IX. Read the text. Give your arguments to support or reject one of the two points of view

1. Dreams protect sleep. 2. Dreams repair self-esteem and competence.

Use the following to express your opinion. I think (that)...; in my opinion; as I see it; the point is (that)...; I quite agree; that's just what I think; I am not sure; I disagree.

The fact that it is more difficult to awaken a person from REM than from NREM sleep provides some initial support for Freud's idea that dreams protect sleep. An additional partial test of the Freudian theory is to deprive (лишать) subjects of REM sleep, thus depriving them of dreams. If subjects are awakened every time there is an onset of REM, they have a night's sleep without dreams. Early experiments indicated that after such deprivation there was more REM sleep the following night, indicating that there is a kind of "quota" for REM; and there is less REM sleep one night, more will be required the next. Indirectly, this would support the Freudian theory of dreams as a protector of sleep. However, other findings of sleep and dream studies contradict the interpretation of REM as a protector of sleep. In the first place, REM is prominent (заметный) in infants, when meaningful dreams are unlikely to occur, and also in lower mam­mals. The study of the dreams of older children shows that their dreams reflect the realistic activities of their waking lives and that emotional disturbances occur in their dreams when there are emotional disturbances in their waking lives.

The only conclusion to be drawn is that the psychophysiological studies of dreams have given little support to the Freudian theory that the purpose of dreams is to protect sleep.

But from the work done so far, it appears that dreaming serves several cognitive functions: it is measurably involved in mood changes; it seems to provide the energy space for working out problems set aside through days filled with busy activity; and. in general, it offers a kind of workshop for the repair of self-esteem (чувство собственного достоинства) and competence.

X. A. What are your sleeping habits? Interview your fellow student using this questionnaire (work in pairs).

1. If you have trouble getting to sleep do you:

a. count sheep;

b. toss and turn;

с. lie still and concentrate.

2. When you have dreams are they mostly dreams:

a. about work;

b. nightmares;

с. sweet dreams.

3. After a night's sleep do you find that covers:

a. are is tidy as when you went to bed;

b. are all over the floor;

с. are in a heap in the middle of the bed.

4. If you wake up in the middle of the night is it because:

a. you remember something you ought to have done;

b. you're cold;

c. you're hungry.

5. If you hear a bump in the night do you:

a. get up cautiously and investigate quietly;

b. turn over and go back to sleep;

с. wake up your husband (wife).

B. Characterize your partner according to his/her answers.

Use the following words: nervous, calm, sensitive, imaginative, emotional­ly stable.

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