ABSTRACT
The fact that dreams occur when waking consciousness is diminished is one way of understanding Sigmund Freud's dictum that dreams are the via regia to the unconscious. Most dreams are reported just prior to waking and the average dream lasts for several minutes. Although the phenomenology of dreams has been exhaustively catalogued, no overarching theory of dreams has been developed. C. G. Jung's theory of psyche was based largely on his study of dreams and on what he termed active imagination. Important scientific insights, like Kekule Von Stradonitz's recognition of the configuration of the benzene ring, have occurred in dreams. Extraordinary works of art have also emerged in dreams. The majority of dreams are reported during rapid eye movement sleep, although dreams may be reported at virtually any point in the sleep cycle. Critical discernment is a feature of consciousness that requires the activities of the left pre-frontal cortex.
