# data[].attributes.body
How does the past impact the experience of dreaming? How can a dream predict future events ? De ja vu?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
0:00 / 3:07•Watch full video

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Cycles of (REM and NREM sleep), Vaeenma, Depositphotos

# data[].attributes.body
A diagram depicting the stages of sleep as discussed in reference to memory consolidation and the content of the dreaming itself.

# data[].attributes.body
Dune. 2021. Denis Villenuve. Venice: Warner Bros Prictures. Film.

Fisher, Charles,  Byrne, Joseph and Edwards Adele. 1970. A Psychological Study of Nightmares. New York: Journal of the American Pshycoanalytic association.https://doi.org/10.1177/000306517001800401.

Gabel, Stewart. 1991. Monitoring the State of Self in Dreams. New York: Psychological Contemporary Taught.

Selterman, Dylan F., Adela I. Apetroaia, Suzanne Riela, and Arthur Aron. “Dreaming of You: Behavior and Emotion in Dreams of Significant Others Predict Subsequent Relational Behavior.” Social Psychological and Personality Science 5, no. 1 (January 2014): 111–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550613486678.

Payne, J. D., & Nadel, L. (2004). Sleep, dreams, and memory consolidation: the role of the stress hormone cortisol. Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), 11(6), 671–678. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.77104

Hammond, Corrydon. 2008. What is Neurotherapy? Journal of Neurotherapy 10. https://doi.org/10.1300/J184v10n04_04.

Inside Out. 2015. Pete Docter. Cannes: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Film.

Leslie Halpern. 2003. In Dreams on Film: the Cinematic Struggle between Art and Science. North Carolina: McFarland and Inc Publishers.

Marder, Elissa. 2013. Real Dreams. The Southern Journal of Philosophy 51, no. 1: 196-213. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12026.

Marzbani, Hengameh, Marateb, Hamid and Mansourian, Marjan. 2016. Neurofeedback: a comprehensive review on system design, methodology and clinical applications. Basic and Clinical neuroscience 7(2).  https://doi.org/10.15412/J.BCN.03070208.

Nobodys daughter Haewon. 2013. Hong Sang-soo. South-Korea: Jeonwonsa Films. Film.

Payne, Jessica and Nadel, Lynn. 2004. Sleep, dreams, and memory consolidation: The role of the stress hormone cortisol. Tucson: The university of Arizona, Department of Phsycology.

Philip Gerrans. 2014. Pathologies of Hyperfailierty in Dreams, Desalusion and Déjà vu. Adelaide: The university of Adelaide Phsycological department. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00097.

Selterman, Dylan, Apetroaia, Adela , Riela, Suzanne and Aron, Arthur. 2014. Dreaming of You: Behavior and Emotion in Dreams of Significant Others Predict Subsequent Relational Behavior. Social Psychological and Personality Science 5, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550613486678.

Sigmund, Freud. 1899. The Interpretation of Dreams. United States of America: Basic Books.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is Neurofeedback? ✅ Brain training for adults and childrens

# data[].attributes.body
Thus, our research project which intended to research within the context pop culture, how do dreams engage with past memories and/or manifest events of the future?, has been successful in delving into the topic. It can be concluded that historically, research suggested that there is a relationship between futurity and dream, yet simultaneously there is also a relationship between the past and dreams. This historic research is further supported by more recent research which uses qualitative sleep studies to determine what stage of sleep the brain is most active in and how that correlates with the large amounts of brain activity seen in the EEG’s whilst the individual is dreaming. This knowledge of the physiological and historical understanding of dreams allowed greater understanding and interpretation of how this is reflected in pop culture. Primarily, Dune (2021) delves into and represents the previously discussed relationship between futurity and dreams and in contrast Disney’s ‘Inside Out’ (2015) presents an intertwined relationship between dreams and previously formed memories of past experiences. In this way, our project has concluded that there is relationships between both dreams and the past, and dreams and the future. Yet, there are significant areas that require further investigation. The physiological understanding of dreams could be further developed to build a greater understanding of exactly how we as humans can form connections linking the past and future with dreams.

