历年考研英语阅读理解2005年03
[00:05.65]2005 Text3
[00:08.06]Of all the components of a good night's sleep,
[00:11.03]dreams seem to be least within our control.
[00:14.96]In dreams,
[00:15.77]a window opens into a world
[00:17.68]where logic is suspended and dead people speak.
[00:21.50]A century ago,
[00:23.02]Freud formulated his revolutionary theory
[00:25.86]that dreams were the disguised shadows of
[00:28.69]our unconscious desires and fears;
[00:31.92]by the late 1970s,
[00:34.03]neurologists had switched to thinking of them
[00:36.76]as just "mental noise"
[00:39.09]--the random byproducts of the neuralrepair work
[00:42.32]that goes on during sleep.
[00:44.54]Now researchers suspect that dreams
[00:47.15]are part of the mind's emotional thermostat,
[00:50.28]regulating moods while the brain is "off-line."
[00:54.82]And one leading authority says
[00:57.01]that these intensely powerful mental events
[01:03.72]can be not only harnessed but actually brought
[01:03.44]under conscious control,
[01:05.35]to help us sleep and feel better.
[01:08.78]"It's your dream," says Rosalind Cartwright,
[01:11.92]chair of psychology at Chicago's Medical Center.
[01:15.54]"If you don't like it, change it."
[01:18.66]Evidence from brain imaging supports this view.
[01:22.19]The brain is as active during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep
[01:27.13]--when most vivid dreams occur
[01:29.04]--as it is when fully awake,
[01:31.06]says Dr.Eric Nofzinger at the University of Pittsburgh.
[01:35.60]But not all parts of the brain are equally involved;
[01:39.10]the limbic system (the "emotional brain") is especially active,
[01:44.15]while the prefrontal cortex (the center of intellect
[01:47.52]and reasoning) is relatively quiet.
[01:50.75]"We wake up from dreams happy or depressed,
[01:53.63]and those feelings can stay with us all day,"
[01:56.56]says Stanford sleep researcher Dr. William Dement.
[02:01.39]The link between dreams and emotions shows up
[02:04.64]among the patients in Cartwright's clinic.
[02:07.34]Most people seem to have more bad dreams early in the night,
[02:11.24]progressing toward happier ones before awakening,
[02:14.57]suggesting that they are working through
[02:16.89]negative feelings generated during the day.
[02:20.62]Because our conscious mind is occupied with daily life
[02:24.05]we don't always think about
[02:25.67]the emotional significance of the day's events
[02:28.49]--until, it appears, we begin to dream.
[02:32.80]And this process need not be left to the unconscious.
[02:37.23]Cartwright believes one can exercise conscious control
[02:40.87]over recurring bad dreams.
[02:43.99]As soon as you awaken, identify
[02:46.22]what is upsetting about the dream.
[02:49.29]Visualize how you would like it to end instead;
[02:52.58]the next time it occurs,
[02:54.18]try to wake up just enough to control its course.
[02:58.22]With much practice people can learn to, literally,
[03:01.63]do it in their sleep.
[03:04.29]At the end of the day,
[03:05.91]there's probably little reason to pay attention to
[03:08.52]our dreams at all
[03:09.92]unless they keep us from sleeping
[03:11.95]or "we wake up in a panic," Cartwright says.
[03:15.80]Terrorism, economic uncertainties and general feelings
[03:19.67]of insecurity have increased people's anxiety.
[03:23.79]Those suffering from persistent nightmares
[03:26.62]should seek help from a therapist.
[03:29.04]For the rest of us, the brain has
[03:30.80]its ways of working through bad feelings.
[03:34.24]Sleep--or rather dream--on it
[03:37.47]and you'll feel better in the morning.
