1.

The Dream
I am in my childhood home, my sisters are both much younger than they are currently so I have
to assume that I was younger as well, didn't get a perception of myself. It is my little sisters birthday
party I think that she was turning 9 or 10. We are all gathered around her birthday cake, it is me, my
two sisters, and many of our childhood friends. Along with our childhood friends I notice there are
several people that I know presently today, that I did not know around that time, people that I did not
even know at the age that they are in my dream. The birthday party is going well up until we begin to
open the presents, all of a sudden the entire scene changes as if the birthday party is over. I am asking
the adults what happened to the party and they are looking at me like I am oblivious to what is
happening, I don't quite understand what's happening at this point. Now someone strange is in the
house with everyone else, I recognize the man but I can't quite place his face. He is having a
conversation with my parents when I notice a change in all the adults tone of voices, suddenly things
begin to go grave as the man shoots my father killing him on the spot. I take off jetting it for the hills
when I hear my sister scream and a second gunshot followed by silence. At this point i'm wondering
where my mom is, searching for her frantically. Suddenly she is in front of me in the doorway, all I
hear her say is Run away shy!! bang bang. After that part I woke up, in a cold sweat. I guess you
could call it a nightmare.

2. Analysis
This dream was a strange one by my personal account, I feel as though me remembering my
sisters birthday party has to due with me not seeing her much since I moved to Lexington. My sisters
birthday parties, and my birthday parties, were always a great time around my house so I feel like it is
something that i'm missing while i'm away. The sudden change of scenes right before we begin opening
presents is my recollection of never really receiving much as a child, our birthday parties were always a
great time but our parents didn't always have the money to get us a lot. I think that I saw people from

my childhood as well as people from my current life at the party because of the event itself supposed to
being fun, and all the people that I remember seeing there were very fun people. The strange man in my
house throws me for a loop, I think this was from a movie I had watched earlier that day about a
murderer. The murderer in the movie breaks into this families home late at night and just begins
mentally torturing them all, he hides in crevices and creases of the house murdering off the family one
at a time until the only one left is the mother. The mother is then shot at the end.

3. Wish-fulfillment
Freud believed that dreams were a way for people to discharges otherwise unacceptable
feelings. (Meyer and Dewall Psychology 11th edition) Freud thought that dreams were how we
expressed our unconscious wishes in a way that seemed to be appropriate. He also believed that
most dreams had some coherent sexual meaning, which later on was re-discussed and determined
to be inaccurate.

4. Information processing
Some people believe that dreams are a way for us to process and file all the information
taken in throughout the day so that our memories will be more clear and easier to interpret. This
theory would be much more solid if we didn't have dreams about things completely irrelevant from
the days activities, such as my birthday party dream discussed above.

5. Neural activation(Activation synthesis)

Essentially dreams are just random memories that your brain pieces together during REM
sleep into complex stories. This theory seems to be the most likely to me, as most of my dreams
usually feature some sort of coherent memory. The only problem with this theory is sometimes I
dream about things that do not directly relate to any memory I have, or any situation I have been
in.

6. Theoretical perspectives
From the wish-fulfillment theory I can see my dream as wanting to be with my old friends,
and be back together with my family in the beginning. I don't see myself wanting wish-fulfillment
at all, as things became more grim.
From the Information-processing theory I think that the movie I had watched earlier that
day may have influenced the events of my dream. That makes this theory seem pretty likely to
me, but it didn't all add up. The beginning of my dream was from a memory earlier in my life, not
earlier today. This makes me wonder if this theory should be revised to state that the information
can not only be processed from that day, but also from past memories as well.
The neural activation theory is what I believe to be most relevant to my dream. Not only
were my past memories integrated into the dream, but people from my current day life were
present. That shows me my mind is pulling information from several different areas of my brain
during REM sleep. Also my memory of the movie watched earlier that day was used to set up a
situation within my dream.