# data[].attributes.headline
DREAMS AS A MERGED REALITY OF IMAGINATION, MEMORIES AND FUTURE MANIFISTATIONS:

# data[].attributes.subject
DREAMS AS A MERGED REALITY OF IMAGINATION, MEMORIES AND FUTURE MANIFISTATIONS:

# data[].attributes.body
Drawing the ideas together to explore the part of the research question “...how do dreams engage with past memories and/or manifest events of the future?” One can theorize that dreams exist to consolidate memory and information in the brain and can be influenced by recent memory and “previously stored knowledge” (Payne and Nadel 2004) which often appears in NREM dreaming in the early hours of the morning. The content of these dreams can predispose us to particular behavior in the following days based on the content and people involved in said dream, “affecting relationship behavior” (Selterman et al. 2014). These findings not only suggest that the past can be present in dreaming, but that the content of dreams can have a real world impact on the future.

A conecpt by Allan Hobbs discusses in ‘Pathologies of Hyperfailierty in Dreams, Desalusion and Déjà vu’ (Gerran 2014) is hyperfamiliarity. This connects past memories and future expectations in dreams, through mixing familiar faces and personalities, misbinding identity and appearance. Gerran (2014) further discusses Dumhoffs idea explaining dreaming as a cognitive stimulation, which creates an introspective state of the person in dreams, which solves future problems and helps organize the past, present and future. ‘In Dreams on Film: the Cinematic Struggle between Art and Science’ (Halpern 2003), the reason to portray dreams as part of a character on film is to create familiarity and a connection between the characters and the viewers. This happens due to dreams often happening in vivid characteristics, making it easy to connect on certain events, for example the feeling om humiliation, longing for someone or laughing. Dreams in films are also a way of bringing the viewers into a consciousness of the world and their own experiences, as well as making them question what reality and dreams are and their impact on your own life.

# data[].attributes.body
The second aspect of our research focuses on dreams as a vision of the past. Psychological research examined in ‘Real Dreams’ (Marder, 2013) identifies dreams as “radically composite psychic productions that are fabricated out of a heterogeneous mixture of inputs that include (but are not limited to) memory traces''. The key term here is ‘memory traces’ which suggests that dreams are a reflection or projection of events and narrative that have been previously experienced and stored as a memory. However, as a retelling, or recount of the past, these dreams are not immune to distortions which may change the content or narrative of dreams according to the unconscious mind’s desires. In this way, dreams provide privileged access to the world that would have been otherwise unavailable to the dreamer because you cannot change the past, but you can change how narratives of the past are retold by applying distortions - in this case distorting dreams. But it is conceptualized that ideological distortions of social reality are ‘strictly homologous’ to the distortions that are operative within the dream-work.

Dreams, to an extent, represent events from the past and can be used to predict the future. In a 2013 study, ‘Dreaming of You: Behavior and Emotion in Dreams of Significant Others Predict Subsequent Relational Behavior’ (Selterman et al., 2014), researchers observed that “certain types of content (e.g., infidelity) and emotions (e.g. jealousy” in participants’ dream reports were associated with less intimate feeling and more conflict with their partners on subsequent days.” In this way, by observing the content of dreams, we can predict the types of interactions an individual will have with others and their mood, thus predicting the future predisposed by dreams. For example, dreams containing conflict predicted greater conflict in following days, which demonstrates that dreams can impact our mood in the real world, bearing a real world impact.

Dreams, to an extent, also engage with past memories. In a study called ‘Sleep, dreams, and memory consolidation: The role of the stress hormone cortisol’ (Payne and Nadel 2004), it was shown that “episodic memories”, similar to the real world to emerge in dreaming with more abstract dreaming as well. This study identifies two times in the sleep cycle where dreams occur: REM and NREM dreaming. REM dreams are identified as a time where the brain consolidates “procedural memories and some types of emotional information” (Payne and Nadel 2004) where memories of episodic past experiences rarely occur but allows for more abstract dreaming. However, NREM dreaming states (in deeper sleep: stages 2-4 of the sleep cycle) demonstrate more instances of “explicit, episodic memory consolidation”(Payne and Nadel 2004) where memories from past experiences and events (usually more recent events) occur. It can be explained that the real world example of memories of the past infiltrating memories which is often seen in film, is often demonstrated in NREM stages of the sleep cycle and occur more intensely in the earlier hours of the morning where these stages are longer lasting.

