学习文档 仅供参考 Unit 5 Dreams Are You a Dreamer? 1 Dreams — why do we have them? Do they mean anything? Is there such a thing as a dream in which the events seen by the dreamer come true? Such questions have interested people for thousands of years. Scientific advances in the past few decades have revealed more about the physical process of sleep, but they still don't offer any final answers to the many questions about dreams that continue to puzzle us. 2 Everyone dreams—it's just that some of us can't remember doing so. Recordings of human brain waves show that we all go into dream mode when we fall asleep. We dream for most of the night, but we're only able to remember our dreams if we happen to wake up while we are still in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. This is when we dream. We have four or five REM stages of sleep during the night, the first occurring about 90 minutes after we fall asleep. After that, our dreaming periods recur every 90 minutes and last between 15 to 45 minutes, getting longer as the night progresses. 3 The main purpose of sleeping (apart from giving us rest) may be to allow us to dream—to review our lives, our worries and hopes in a totally different way, and to get an unconscious view of ourselves, getting rid of material from our memories that we no longer need. 4 Some dreams may have a simple physiological cause. Dreaming of walking on hot coals, for example, may well be caused by sleeping with your feet too close to a heater. And the frustrating dream in which you try to run but your legs won't move may be explained by bedding that is too tight. Anyone who sleeps through their alarm may well dream of doorbells or telephones ringing. All are simple examples of how the unconscious works with our conscious mind to guide and advise us. 5 But such physiological explanations are not enough to tell us why we dream. Some people believe that dreams are total nonsense, merely the result of the misfiring of electrical impulses in the brain, while on the other hand, some read great importance into even the simplest of dreams. 6 Some dreams reflect inner fears that are instantly recognizable. Dreaming of losing your job or house can reflect real fears, even if they are only subconscious. Most of us have dreamed that we had to take a final exam for a difficult course, which we had never taken, or in which we had done poorly. 7 But what of the dreams that do not have such an obvious meaning? For centuries, both men and women have sought the answers in so-called dream dictionaries, possibly the oldest of which dates back to 5000 BC. According to these dictionaries, a dream about 学习文档 仅供参考 drinking wine meant a short life, whereas a dream about drinking water predicted a long life. 8 By AD 200, dream dictionaries had lost none of their popularity, and the ancient Greek Artemidorus wrote a five-volume interpretation of more than 3,000 dreams, listing such symbols as right hand (meaning father), left hand (meaning mother), and dolphin (a good omen). 9 Today, there are countless books offering dream interpretations in libraries and bookshops. They're as popular as ever with dream enthusiasts, but most experts warn that they should be read with care. Psychoanalyst and author Kenneth Saunders explains, "Dreams are closely tied up with an individual's mind and analysis is so open to mistakes or errors. I believe you can only discover the true meaning of a dream if you know the person who had the dream." 你做梦吗？ 1 梦， 我们为什么会做梦？梦有意义吗？真的有梦中所见的事成为现实这种事吗？几千年来这些问题一直让人们感兴趣。
