Page 140 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysteries of the Mind 121

deprived of REM sleep, a rebound effect occurs. in the February 15, 2002, issue of Archives of
If individuals are not getting their proper share General Psychiatry and provoked criticism
of REM and non-REM rest and are feeling from other sleep experts who stated that the
sleepy, they can become a menace. People who main problem with America’s sleep habits is
have accumulated a large sleep debt are danger- deprivation, not oversleeping.
ous drivers on the highway, for example.
Dr. Patricia Carrington, a Princeton Uni-
Krippner believes that dreaming is as nec- versity psychologist, has expressed her
essary to humans as eating and drinking. Not hypothesis that humankind would be better
only does dreaming process data to keep the served if it followed the natural rhythms, the
brain “in tune,” but there is also evidence that biological alternation of rest and relaxation
a biochemical substance that accumulates dur- that is seen in animals. Only in human beings
ing the day can only be eliminated from the is there such a thing as 17 hours of constant
nervous system during dream periods. Individ- wakefulness.
uals should be just as concerned about receiv-
Many sleep and dream researchers have
ing adequate dream time at night as they are
theorized that one of the reasons why humans
about receiving adequate food during the day.
use drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and other means
Any disturbance that interrupts sleep will
of altering states of consciousness may be to
interfere with dream time, thus leaving the
somehow manipulate the body-mind structure
individual less well prepared—physically and
into obeying the schedule forced upon it—
psychologically—to face the coming day.
rather than permitting it to follow the natural
Alcohol, amphetamines, and barbiturates
cycles and rhythms of life itself. Dr. Jurgen
depress the amount of dreaming an individual
Zulley, psychologist at the Max Planck Insti-
can experience during the night, and users of
tute for Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, has
these drugs should be aware of the fact. Coffee,
found evidence for a four-hour sleep-wake
however, does not seem to depress dream time.
cycle with nap periods at approximately 9:00
Today there are at least 170 sleep clinics A.M., 1:00 P.M., and 5:00 P.M. Zulley feels that
operating in the United States, and their analy- individuals shouldn’t try to combat their nat-
ses cite more than 50 sleep disorders. A general ural drowsiness at these times with coffee
consensus of the researchers at such clinics breaks or with exercise. In his opinion indi-
expresses the opinion that—second only to the viduals should seek to be biologically correct.
common cold—sleep disorders constitute the It would be better for human health, Zulley
most common health complaint. In March advises, if individuals took a short nap or just
2001, the National Sleep Foundation released leaned back in a chair for a bit of relaxation
the results of a poll that revealed that 51 per- rather than reaching for a soft drink or a cup
cent of adults complained of insomnia, the of coffee to keep the mental motors running.
inability to fall into a restful sleep, a few nights
per week over the period of a year; 29 percent Dream researchers also have learned that
said that they had experienced insomnia environment appears to have a marked effect
almost every night over a year’s time. on dreams. One may have unusual dreams
when spending the night in a friend’s home or
Researchers also have noted a mysterious in a motel room. In their series of studies at the
kinship between mental illness and sleep— Maimonides Dream Laboratory, the research
and even longevity and sleep. Daniel Kripke, team found that the subjects’ dreams often
a professor of psychiatry at the University of contained references to the electroencephalo-
California at San Diego, led a study that graph and to the electrodes on their heads,
tracked the sleeping habits of 1.1 million especially during the first night in which they
Americans for six years and concluded that, participated in the study. Charles Tart, one of
contrary to popular belief, people who sleep the nation’s most eminent sleep and dream
six or seven hours per night live longer than researchers, suggests that dream content also
those who sleep eight or more. The controver- will differ with the demands placed upon the
sial study, the largest of its kind, was published dreamer; dreams that are written down at

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