This concept is shown in the movie ‘Inside Out’ (2015), where everyday the memories created are being transferred through the dream production before entering the memory storage facility. Different emotions controls and overlook the dreams each day, which also leads to memories being retold from different perspectives depending on what emotions are present. In ‘Inside Out’ (2015), the main character Riley is seen heavily sleeping whenever she has experienced a day contained with good memories and waking up when the dreams are turning sad or scary, showing memories that she does not want to relive. In the dream production the memories are also disorted in order to create a solution to the problem and the memories from the day are mixed with characters or/and places from long term memories.

# data[].attributes.body
As already discussed, dreams do have a significant influence on our past experiences and do have an effect on the nervous system and the unconsciousness of a person, which leads to dreams affecting future choices. Since dreams are based on real-life mixed with imagination, it does have a real-world impact. Dreams are already being used in medical treatment for mental health problems, epilepsy, ADHD, brain injury, and other health conditions. One form this is done is through neurofeedback. Neurofeedback is biofeedback where the patient needs to respond to their own brainwaves and other electrical activity in the nervous system (Hammond 2008). This works by having a film played in front of a patient connected to an EEG apparat and by this tracking irregularities from the screen shrinking and/or the sound lowering creating interruptions in the movie, forcing the brain to respond to fix these. The brain is then awarded when keeping the regular brainwave pattern, by not having any abruptions. This brings abnormal slow or fast rate brainwaves into the regular spectrum (Hammond 2008). By this, the brain of the patient learns to track its own irregular brain patterns and by this, the patient will feel better and function better in the normal range throughout the day. It betters the cognitive abilities of the individual (Marzbani, Marateb and Mansourian 2016). This creates more happiness in a person’s life and by this they are able to enjoy more moments as well as comprehend and process situations and events throughout the day, making falling asleep and staying asleep easier and limiting abruptions in the sleep cycles throughout the night. Meaning that a person going through neurofeedback will have more good dreams from having better days and more regular brain patterns leading to them releasing more melatonin and oxytocin, which strengthen social bonds and provide emotional stability (Hammond 2008).

When following a neurofeedback treatment plan, patients normally report vivid dreams, which is a wished outcome as it helps balance the brain throughout the sleep cycle (Marzbani, Marateb and Mansourian 2016). This shows how dreams have a real-world impact in the treatment of health problems, which helps patients increase the number of good events and social connections in their life, creating more good dreams, leading to people generally being happier, more interactive and more engaged in what they are doing (Hammond 2008). This will again create better social spaces and be able to create a greater understanding of situations and people from being more emotionally stable. Neurofeedback is an important example showing how the pop culture we engage with, the social connections throughout the day, the emotions we feel and the dreams we have all connect together and impact each other, therefore stabilizing every part of the day is important to function and comprehend daily life.

As described previously dreams are following memories from previous events mixed together with an imaginative aspect and wishful aspect of what you want to happen, in a way manifesting the future. Dreams affect emotions in similar ways that movies affect emotions, and by this what movie you want to watch, further affecting your emotions by deciding on the dreams you have following it (Halpern 2003). This means that movies, emotions, and dreams work together in a loop and are all relevant parts of deciding what pop culture becomes popular and what does not. An example of this is the massive popularity growth of dystopian and psychological thrillers in periods of disaster, pandemics, war, and other major negative impactful events in society through the last decade. During covid-19, Squid Game became the top viewed tv-show in over 90 countries, based on the survival of the fittest, drawing connections to what the mutual feeling of the community was at the time. Another example is the general increasing catastrophe movies and more conflict due to environmental aspects instead of power struggle, showing the contemporary problem change from the war in the 20th century to climate change being the major problem in the 21st century. From these movies, we also have predictions, where the movie releases an event that some years later happen in real life. This manifistation from movies happen in similar ways manifestation in dreams happen, where the exact events and time is unsure, however the outcome and place are real. This manifestation is a way of alerting and preparing for the future and a way of being ready of the unknown (Halpern 2003).

