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shidoikarji26
Jun. 28th, 2009 03:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shamanicshayminWish Fulfillment? No. But Dreams (and Sleep) Have Meaning
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.
Past studies have also established a link between chronic sleep disruption and suicide. Sleep complaints, which include nightmares, insomnia and other sleep disturbances, are listed in the current Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's inventory of suicide-prevention warning signs. Yet what distinguishes Bernert's research is that when nightmares and insomnia were evaluated separately, nightmares were independently predictive of suicidal behavior. "It may be that nightmares present a unique risk for suicidal symptoms, which may have to do with the way we process emotion within dreams," Bernert says.
If that's the case, it may help explain the recurring nightmares that characterize psychiatric conditions like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Walker says. "The brain has not stripped away the emotional rind from that experience memory," he says, so "the next night, the brain offers this up, and it fails again, and it starts to sound like a broken record ... What you hear [PTSD] patients describing is, 'I can't get over the event.' "
At the biological level, Walker explains, the "emotional rind" translates to sympathetic nervous-system activity during sleep: faster heart rate and the release of stress chemicals. Understanding why nightmares recur and how REM sleep facilitates emotional processing - or hinders it, when nightmares take place and perpetuate the physical stress symptoms - may eventually provide clues to effective treatments of painful mental disorders. Perhaps, even, by simply addressing sleeping habits, doctors could potentially interrupt the emotional cycle that can lead to suicide. "There is an opportunity for prevention," Bernert says.
What would this mean for someone like Madotsuki? In a most dismal interpretation of the ending, would she realize there is absolutely nothing for her in real life? Nothing which she could recognize "positive emotion" with? Is her constant sleep an "expurgation" that fails to exorcise the negative emotions associated with her memories, which is why she can revisit certain dreams again and again?
What about Darkrai & Cresselia? It's clear that Cresselia represents the positive and healing aspects of REM sleep. But what about Darkrai? Is he capable of using his powers for good or evil whenever he wants? Being hypersensitive to negative emotions due to nightmares or lack of sleep makes you more cautious, but it's also dangerous and can lead to suicidal thoughts (Hell, look what happened in Mystery Dungeon 2!) If Darkrai used his powers to terrorize people, it would make sense. But it's not always so simple. What about the "good" Darkrais, such as the one in Alamos Town? Why would Arceus curse him with a power he didn't want? Out of sadism or what? But something tells me Darkrai's lived long enough as a deity/Lord of Nightmares/Morpheus/The Sandman to control his own powers and not wangst constantly about being misunderstood despite doing nothing to stop terrorizing cities all the same. :P
What do nightmares do for the Pokemon world? Surely Darkrai can't use them as omens all the time; that's Absol's job and he doesn't need to fuck with people's sleep or try to be creative with the dreams of 8259+ human and Pokemon population. :P Why are Darkrai & Cresselia butting heads in the first place? Is it a Yin-Yang thing where negative & positive energy is balanced and one can't exist without the other, like the full and new moons being the same side of the same rock circling Earth? Or is Cresselia trying to dispel whatever bad things Darkrai is doing? Maybe Darkrai is trying to do something good (or what he THINKS is good) and Cresselia doesn't know it? Also, what about the boy in Canalave? Did he fall into a sleep-coma because he NEEDS the REM sleep but it's constantly failing to sweep the negative associations of his memories, and locks him in this state because the dreams are really that bad?
Dammit Darkrai. What ARE you?
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.
Past studies have also established a link between chronic sleep disruption and suicide. Sleep complaints, which include nightmares, insomnia and other sleep disturbances, are listed in the current Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's inventory of suicide-prevention warning signs. Yet what distinguishes Bernert's research is that when nightmares and insomnia were evaluated separately, nightmares were independently predictive of suicidal behavior. "It may be that nightmares present a unique risk for suicidal symptoms, which may have to do with the way we process emotion within dreams," Bernert says.
If that's the case, it may help explain the recurring nightmares that characterize psychiatric conditions like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Walker says. "The brain has not stripped away the emotional rind from that experience memory," he says, so "the next night, the brain offers this up, and it fails again, and it starts to sound like a broken record ... What you hear [PTSD] patients describing is, 'I can't get over the event.' "
At the biological level, Walker explains, the "emotional rind" translates to sympathetic nervous-system activity during sleep: faster heart rate and the release of stress chemicals. Understanding why nightmares recur and how REM sleep facilitates emotional processing - or hinders it, when nightmares take place and perpetuate the physical stress symptoms - may eventually provide clues to effective treatments of painful mental disorders. Perhaps, even, by simply addressing sleeping habits, doctors could potentially interrupt the emotional cycle that can lead to suicide. "There is an opportunity for prevention," Bernert says.
What would this mean for someone like Madotsuki? In a most dismal interpretation of the ending, would she realize there is absolutely nothing for her in real life? Nothing which she could recognize "positive emotion" with? Is her constant sleep an "expurgation" that fails to exorcise the negative emotions associated with her memories, which is why she can revisit certain dreams again and again?
What about Darkrai & Cresselia? It's clear that Cresselia represents the positive and healing aspects of REM sleep. But what about Darkrai? Is he capable of using his powers for good or evil whenever he wants? Being hypersensitive to negative emotions due to nightmares or lack of sleep makes you more cautious, but it's also dangerous and can lead to suicidal thoughts (Hell, look what happened in Mystery Dungeon 2!) If Darkrai used his powers to terrorize people, it would make sense. But it's not always so simple. What about the "good" Darkrais, such as the one in Alamos Town? Why would Arceus curse him with a power he didn't want? Out of sadism or what? But something tells me Darkrai's lived long enough as a deity/Lord of Nightmares/Morpheus/The Sandman to control his own powers and not wangst constantly about being misunderstood despite doing nothing to stop terrorizing cities all the same. :P
What do nightmares do for the Pokemon world? Surely Darkrai can't use them as omens all the time; that's Absol's job and he doesn't need to fuck with people's sleep or try to be creative with the dreams of 8259+ human and Pokemon population. :P Why are Darkrai & Cresselia butting heads in the first place? Is it a Yin-Yang thing where negative & positive energy is balanced and one can't exist without the other, like the full and new moons being the same side of the same rock circling Earth? Or is Cresselia trying to dispel whatever bad things Darkrai is doing? Maybe Darkrai is trying to do something good (or what he THINKS is good) and Cresselia doesn't know it? Also, what about the boy in Canalave? Did he fall into a sleep-coma because he NEEDS the REM sleep but it's constantly failing to sweep the negative associations of his memories, and locks him in this state because the dreams are really that bad?
Dammit Darkrai. What ARE you?
