A Dreaming Sensation

            Dreams are one of the most fascinating and extraordinary experiences know to man. Regardless of how many people may claim to be able to read dreams, or people who claim that their dreams make the psychic, dreams have remained a complete mystery, despite research in the field. Advancements have been made using sleep studies, which can predict when a person is dreaming while it is happening relatively well. We know that dreaming occurs during REM sleep, and that the majority of dreaming occurs in early morning, right toward the end of a person’s sleeping. However, we still have yet to understand much about what the content of dreams actually mean. This is what makes it extremely interesting that people can, when asked, generally give a fairly detailed account of many dreams that they have (at least the ones they remember). Even more intriguing is the fact that these details often involve a lot of sensory and emotional information. Yet when you observe someone who is sleeping, there is no physical sign of what they may be dreaming, if they are dreaming at all. This is what makes it so extraordinary that we can experience such strong sensory events through dreams, without actually experiencing any of these things physically with our bodies. And, considering the majority of the population can recall dreaming at one point or another, it is no surprise that science and literature alike have examined this phenomenon for years.

            In Darwin’s Zoonomia, he discusses several of the characteristics of the experience of dreaming that make it truly exceptional. One that I found particularly intriguing was the idea of mental imagery in dreaming affecting the way our eyes adjust to light after we open our eyes. Darwin gives a very interesting example, where he tells the reader to close their eyes and play through their favorite tune or song in their head, and then open their eyes. He describes the very familiar experience of our iris adjusting to the light. Even though it only takes about one second, most people have experienced this sensation and can relate. In a second task, Darwin instructs readers to close their eyes and think about a #D object, namely a white cube, and as you examine the sides with your mind, he talks about having the shape change colors from red, to blue, to green. Surprisingly, when you open your eyes, your iris takes no noticeable amount of time to adjust to the light. I actually tried this myself and was amazed. More importantly, this really got my mind spinning about the idea of sensation and the mind. It would seem that sensation does not 100% rely on sensory input from the outside world. According to Darwin, “it has been shewn, that those motions, which are perpetually excited, as those of the arterial system by the stimulus of the blood, are attended by a great accumulation of sensorial power” (p. 2). We are able to change what we see simply by using the power of our minds and controlling what we focus our attention on mentally! This has extreme implications for writing.

            If one can stimulate sensation simply by focusing attention on a particular thought, this would fuel the idea that one could cause readers to sense something while reading without having them actually see or experience anything. Now, I know this does not seem like a novel idea; after all, writers of the 18^th century were figuring this out, and were beginning to gear their writing toward this idea. However, the specific idea that such sensations can be felt through dreams is still remarkable. Now I realize there are people who claim to have never had a dream before (what a shame). But I believe that taking in to consideration the powerful effect that dreaming can have on the senses could be very useful for a writer, especially in such a case as, for example, for Brown when he wrote Edgar Huntly. Having this knowledge could potentially allow Brown to convey even more through his tale of sleepwalking. If the reader puts themselves in the shoes of the sleepwalker, they may even be able to experience the harshness of fear that can occur when one wakes up from a dream-like experience such as sleepwalking. This could allow a writer to convey even more about what a character is experiencing and, more importantly, could allow readers to put themselves into the dreams of the character.

            One experience that even those who claim to never have experienced a dream while sleeping can relate to is mind wandering, or daydreaming. This can occur at any point from when you’re watching a movie, to when you’re sitting in class, to when you’re at work. It is a mental escape. My first thoughts on mind wandering are that, from what we have read from Darwin about sensations felt when sleeping through dreaming, it could be possible that the attractiveness of the idea of mind wandering to the human consciousness is the fact that it can be stimulating to the senses. In fact, I have even found myself daydreaming just for the simple need to experience some emotion. When in class, daydreaming about the birthday party you are going to attend later could cause happiness. Daydreaming about your significant other could cause elation. Daydreaming could even relieve stress, by letting you take a moment aside to think about all of the things you need to do, and the things you have already accomplished, on your do-to list. I personally find daydreaming to be extremely helpful in this sense, and according to Schooler and Smallwood in “The Restless Mind”, mind wandering can serve this exact purpose. They claim that “mind wandering is a situation in which executive control shifts away from a primary

task to the processing of personal goals” (p. 946). Essentially, the paper discusses mind wandering as a means of problem solving. This is an excellent tool to not only use  as a writer, but to also be aware of as a reader. Mind wandering as an event in a piece of literature can creatively convey the thoughts of a character without explicitly saying “he thought” or “she thinks”. This not only gives the reader more information about the story, but it allows them to put themselves in the character’s shoes. This can come in as an essential vice, and it is important to be able to recognize this type of situation. As an analytical reader, we can look at characters such as Edgar Huntly, who tends to let him mind wander a lot, and examine him both from the outside in terms of the plotline, and the inside in terms of what he reveals about his thoughts.

            Dreaming and Reverie are incredibly useful in literature. These experiences have proven thus far to be, and are most likely destined to forevermore be, experiences of sheer mystery and fascination. Because of this, they will always be an intriguing vice to both write about and read about. The sensory information that  is miraculously conveyed through these experiences make dreaming and reverie the perfect tools for engaging the reader.