Hello and welcome to the "Sleep and Dream" LIbguide. Dreams/Nightmares is a mystery phenomenal that scientist are yet to determine the cause and the reason behind it. Dreams as well as nightmares had played a significant role the throughout the early stages of human history. In many, different civilization dreams where considered as prophesies or messages from the gods. However, it was not on until the 19th century when scholar, Sigmund Freud started conducting studies of dreams from a psychological perspective. Dreams as well as nightmare are a broad subject, that student can fine interesting if there, studying subjects such as psychology, religion, philosophy, arts and other humanities subjects.
“Dreams are hallucinations that occur during certain stages of sleep. They are strongest during REM sleep, or the rapid eye movement stage, when you may be less likely to recall your dream. Much is known about the role of sleep in regulating our metabolism, blood pressure, brain function, and other aspects of health. But it’s been harder for researchers to explain the role of dreams.”
Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ, A Eunuch’s Dream, 1874. Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How can we separate reality from illusion? What if, to quote from Poe’s poem, ‘All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream’?
One of Poe’s more famous poems, ‘A Dream within a Dream’ muses on the fragility and fleetingness of everything, and asks whether anything we do has any lasting or real effect. As Poe concludes:
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
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