过去几十年的科学发展对睡眠的自然过程有了较多的认识，然而对于与梦有关的诸多问题依然没有提供最终的答案，这些问题还要继续困惑我们 2 人人都做梦——只不过有些人不记得做过梦罢了 人类脑电波的记录显示我们所有人入睡后就进入梦境整个夜晚的大多数时间我们都在做梦，但只有当我们处在 REM (眼睛迅速转动) 睡眠阶段时醒来，才会记住所做的梦眼睛迅速转动阶段便是我们做梦的时候每晚我们有四、五个 REM 睡眠阶段，第一次出现在入睡后的 90 分钟左右此后，梦期每 90分钟复现一次，每次持续 15 到 45 分钟，持续时间随着夜晚的深入逐渐增长 3 睡眠的主要目的〔除让我们休息外〕也许就是让我们做梦——让我们以一种截然不同的方式回忆我们的生活、我们的忧虑和希望，以及在潜意识中观察自我，把不再需要的资料从记忆中剔除 4 有些梦可能是由简单的生理原因引起的例如，梦到在灼热的煤块上行走很可能是因为睡眠时脚太靠近取暖器 而梦到想跑但两腿却动弹不了这种令人沮丧的境况， 也许是被子裹得太紧的缘故闹铃响了而依然熟睡的人则很可能会梦到门铃或 铃响所有这些都是潜意识和意识共同引导和启示我们的简单例子 5 不过这些从生理的角度进行的解释尚不足以说明为什么我们会做梦。
有些人认为梦纯粹是无稽之谈，仅仅是人脑中电脉冲无的放矢的结果，然而，有些人则认为最简单的梦都具有重要的含义 6 有些梦反映的内心忧虑是立即可以识别的梦见失去工作或者没了房子，也许是反映了真实的忧虑， 即便这些忧虑只是潜意识的 我们大多数人都梦见过必须参加一门很难的课程的期末考试，也许是一门从未修过的，或许是学得很糟的课程 学习文档 仅供参考 7 但是，有一些梦并没有这样明显的含义，这是怎么回事呢？多个世纪以来，男男女女都从所谓的解梦字典中寻找答案， 这类字典最早的可以追溯到公元前 5000 年 根据这些字典，梦见喝酒意味着短命，而梦见喝水则预示长寿 8 一直到公元 200 年，解梦字典受欢迎的程度仍丝毫未减当时，古希腊的阿尔米多鲁斯写了一部长达五卷的书，解析了 3000 多个梦，列举了一系列的象征，诸如右手〔表示父亲〕 ，左手〔表示母亲〕 ，以及海豚〔表示好兆头〕 9 如今，图书馆和书店里有无数的书籍为梦做解析对于那些热衷于探讨梦的人来说，它们依然深受欢迎然而，多数专家警告说，读这些书时要非常谨慎心理分析家兼作家肯尼思·桑德斯解释说：“梦与每个人的思维密切相关，因此分析往往容易出现错误和偏差。
我认为，只有当你了解了做梦的人时，才能发现梦的真正含义 Dreams That Came True [1] On the night of November 7, 1965, Mary Daughtery had a nightmare. She cannot forget that dream nor can her husband, George. She tells of it like this: “I dreamed I was on a hill at night. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled. Then I saw a bright light in the sky. There was a loud impact and I heard screams everywhere. ” [2] Mary says that then she saw a hand lying on the ground. She had a sense of dread, but she went closer. Then she saw an arm and then the shattered body at the end of the arm. She says that in her dream she screamed, “Somebody please help!” Then she saw some men with a large basket made of wicker. They put the body into the basket and went away. [3] Mary was still screaming when she woke up. “Mary!” George was bending over her, shaking her. “What is the matter?” he asked. [4] Mary told him, “I just saw you killed in a plane crash. Oh George, please don't go on that plane to Cincinnati.” [5] Mary begged him not to go, but George would not let her stop him. But as he drove to the airport, George began to feel strange . Then he saw a plane flying overhead, and his heart began to thump with fear. Then he knew he could not get on the plane. He called the airport and told them to cancel his ticket. Then he called Mary and took the train to Cincinnati. [6] That night, Flight 383 ran into a bad storm when it tried to land in Cincinnati. The plane crashed into a hill. Mary saw the news report on television. It was just like her dream. She saw men with baskets come to carry away bodies. But she knew George was safe. He was safe because of the omen of her dream. [7] John Bradley also had a dream like this. He lived in England and was a teacher. 学习文档 仅供参考 He was also a naturalist. He liked to take his class on field trips to learn about nature. [8] One night he had a dream. It came to him a week before one of the field trips he had planned. He dreamed he was leading his class along a country lane beside a churchyard. [9] In his dream, Bradley told two of the boys to lead the way through the churchyard. He would walk at the other end of the line to keep the small children moving. But as they went through the churchyard, Bradley felt the ground shake. Then he heard a loud cracking and ripping sound. Then something huge and dark rushed towards him. It was a huge elm tree. It crashed down right on top of the line of children. [10] Bradley was very upset by his dream. He thought he should cancel the trip. He told his class about the dream, but they laughed at him. And