Unit 5 Dreams
Are You a Dreamer?
1 Dreams — why do we have them? Do they mean anything? Is there such a thing as a dream in which the events seen by the dreamer come true? Such questions have interested people for thousands of years. Scientific advances in the past few decades have revealed more about the physical process of sleep, but they still don't offer any final answers to the many questions about dreams that continue to puzzle us.
2 Everyone dreams—it's just that some of us can't remember doing so. Recordings of human brain waves show that we all go into dream mode when we fall asleep. We dream for most of the night, but we're only able to remember our dreams if we happen to wake up while we are still in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. This is when we dream. We have four or five REM stages of sleep during the night, the first occurring about 90 minutes after we fall asleep. After that, our dreaming periods recur every 90 minutes and last between 15 to 45 minutes, getting longer as the night progresses.
3 The main purpose of sleeping (apart from giving us rest) may be to allow us to dream—to review our lives, our worries and hopes in a totally different way, and to get an unconscious view of ourselves, getting rid of material from our memories that we no longer need.
4 Some dreams may have a simple physiological cause. Dreaming of walking on hot coals, for example, may well be caused by sleeping with your feet too close to a heater. And the frustrating dream in which you try to run but your legs won't move may be explained by bedding that is too tight. Anyone who sleeps through their alarm may well dream of doorbells or telephones ringing. All are simple examples of how the unconscious works with our conscious mind to guide and advise us.
5 But such physiological explanations are not enough to tell us why we dream. Some people believe that dreams are total nonsense, merely the result of the misfiring of electrical impulses in the brain, while on the other hand, some read great importance into even the simplest of dreams.
梦见喝墨水6 Some dreams reflect inner fears that are instantly recognizable. Dreaming of losing your job or house can reflect real fears, even if they are only subconscious. Most of us have dreamed that we had to take a final exam for a difficult course, which we had never taken, or in which we had done poorly.
7 But what of the dreams that do not have such an obvious meaning? For centuries, both men and women have sought the answers in so-called dream dictionaries, possibly the oldest of which dates back to 5000 BC. According to these dictionaries, a dream about drinking wine meant a short life, whereas a dream about drinking water predicted a long life.
8 By AD 200, dream dictionaries had lost none of their popularity, and the ancient Greek Artemidorus wrote a five-volume interpretation of more than 3,000 dreams, listing such symbols as right hand (meaning father), left hand (meaning mother), and dolphin (a good omen).
9 Today, there are countless books offering dream interpretations in libraries and booksh
ops. They're as popular as ever with dream enthusiasts, but most experts warn that they should be read with care. Psychoanalyst and author Kenneth Saunders explains, "Dreams are closely tied up with an individual's mind and analysis is so open to mistakes or errors. I believe you can only discover the true meaning of a dream if you know the person who had the dream."
你做梦吗？
1 梦.我们为什么会做梦？梦有意义吗？真的有梦中所见的事成为现实这种事吗？几千年来这些问题一直让人们感兴趣。过去几十年的科学发展对睡眠的自然过程有了较多的认识.然而对于与梦有关的诸多问题依然没有提供最终的答案.这些问题还要继续困惑我们。
2 人人都做梦——只不过有些人不记得做过梦罢了。人类脑电波的记录显示我们所有人入睡后就进入梦境。整个夜晚的大多数时间我们都在做梦.但只有当我们处在REM (眼睛迅速转动) 睡眠阶段时醒来.才会记住所做的梦。眼睛迅速转动阶段便是我们做梦的时候。每晚我们有四、五个REM睡眠阶段.第一次出现在入睡后的90分钟左右。此后.梦期每90分钟复现一次.每次持续15到45分钟.持续时间随着夜晚的深入逐渐增长。
3 睡眠的主要目的（除让我们休息外）也许就是让我们做梦——让我们以一种截然不同的方式回顾我们的生活、我们的忧虑和希望.以及在潜意识中观察自我.把不再需要的资料从记忆中剔除。
4 有些梦可能是由简单的生理原因引起的。例如.梦到在灼热的煤块上行走很可能是因为睡眠时脚太靠近取暖器。而梦到想跑但两腿却动弹不了这种令人沮丧的境况.也许是被子裹得太紧的缘故。闹铃响了而依然熟睡的人则很可能会梦到门铃或电话铃响。所有这些都是潜意识和意识共同引导和启示我们的简单例子。
5 不过这些从生理的角度进行的解释尚不足以说明为什么我们会做梦。有些人认为梦纯粹是无稽之谈.仅仅是人脑中电脉冲无的放矢的结果.然而.有些人则认为最简单的梦都具有重要的含义。
6 有些梦反映的内心忧虑是立即可以识别的。梦见失去工作或者没了房子.也许是反映了真实的忧虑.即便这些忧虑只是潜意识的。我们大多数人都梦见过必须参加一门很难的课程的期末考试.也许是一门从未修过的.或许是学得很糟的课程。
7 但是.有一些梦并没有这样明显的含义.这是怎么回事呢？多个世纪以来.男男女女都从所谓的解梦字典中寻答案.这类字典最早的可以追溯到公元前5000年。根据这些字典.梦见喝酒意味着短命.而梦见喝水则预示长寿。
8 一直到公元200年.解梦字典受欢迎的程度仍丝毫未减。当时.古希腊的阿尔米多鲁斯写了一部长达五卷的书.解析了3000多个梦.列举了一系列的象征.诸如右手（表示父亲）.左手（表示母亲）.以及海豚（表示好兆头）。
9 如今.图书馆和书店里有无数的书籍为梦做解析。对于那些热衷于探讨梦的人来说.它们依然深受欢迎。然而.多数专家警告说.读这些书时要非常谨慎。心理分析家兼作家肯尼思·桑德斯解释说：“梦与每个人的思维密切相关.因此分析往往容易出现错误和偏差。我认为.只有当你了解了做梦的人时.才能发现梦的真正含义。”
Dreams That Came True
[1] On the night of November 7, 1965, Mary Daughtery had a nightmare. She cannot forget that dream nor can her husband, George. She tells of it like this: “I dreamed I was on a hill
at night. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled. Then I saw a bright light in the sky. There was a loud impact and I heard screams everywhere. ”
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