[00:05.65]2005 Text3

[00:08.06]Of all the components of a good night's sleep,

[00:11.03]dreams seem to be least within our control.

[00:14.96]In dreams,

[00:15.77]a window opens into a world

[00:17.68]where logic is suspended and dead people speak.

[00:21.50]A century ago,

[00:23.02]Freud formulated his revolutionary theory

[00:25.86]that dreams were the disguised shadows of

[00:28.69]our unconscious desires and fears;

[00:31.92]by the late 1970s,

[00:34.03]neurologists had switched to thinking of them

[00:36.76]as just "mental noise"

[00:39.09]--the random byproducts of the neuralrepair work

[00:42.32]that goes on during sleep.

[00:44.54]Now researchers suspect that dreams

[00:47.15]are part of the mind's emotional thermostat,

[00:50.28]regulating moods while the brain is "off-line."

[00:54.82]And one leading authority says

[00:57.01]that these intensely powerful mental events

[01:03.72]can be not only harnessed but actually brought

[01:03.44]under conscious control,

[01:05.35]to help us sleep and feel better.

[01:08.78]"It's your dream," says Rosalind Cartwright,

[01:11.92]chair of psychology at Chicago's Medical Center.

[01:15.54]"If you don't like it, change it."

[01:18.66]Evidence from brain imaging supports this view.

[01:22.19]The brain is as active during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep

[01:27.13]--when most vivid dreams occur

[01:29.04]--as it is when fully awake,

[01:31.06]says Dr.Eric Nofzinger at the University of Pittsburgh.

[01:35.60]But not all parts of the brain are equally involved;

[01:39.10]the limbic system (the "emotional brain") is especially active,

[01:44.15]while the prefrontal cortex (the center of intellect

[01:47.52]and reasoning) is relatively quiet.

[01:50.75]"We wake up from dreams happy or depressed,

[01:53.63]and those feelings can stay with us all day,"

[01:56.56]says Stanford sleep researcher Dr. William Dement.

[02:01.39]The link between dreams and emotions shows up

[02:04.64]among the patients in Cartwright's clinic.

[02:07.34]Most people seem to have more bad dreams early in the night,

[02:11.24]progressing toward happier ones before awakening,

[02:14.57]suggesting that they are working through

[02:16.89]negative feelings generated during the day.

[02:20.62]Because our conscious mind is occupied with daily life

[02:24.05]we don't always think about

[02:25.67]the emotional significance of the day's events

[02:28.49]--until, it appears, we begin to dream.

[02:32.80]And this process need not be left to the unconscious.

[02:37.23]Cartwright believes one can exercise conscious control

[02:40.87]over recurring bad dreams.

[02:43.99]As soon as you awaken, identify

[02:46.22]what is upsetting about the dream.

[02:49.29]Visualize how you would like it to end instead;

[02:52.58]the next time it occurs,

[02:54.18]try to wake up just enough to control its course.

[02:58.22]With much practice people can learn to, literally,

[03:01.63]do it in their sleep.

[03:04.29]At the end of the day,

[03:05.91]there's probably little reason to pay attention to

[03:08.52]our dreams at all

[03:09.92]unless they keep us from sleeping

[03:11.95]or "we wake up in a panic," Cartwright says.

[03:15.80]Terrorism, economic uncertainties and general feelings

[03:19.67]of insecurity have increased people's anxiety.

[03:23.79]Those suffering from persistent nightmares

[03:26.62]should seek help from a therapist.

[03:29.04]For the rest of us, the brain has

[03:30.80]its ways of working through bad feelings.

[03:34.24]Sleep--or rather dream--on it

[03:37.47]and you'll feel better in the morning.