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Related to dreaming, some of these structures involve perception, facial recognition, understanding language, and emotional reactions. It has a large number of substructures dedicated to other things as well. The Temporal Lobe is where much of our ability to remember, imagine, and dream resides. When we dream, the Temporal Lobe and Limbic System are involved.
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This will be important when we get to nightmares. Dreams can be very realistic and very persuasive to the dreamer. To make matters worse, I was awake now, leaning back against the bed, laughing aloud as I realized what happened.
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My wife was awakened by my hand and leg motions, and when I leapt out of the bed, diving up into the air only to crash to the floor, hitting my head on the side table, she panicked. It was a very vivid realistic dream! I could hear the engines spool-up, feel the uneven thumping of the landing gear as the aircraft began to gain speed down the runway, and saw the nose lifting as I pulled back on the stick and the runway fell away below. Ready for take-off at the end of the runway, I was cleared for departure. This can make for some spectacular dreams! Recently I had a dream where I was piloting a jet fighter. While we sleep and dream, our brain is working without the benefit of our logic filter. This can create some very interesting associations in our dreams! This hiccup in trying to rationalize our thoughts while sleeping happens because our brains work differently in some respects while we are asleep. When there is a mix-up, our mind will borrow a bit of recollection from something else and slip it into the empty spot it is trying to fill. When we sleep, problem solving can be more difficult than when we are awake because working memory (where thinking goes on) must access short-term memory and long-term memory, as well as other structures in our brain that may be off-line.
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Often, our unconscious mind shifts into problem solving mode while we sleep but is missing a few pieces of the puzzle. It depends on what your unconscious mind is trying to work out. Stress is usually the culprit when this happens. How many times have you awakened in the night with an idea, a solution, an answer and turned over and gone back to sleep, telling yourself you will remember it in the morning…only you don’t! That’s one reason I keep a notepad on the night table beside the bed. It likes balance, calm, and tranquility like a pool of undisturbed water, reflecting mirror-like the peace and balance it needs.ĭreams are also a mechanism for working out solutions while we sleep. Again, it is a physical stimulus our mind requires an explanation for and uses imagination and creativity to produce an answer. Dreams can also be a response to our internal environment: too much pepper on too much pizza we had for dinner that is now talking back to us with discomfort. For example, a noise heard in the night that doesn’t fully wake us up but requires a rational explanation. Dreams can be responses to our external environment. This is where acceptance can be found when we are not accepting of ourselves and we want the dreams and the nightmares to stop.ĭreams are a natural product of our physiology and psychology and play a healthy role in our lives. We have learned some answers lay in the community formed by our pain and being listened to, understood, and taken seriously by those who KNOW. This is the stuff of wet eyes, deep grief, lingering guilt, haunting shame, and very few answers. All of it is difficult because it is not the usual bantering and exaggerated storytelling brothers and sisters-in-arms are known for throughout history. Among siblings and cousins, aunts and uncles, parents and children: it has been an ongoing cross-generational conversation for as long as I can remember. We talk a lot about dreams and nightmares…a lot. Our family tree is inhabited by five generations of combat Veterans, going back to WWI with 153 years of cumulative service acknowledged with 73 combat-related decorations, in addition to the usual collection of campaign ribbons, shooting badges, wings, parachutes, and dolphins. *This is an article from the Summer 2021 issue of Combat Stress