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A
Glossary of Dream and Sleep-Related Terms
Apnea
- a disorder that
affects breathing during sleep. Apnea can be life-threatening by cutting
off your breath and putting strain on the heart.
Bes
- the ancient Egyptian god of
dreams
Bruxism
- the
grinding of the teeth during sleep.
Circadian
Rhythm - the synchronized action of the body's impulse to stay awake
and fall asleep.
Conscious
- the waking mind policed by ethics, morality, rights and wrong. It
self-imposes rules, restrictions, and regulates action and behavior
Defense
Mechanism - a psychological term used to describe ways in which we
protect ourselves from fear and anxiety.
Deja
Vu - the peculiar
feeling that a place, situation, person, action, or conversation is
familiar and has already been experienced.
Ego
- from the Freudian school of thought, the
conscious part of one's personality that experiences the external world.
Enuresis
- bedwetting. It is unrelated
to dreaming as it occurs during non-REM stage of sleep where dream
activity is low or non-existent..
False
Awakening -
a sensation of waking and going about your morning routine when in fact
you are still dreaming. Occurs more frequently in lucid dreamers.
Hypnogogic
State - the
neurological mechanism in our brain that temporarily disables voluntary
muscle movement when we are dreaming. It is also commonly referred to as
"REM Paralysis".
Id
- from the Freudian school of thought, the
unconscious part of personality centered around pleasure and desire .
Insomnia-
difficulty in falling asleep. waking up
repeatedly or very early.
Latent
Content - the
underlying meaning behind the symbols in a dream.
Lucid
Dreaming - the
ability to consciously alter the content and control the actions in your
dreams.
Manifest
Content - the
literal story and symbols of a dream
Morpheus
- known in Greek mythology as
the god of dreams.
Myclonic
Jerk - sudden
muscle spasms in extremities.
Narcolepsy
- a sleep disorder
characterized by being able to fall asleep without warning and immediately
going into REM.
Night
Terrors - severe
sleep disturbances occurring in non-REM sleep that produce feelings of
deep fear, panic and anxiety. Night terrors are not categorized as dreams.
Nocturnal
Emissions - also
known as wet dreams and occurs in males at around puberty. It is often,
but not necessarily accompanied by a sexually explicit dream.
NREM
- stands for non Rapid Eye
Movement,
Oneirocritica
- derived from Greek
terminology to mean "dream interpretation".
Prodromal
Dream - a dream
that signals that an impending disease may afflict your body.
REM
- standing for Rapid Eye
Movement, it describes the stage of sleep where our eyes move rapidly back
and forth. This is where the majority of dreaming occurs.
Somnambulism
- sleep walking. This phenomenon
most likely occurs in those between the ages of 10 to 14 who are
under tremendous stress.
Somniloquy
- more commonly known as sleep
talking - talking out loud while asleep. People who are under stress tend
to be more likely to talk in their sleep.
Superego
- from the Freudian school of thought, the
censor which enforces moral codes for the ego and suppresses or blocks
unacceptable impulses from the id.
Unconscious
- thoughts, memories,
impulses, desires, and feelings which we are not aware of but influence
our emotions and behavior in some subtle way.
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