !"{o fundamental views
with great clarity:
wrereu the neuroscientish
Carley, assumed thar REM and dreaming are physiological\, equii"l€nt activilies controlled by a single, connected brain process. However, Solms has sug-
gested that dreaming may be generated through dlrect stimulation of the
forebrain during ?'on-REM sleep , ind@endcnt\ of any bmin slem involvement.
Conversely, REM sleep, along with the usual brain sLem activationj may occur
Nitho\rt any dreaming taking place. Therefore, Solms suggests rhat brain
stem activitl is 'Just one of rhe many arousal tiggers that can actiute this
forebrain mechanisn. The 'RDM-on' mechanism rherefore stands outside
the dream process itself, which is mediated by an independent, forebrajn
'dream-on' mechanism" (p. 843).
CONCLUSION
nhether you ar€ $illing ro accept the rath€r less romantic view of dreaming
developed by Hobson and Mccarleyt research, this is an excellenr example
ofhow ps/.hologists or scientists in any field need to remain open to new possibilities even $'hen the established oder has exisred for decades, There is no
doubt that the actiration-synrhesis modeL of dreams ha5 changed pstchology.
This does nor mean that we have solved al1 the mFleries ofsl€ep and dreaming, and perhaps we neveruill. Bur ii's bound to be a fascinatingiourney.
D 0 985). ,ryarins: A .aenitia'ttyhahsi.at ana4:is Hillsdal€, NJ: Edbaum
Hobson,J.A. (1989). S&.1. NewYo.k sci€nrinc American Libmry
Mancia, M. (1999). Psychoa.a\tis and the neurosciences: A topical debate on d.ems l,irndtianaua"ndt dl Pg.hoahabs4 80(6), 1 205-1213
Solns, V, (2000). D.eaning and REM sleep are conlrolled bI diilerent brain mechannns.
Behariml and Bmin Scim.s, B, A4vAbA.
Fourk€s,
NG AS
, N.
dredei . . Thebrarr,rru,ru-'aldrun'tion\o rnte,etrothF
n.u"o',"i"".", . . . are hreleEnt to their psychoanalyric undersunding. (Man'
hbrod or the
cia, 1999, p. 1205)
Ofcourse, Hobson and McCarley very likely would reply rhat t'\ere is no
psychoanatytic understanding possible, be€ause there is no such thing as an
unconscious in the lreudian conceptualizadon of it. That debate, while reli
worth havinS, must be saved for another time and place.
Finally, a fascinating study questioning Hobson and M€Carley's theory
took a new look at the specific regions of the brain that ar€ a€tive during
REM (Solms, 2000). Until recently, most researchers, led by Hobson and Mc-
|
IF
YOU ARE HYPNOTI
(1982). Hypnoric behavior:A
cal perspective. Rejearc,' Cofl
are inierested in the s!ru.tures invoh€d in dream
production and in drean org ization and na atabilllf psychoanal)ais concen_
oalf,' on the m€aning or dreamq and on pla( rnBlber ,n rhe.oire\t of rhe anal) dc relalionsh,p lwirh rhe dna\stl in dc(oiddn, " h rt rhe affer dre {enoronil
- ,r,-
iJlve, social,
i n Psychol ogy, Ptych I dtry,
',199-213.
hi.h we are all most familiar are re-
The alte
Ia'ed to deed
eral highly j
relating to altered s
as a msterioN and
Dhres and words tha
dicate that it is .o
ous three arlicles have foc sed on se\g to these topics, Another ph€nomenon
ess is hlpnosis. Hlpnosis is usually seen
of controlling a p€non's mind. The
is, s]Jch as gaing under
trance, \n^nd sraE of
a s€pamt€ and unique
both
agree with this
icholas Spanos
is, in realiq. norhi
. And many psychologistj
, howevet led rie opposing
an increased state of