Re (2): truth & dreams

Hello,

As a much later though no less valid postscript, I discovered something truly interesting about the link between dreams and depression. In particular, I was feeling rather depressed one evening and a friend in whom I had confided "checked up" on me the next morning, sending me a link to a website that appeared to be very balanced and thought-provoking. But before I go there, let me say more here.

It is not uncommon during certain dreams for me to consciously be aware of my dreaming process. For the second time recently, I was consciously aware during the dream process and it seemed my mind was assimilating information from the events of the previous day and week (ranging from my academic learning to the various levels of informal interaction common to everybody) and methodically prioritizing it under some sort of hierarchical structure. In fact, the repetition in my dream seemed to be something like systematically taking pieces of a puzzle one by one and fitting them over and over again in however many of their various and possible combinations until each one finally settled perfectly into place, piece after piece after laborious piece. Thus, the repetitive dream—(in this case likened to taking a puzzle one piece at a time and methodically testing each piece against every available slot)—seems to involve processing the event in question until finally assimilating the knowledge or feeling represented by this event into all the previous experiences in the mind. Since I have already suggested that much of our dreams are emotional in nature, often such dreams seem to have some kind of "coming to terms" about them, though I have also noticed that my dreams (and the two I have in mind at the moment in particular) seem to file seemingly emotionally neutral information (such as text-based learning) according to a logical structure still understood by my waking mind. But perhaps this is the wrong concept; perhaps it is not so much a case of "still understood" as it is imposed by the structures of my conscious mind, as though dreams were servants working all night to make preparations for their master's easy employment during the day: assembling the forks and spoons just so, so that he might easily find and use them for his morning meal. Thus, perhaps the night servants accept the orders of their daytime master, bowing to his method of organizing information, intent only on best arranging it while he is resting at night for his conscious use the next day. It was of this process I was thinking when I wrote to my friend of my evening's rest:


Ironically, the e-mail to which I was replying contained a link to the afore mentioned website that paired aspects of depression to dreaming, a link I had not yet investigated except to glance over when I had written the above. She also indicated in her e-mail: "One thing that struck me as we talked was that depression seems to go hand-in-hand with the creative mind." I believe that the website, my previous observations above, and her comment all go together—we’ll see how well previous dreams have clustered my thoughts for ease and coherence (wink). In brief, depressed people have higher levels of emotional stimulation and (as we will see in a moment) longer periods of REM-sleep. It would stand to reason that a mind thus overly active would have many strange and unusual things pass through it and a need to "purge" itself of those things, hence a sense of urgency given to such a mind's innate need of "self-expression": what in actually amounts to cathartic self-cleansing. In other words, a depressed person with an overstimulated mind seeks release from the many and terrible demons with which he wrestles: thus, his output is not only edgier than the norm but much more prodigious as well, for he seeks release and restoration—he seeks redemption. Now then, specifically what did the link my friend sent suggest about depression and dreaming?


In this way, the "loop" becomes complete and closure results. But of course, as the article from which this came bears out (Understanding Depression: A New Breakthrough), sometimes when a person is depressed, the loop is that much longer and larger and it requires many more acts in the metaphoric theatre of the mind. However, there are only so many hours in a given night's rest, and the creative genius (otherwise known as the depressed person) must sit through many more scenes before his loop is closed—a process that obviously takes a lot more time. However, if he is constrained by the ordinary world of mortals, chained to his alarm clock and schedule just as they are, he may find that the play he watched last night was inherently less satisfying. Or, to put it succinctly, the same amount of sleep is taken up with many more hours of REM and not nearly enough hours of deep sleep, so he awakes weary and unrested, wondering why he feels so tired and drained. Sometimes, perhaps, the drama that he watched in his sleep was so exciting that he is fueled with a sort of nervous energy, the same way a man would be if his morning coffee were laced with methamphetamine, a sort of mania resulting. But borrowed energy takes a toll and the cycle can become perpetuated if something is not done, namely, according to Understanding Depression: A New Breakthrough, learning how to change his thinking patterns.

Hopefully all of this fits a few more mental pieces into the puzzle for you, defragging the dream-drive and helping to discontinue any depressive tendencies you might happen to have. :)

God bless,
Eric

• Re(2): truth & dreams - By Sara March 12, 2005 at 06:31:22 AM
  • Re(3): truth & dreams - By Eric March 12, 2005 at 11:22:27 AM
    • Re(4): truth & dreams - By Sara March 12, 2005 at 05:12:12 PM
      • Re(5): truth & dreams - By Karen March 12, 2005 at 07:58:59 PM