Horizon, a BBC2 programme, had an episode called 'Why do we dream?'
It's absolutely fascinating, but, for some obscure reason, the programme makers have decided to dilute the science with frightening, horror film images of dreaming and sleep; long corridors that warp slightly with the view of the camera, slightly transparent images projected onto the twitching faces of unconsciously sleeping bodies, and thrashing, shouting dream-ridden somnambulists staring with unseeing vacant sight in the grey-green glare of the nightsight camera. Even the scientists themselves are introduced with Stoker levels of menace- close ups on eyeballs and twitching, blurred images, as though they'd somehow been beamed down from the nearest passing spaceship, and abandoned to analyse our dreams.
There's no doubt that dreaming can leave people feeling vulnerable, but that's only half of the story. Maybe even a quarter of the story. Humans must sleep or they die. And when your relationship with sleep becomes complicated, in any way, that has a massive impact on your life.
When I was a child, I walked in my sleep. I also talked, sang, debated, screamed, and now know, having done a little research as an adult, suffered from night terrors. Dreaming occurs when your brain is asleep but active, but your body is totally paralysed to stop you acting things out. On a very, very basic level, sleep walking is when the 'paralysed' bit doesn't work, so you act out your sleeping brain's commands; night terrors are the opposite, when the 'paralysed' bit works just fine, it's just your brain isn't asleep- in fact, you're paralysed but awake. I grew out of that, and out of the sleep walking, and, don't get me wrong, my complicated sleep patterns were dealt with very positively by my parents, who had a light touch with my sleep walking; even as a teenager, they never made it a problem, it was more interesting than stressful.
That said, I hate going to sleep. The one thing I didn't grow out of was the nightmares. I have vivid and distressing dreams; sometimes they're violent or extreme enough to be nightmares, sometimes they're just intensely upsetting. I often wake shouting, or crying real tears, distressed and frightened, and very disorientated.
So I was fascinated to learn from this programme that REM sleep, previously believed to be the powerhouse of our dreams, may be only the centre for very negative dreams, with other, more positive dreams occurring during non-REM sleep. And that people who have suffered from depression being more prone to REM sleep in a night than people who aren't depressed.
This is good news. It's interesting, factual, exploratory, and very, very helpful. I feel calm and reassured by the research and messages it is discussing.
So who on earth decided to fill the programme with images so frightening, so reminiscent of nightmares, so likely to recur during the night, that I've had to turn it off, and... and... well I don't admit this easily, wait until there is someone else here to watch it with me... so I'm not alone.
A good, REALLY good BBC programme, for me made too difficult by the need to tap into the popular astrological, medium, palm reading view of dreams, through their choice of filler images and background music. So the people who really need to see it, have to look away. I could make comparisons, but... I wouldn't want to distress anyone.
It's absolutely fascinating, but, for some obscure reason, the programme makers have decided to dilute the science with frightening, horror film images of dreaming and sleep; long corridors that warp slightly with the view of the camera, slightly transparent images projected onto the twitching faces of unconsciously sleeping bodies, and thrashing, shouting dream-ridden somnambulists staring with unseeing vacant sight in the grey-green glare of the nightsight camera. Even the scientists themselves are introduced with Stoker levels of menace- close ups on eyeballs and twitching, blurred images, as though they'd somehow been beamed down from the nearest passing spaceship, and abandoned to analyse our dreams.
There's no doubt that dreaming can leave people feeling vulnerable, but that's only half of the story. Maybe even a quarter of the story. Humans must sleep or they die. And when your relationship with sleep becomes complicated, in any way, that has a massive impact on your life.
When I was a child, I walked in my sleep. I also talked, sang, debated, screamed, and now know, having done a little research as an adult, suffered from night terrors. Dreaming occurs when your brain is asleep but active, but your body is totally paralysed to stop you acting things out. On a very, very basic level, sleep walking is when the 'paralysed' bit doesn't work, so you act out your sleeping brain's commands; night terrors are the opposite, when the 'paralysed' bit works just fine, it's just your brain isn't asleep- in fact, you're paralysed but awake. I grew out of that, and out of the sleep walking, and, don't get me wrong, my complicated sleep patterns were dealt with very positively by my parents, who had a light touch with my sleep walking; even as a teenager, they never made it a problem, it was more interesting than stressful.
That said, I hate going to sleep. The one thing I didn't grow out of was the nightmares. I have vivid and distressing dreams; sometimes they're violent or extreme enough to be nightmares, sometimes they're just intensely upsetting. I often wake shouting, or crying real tears, distressed and frightened, and very disorientated.
So I was fascinated to learn from this programme that REM sleep, previously believed to be the powerhouse of our dreams, may be only the centre for very negative dreams, with other, more positive dreams occurring during non-REM sleep. And that people who have suffered from depression being more prone to REM sleep in a night than people who aren't depressed.
This is good news. It's interesting, factual, exploratory, and very, very helpful. I feel calm and reassured by the research and messages it is discussing.
So who on earth decided to fill the programme with images so frightening, so reminiscent of nightmares, so likely to recur during the night, that I've had to turn it off, and... and... well I don't admit this easily, wait until there is someone else here to watch it with me... so I'm not alone.
A good, REALLY good BBC programme, for me made too difficult by the need to tap into the popular astrological, medium, palm reading view of dreams, through their choice of filler images and background music. So the people who really need to see it, have to look away. I could make comparisons, but... I wouldn't want to distress anyone.
Hmmm.
No comments:
Post a Comment