In society this is both a way of acknowledging the common feeling of hopelessness and unawerenss, and as a way of understanding, accepting, and processing unwanted world events. It is also a way of creating hope and coping with stressful situations. For example when watching scary movies or stressful movies, when we go to sleep the brain will instead of working through the emotions from the day in form of dreams, have its fight or flight mode activated, causing stress and fear, which triggers nightmares (Fisher, Byrne and Edwards 1970). This will instead of calming the body down and experiencing good memories in the form of dreams, bring back past trauma in your sleep. Nightmares are also another way of experiencing complicated emotions and working through the full specters of emotions rather than only the happy emotions. In some ways this is helpful in acknowledging that life is not always good and that it is important to work through a specter of emotions and events in order to be able to connect future events with past events, however this is further creating emotions during the day of stress and anxiousness, which lead to pop-culture being created on these feelings, and from this, the circle continues.

# data[].attributes.body
Further examining Freud’s ‘Interpretations of dreams’ by Marder (2013), focuses on two aspects of dream interpretation, dreams as predictions of the future and dreams as reflections of the past. Perhaps the most intriguing idea here is dreams as a manifestation of the future, simultaneously this idea is also one of the most obscure and resistant conceptual problems found within dreams. The relationship between dreams and futurity was commonly accepted in the Ancient World as the purpose of dreams was to foretell the future (Marder, 2013). It is interesting how this ties in with our question, the notion that in the Ancient World the mental narratives (dreams) were thought to hold future events, complements the previously discussed evidence found in pop-culture which also depicts dreams as a manifestation of the future.

The term manifestation - an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something abstract or theoretical, allows us to further delve into how dreams engage with the future. Marder’s (2013) examination of such topics resulted in it being theorized that instead of dreams precisely manifesting the future, dream set the scene, time and place, which leads us into the future. For instance, a dream experienced by a student, is set at school during typical school hours, now the student will be at school during school hours in the future and therefore we could say that the time and place was predicted by the dream, therefore acting as a doorway into the future. However, analysis of Freud’s ‘Interpretations of dreams’ (1899) implies not only that any future that could be foretold by a dream, it in fact would not really be a vision of the future because it would merely be a programmatic and predetermined implementation of a past prediction.

So it can be concluded that historically dreams have been thought to engage with manifesting the future (Marder, 2013), this concept is reflected in present-day pop-culture one example of this is seen in the movie Dune. In Dune (2021), dreams play a crucial role in serving the narrative as well as the deeper themes within the film. The main character Paul Atreides has dreams or ‘visions’  as they are referred to which guide his actions and choices. Paul has vivid dreams and visions about people and events on the inhospitable desert planet of Arrakis. His dreams are prescient glimpses of events to come, a manifestation of different potential outcomes within the future. However, similarly to Marder’s findings he can scarcely make sense of the dreams and visions that he experiences throughout the film and it is more vivid visions that let him see possible futures – likely outcomes to different decisions – but not concrete outcomes. What more, like any cryptic image, these visions can be interpreted in various ways, meaning that when they do manifest, it might not be in the way he originally anticipated. This connects back to Freud’s (1899) interpretation that dreams open-up previous emotions and it is the choices that are based on previous experiences that in the end leads him into the future. At the beginning of Dune (2021), it’s mentioned that Paul has dreams and visions that typically come true in future events. He confesses this fact to the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, and it’s shown on several different occasions. In the novel, Paul’s visions are described as being incomplete. At one point, Herbert explains his prescience as being like a person descending into a valley, where things directly in front of and around him are visible, but where much remains hidden. One great instance of this is when Paul fights the Fremen Jamis, who challenges him to a death duel. In an earlier vision, Paul saw Jamis as a friend – someone who promised to teach Paul the ways of the desert. That scene never transpires in the real world of Dune, but it could be argued that, by forcing Paul to take his first life, Jamis did in fact show him the true, hard, violent nature of the desert of Arrakis. Paul’s Dune powers and abilities don’t always make perfectly clear sense, but that’s by design. He sees possible futures, but not everything he sees comes true, and not everything that comes true happens according to his dreams. Plus, some of his visions are of events incredibly far in the future, which is part of why they don’t take place in the world of the movie. The way Dune present dreams in the way of visions, being vivid and not completely clear closely relates to several contemporary studies of dreams and build up under the argument that dreams are working as visions of the future, showing the opportunities you have going forward and where the dreams shows outcomes that will happen, but not the road of how it happens.

