Looking for a low-cost path to self-knowledge? A way to mine your subconscious①for clues to your motivations, desires and fears? No need to have years of treatment or analysis. Just look to your dreams.
“You can ignore your dreams, but you are really doing harm to yourself,” says Lauri Quinn Loewenberg. “If so, you’re letting red flags pass you by, letting great ideas pass you by.”
Some sleep researchers believe dreams are more directly related to our moods and emotions and can serve as tools to self-understanding. Dreams occur during the REM (rapid eye movement) cycles of sleep each night. For adults, that means about every 90 minutes. The first period of REM sleep may be short, 5 to 10 minutes, followed by longer periods, finally reaching an hour or more in the fourth or fifth period.
When people are dreaming, brain scans show a lot of activities. The brain is online during dreams. The experiences you have during the day are connected during dream sleep. People we know or experiences we’ve had at different times in our lives may be different in the same dream.
AmyBeth Gilstrap has had the same recurring② dream that annoyed her since Hurricane Katrina drove her and her daughter and friends out of New Orleans. Ms. Gilstrap says, “It is always spies. My job is to get people to some place.” She’s certain the dream is related to her effort in the hurricane to help several families leave. Sometimes her cats also are part of that dream. That’s because she went back into New Orleans, before it was allowed, to rescue her cats.
Today, through brain scans scientists have known that the parts of the brain that control emotion and long-term memory are active during REM sleep.
1. The passage is mainly to tell readers ______.
A. dreams are mainly caused by hard work B. dreams can offer us key to self-knowledge
C. dreams are only activities of our brains D. how dreams help us solve our problems
2. According to the words from Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, ______.
A. dreams can make you feel badly ill B. you often have red flags in your dreams
C. dreams will make your life colorful D. you may get great help from your dreams
3. According to the passage, the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 5 refers to ______.
A. Ms. Gilstrap’s dream B. Ms. Gilstrap’s job C. Hurricane Katrina D. New Orleans
4. According to the passage, when you are dreaming at night, ______.
A. your dream is connected with your work that day
B. the dream will generally last about 5 to 10 minutes
C. the longer dream should be in the later part of the sleep
D. your eyes will still move slowly during the time
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