they did not want to call off the trip. Even the other teachers laughed at him and told him he should not spoil the children's fun. So Bradley agreed that they would go. “But you must promise,” he told them, “to go only where I tell you to go.” [11] So the field trip went ahead. When they came to the lane, Bradley would not let the children take a detour through the churchyard. Some of them thought this was silly, but they did what they were told. [12] At the end of the lane, they came to a bridge across a river. The older boys came to a halt and asked, “Which way shall we go, sir? Shall we cross the river or stay on the path beside it?” [13] Bradley stopped. He had a funny feeling about the footpath. “Cross the bridge,” he told them. So the children began to walk across the bridge. Then Bradley heard the same terrible cracking sound he had heard in his dream. He looked back. On the very edge of the footpath, he saw a huge elm shake and tremble. Then it fell to the ground. His premonition had come true. The children stared at each other and then at their teacher. If they had walked along the footpath, they would have been at the very spot where the tree had fallen. 成为现实的梦 1 1965 年 11 月 7 日的晚上，玛丽·都特瑞做了一个噩梦。
她忘不了那个梦，她的丈夫乔治也忘不了她是这么讲述自己的梦的：“我梦见夜里自己在一座山上电闪雷鸣然后我看见天上一道亮光巨大的撞击声，然后我听到四处都是尖叫声 2 玛丽说，她接着看见地上有一只手她感到有些害怕，但还是走上前去然后她看见了一只胳膊，胳膊的那头是疏疏落落的尸体碎块她说，她在梦里尖叫起来：“快来人哪！”然后她看见一些人抬着一个大柳条筐他们把尸体放进筐里，就走了 学习文档 仅供参考 3 玛丽惊醒时还在叫喊着玛丽！”乔治俯下身，推推她怎么了？”他问 4 玛丽告诉他：“我刚刚梦见你飞机失事死了噢，乔治，求求你不要坐那趟去辛辛那提的航班 5 玛丽求他不要去，但是乔治不听她的劝阻然而，在他开车去机场的路上，乔治开始感到有点不对头接着他看见一架飞机从头顶飞过，心慌得砰砰直跳于是他明白自己不能坐那趟飞机了 他给机场打 ， 取消了机票 然后他给玛丽打 ， 接着乘火车去了辛辛那提 6 那天晚上，383 次航班试图在辛辛那提降落时遇上了暴风雨飞机撞上了一座山玛丽在电视上看到了有关的新闻报道 那情形就同她梦见的一模一样 她看见人们拿筐运走了尸体但是她知道乔治没事因为有了她那梦的预兆，乔治得以安然无恙。
7 约翰·布雷德利也做过类似的梦他住在英格兰，是一位教师他还是一位博物学家，喜欢带他班上的学生到校外考察旅行，了解大自然 8 一天晚上，他做了一个梦这是在他安排了一次校外考察旅行之前一个星期发生的事他梦见自己领着班上的学生走在一条乡间的小路上，边上就是教堂墓地 9 在梦里，布雷德利让两个男孩带队穿过教堂墓地他自己走在队伍的末尾，以便让小一些的孩子保持前进然而，就在他们穿过教堂墓地的时候，布雷德利感到地面在震动接着他听见了巨大的断裂声 然后， 有个黑乎乎的庞然大物朝他砸过来 那是一棵巨大的榆树，正好兜头砸在孩子们的队伍上 10 这个梦使布雷德利非常不安 他觉得应该取消这次外出 他把这个梦告诉了班上的学生，但是他们都觉得他很可笑，而且都不愿意取消这次旅行甚至其他老师也笑话他，跟他说不应该让孩子们扫兴于是布雷德利同意出行但是你们必须答应我，”他跟他们讲，“往哪儿走你们只能听我的 11 于是，他们出发了当他们走到那条小路时，布雷德利不让孩子们改道穿过教堂墓地有些孩子觉得这样做很蠢，不过他们还是按老师说的做了 12 走到小路的尽头，他们面前是一座过河的桥年纪大一些的男孩子停了下来，问：“老师，我们应该走哪条道？过河呢，还是走沿河的小路？” 13 布雷德利停住脚步。
他对那条小路有一种古怪的感觉过桥，”他告诉他们于是孩子们开始过桥接着，布雷德利听到了可怕的断裂声，同自己在梦中听到的完全一样他回头一看，只见就在那条小路边上，一棵巨大的榆树摇摇晃晃，倒在了地上他的预感应验了孩子们面面相觑，然后看着自己的老师如果刚刚他们走那条小路的话，那么他们就正好在那棵榆树倒下来的位置上 Dreaming Up a Good Mood [1] According to new studies, dreams can fix your bad moods each night—and if you're depressed, dreams may predict whether you'll recover more quickly. [2] It is natural to wake up in the morning with a sunny outlook, relieved of the 学习文档 仅供参考 previous evening's worries. In fact, studies show that a solid night of sleep improves moods in healthy individuals. [3] But sleep's effects on healthy and depressed people are as different as night and day. People who are seriously depressed actually feel worse after sleeping, since they have more abstract, confusing dreams. [4] Research led Rosalind Cartwright, Ph.D, director of the Sleep Research Center at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, to wonder how dreams allow our brains to repair our moods—and why this feel-good mechanism doesn't seem to work in the seriously depressed. [5] In the first of two studies, Cartwright gave a mood test to normally healthy participants, recorded their sleep in a laboratory for one night, then gave them a second mood test when they rose in the morning. During the night, the volunteers were awakened now and then and asked to describe