In the article ‘Monitoring the State of Self in Dreams’ by Stewart Gabel (1991) it is discussed that dreams are used as an opportunity to experiment with the outcome of different emotional responses, without any form of censorship. Experiencing various emotions freely through dreams therefore provides a sense of purpose. Meaning that the event in itself will not play out the same way in the future however the purpose of the event in the dream and reason for why you had a dream about it will be fulfilled. Another pop-culture example is ‘Nobodys daughter Haewon’ (2017), where we see the dreams and real life experiences happening intertwined, makin it hard to tell the difference. However, the dreams are leading the plot towards a better future, holding both wishes and possibilities, but also limits and responsibilities. The outcome and emotions in the dreams are the same as in the real life events in the movie, however it outplays itself in the real life more sheltered and censored and not happening in the same order or the same way. This movie is an example for how dreams are there to bring a sese of purpose and driving force in life, and by this manifests the future. It does not give a clear answear or a clear event, but possibilities and the ability to think through responses and emotions that you might experience in real life.

# data[].attributes.body
To begin our research, we examined some historical understandings and interpretations of dreams. Sigmund Freud’s ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ (1899) gave developed and well articulated insights into dreams, a focus highlighted in our research question.

It immediately became apparent that while navigating such a far-reaching and complex topic like dreams, that it is vital the idiomatic quality of dreams is acknowledged because it makes the subject difficult to navigate and examination often results in inconclusive arguments. It is also important to emphasize that due to the inconclusive nature of dream interpretations, that much of the theory surrounding dreams and dreaming is merely theorized due to no significant method to interpret dreams without bias or subjectivity.

Freud discusses in great depth the idea that dreams produce meaning in a manner that is unlike any other recognised mode of expression. Consequently, because dreams have this unique communicative quality it is perhaps difficult to determine the “true” meaning behind dream narratives. As a collective, the meaning of dreams is further troublesome because the experience and narrative of dreams is so individual and subjective to the person who is dreaming. No two dreams as exactly alike, therefore no two interpretations of dreams be alike. So perhaps, we have to make extremely generalized conclusions regarding the interpretation of dreams due to how exclusive these mental narratives are to the individual.

The next point to clarify is where do the narratives of dreams originate from? Freud (1899, pg. 213) briefly suggests that “the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind,” suggesting that dreams are an animation of the unconscious minds thoughts. In the article ‘Monitoring the State of Self in Dreams’ (2021) it is further discussed that the unconscious nature of the human experiences captured in dreams, is a temporary psychological state. Through this state, mind wandering occurs within the brain and always leads back to a path of taught processing in order to create a feeling of purpose and understanding.

# data[].attributes.body
Dreams and dreaming is a universal human experience, however what the content of the dream captures and to what extent you remember the dream the next morning varies among individuals. Pop-culture - modern popular culture transmitted via the mass media and aimed particularly at younger people - has developed to become a media source people interact with daily and it plays an important role in manipulating our emotions and thoughts. In this research project we have therefore decided to research within pop culture contexts, how do dreams engage with past memories and/or manifest events of the future?