the content of their dreams. Subjects were divided into two groups: one having neutral feelings before bedtime and one with bad moods. [6] Cartwright found that subjects who had been in neutral moods before sleeping had little change in attitude when they woke. Subjects who were generally not depressed but went to bed in a bad mood, however, reported feeling much better after a good night's sleep. [7] This change was reflected in their dreams: people whose moods improved overnight reported experiencing more negative dreams at the beginning of the night and progressively fewer and fewer as sleep went on. Subjects in neutral moods had no change in the content of their dreams. [8] “The study shows that mood does get adjusted overnight,” says Cartwright. “If you go to sleep in a bad mood, your brain goes to work right away on negative dream material at the beginning of the night so your bad mood is reduced by the end of the night.” [9] Next, Cartwright repeated the experiment using couples who were depressed by a recent marriage separation. While some unhappy patients dreamed less about serious emotional content and more about lighter topics as the night progressed, others had more disturbing dreams just before waking than at the beginning of sleep. [10] Assuming that the former group was dreaming away their negative feelings each night, the researchers predicted that they would eventually work through their depression. And they were right—a follow-up study showed that 72% of the subjects in that group had fewer signs of depression one year later. 学习文档 仅供参考 [11] “The last dream of the night is the one that patients are most likely to remember,” explains Cartwright. [12] While the first group was actively working through their blues, resulting in more pleasant dreams at the end of the night and a brighter morning mood, those whose dreams became increasingly unpleasant were more likely to feel low when they woke. [13] Still, this finding has a positive aspect. It allows sleep therapists to predict which of the depressed persons need the most help. It also tells them the topics that disturb their patients most. [14] “If patients remember a bad dream,” notes Cartwright, “then whatever that dream is about, that's what therapists should focus treatment on. The patient clearly isn't able to adjust his or her mood, and therapists should work on that.”—thus turning troubled visions into sweet dreams. 梦出好心情 1 根据最新的研究，每天晚上梦都可以调整你的不良情绪。
而且如果你情绪低落的话，你的梦也许会预示你是否会比较快地使情绪变好 2 早晨起床，人们自然会感到心情开朗，摆脱了头天晚上的种种烦恼事实上，研究说明，好好地睡一晚上会改善健康人的心境 3 但是，对健康的人和心情沮丧的人而言，睡眠的效果却可能天差地别情绪特别沮丧的人在睡眠后会感觉更糟，因为他们做的梦更抽象，更能搅乱人的心境 4 罗莎琳德·卡特赖特博士是芝加哥拉什·长老会·圣卢克斯医疗中心睡眠研究中心主任， 对梦的研究使她很想搞清楚我们的大脑如何通过梦来调整我们的心情， 为什么这种能使人感觉良好的的心理机制在那些极度抑郁的人身上似乎不起作用 5 卡特赖特做了两项研究，在第一项研究中，先给那些身体正常健康的实验参与者做一次情绪测试， 并记录下他们在实验室一晚的睡眠情况， 然后在他们早晨起床时再做一次情绪测试 在夜间， 这些志愿受试者不时地被叫醒， 要他们描述自己的梦境 受试者们被分成两组：一组在睡觉之前情绪平静，另一组则情绪不佳 6 卡特赖特发现，那些睡觉前情绪平静的人在醒来后心态没什么大的变化，而那些通常情况不消沉但睡前情绪不佳的人都说睡了一个好觉后感觉好多了 7 这个变化反映在他们的梦境里： 据那些一夜之间心情有所改善的实验者反映， 他们在睡眠初期噩梦较多，但随着睡眠的深入，这样的梦越来越少。
而情绪平静的受试者在梦内容上没什么变化 8 “这项研究说明，情绪确实在一夜之间得到了调整卡特赖特说，“如果你入睡时心情不佳，你的大脑会立刻开始准备噩梦材料，这样，到你快醒来时，你的不良情绪就已经有所调整 学习文档 仅供参考 9 接着，卡特赖特挑选了一些因为新近分居而情绪低落的夫妻作为实验对象，重复了以上的实验其中一些不开心的病人随着夜晚的推移，梦里严肃的情感内容少起来了，比较轻松的话题多起来了；而另一些人在睡醒前做的烦心梦反而比刚刚入睡时更加多了 10 假设前一组实验对象每晚都在梦掉一些不良情绪，研究人员预测他们最终可以摆脱忧郁他们的预测是正确的后续研究说明，那组受试者中 72%的人在一年后抑郁症状减轻了 11 “病人最可能记住的是晚上做的最后一个梦卡特赖特解释说 12 第一组病人积极地摆脱忧郁， 结果在天亮前做了比较愉快的梦， 以致早晨起来心情变好而那些梦境越来越不愉快的受试者醒来时则更可能情绪低落 13 这一发现还有它积极的方面 它使睡眠治疗专家可以预测哪些抑郁病人最需要帮助， 还能启示他们了解最困扰病人的话题 14 “如果病人记住了一个噩梦，”卡特赖特说，“那么，不管梦到的是什么内容，它就是治疗专家该重点治疗的。
病人显然无法调整自己的情绪，治疗专家应该对付之 这么一来，我们就可以把扰人的梦境转变成美梦 。