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Sleep and dreaming

You will find lots of information about the importance of sleep and the connection between dreaming and mental health on this website, see:

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  • Why do we dream?

    Joe Griffin reviews past theories and recent research findings (all of which add further evidence in support of his ground-breaking theory) as he tells the riveting story of how he solved the mystery of our dreams...

  • Dreaming, daydreaming and creativity

    Ivan Tyrrell's fascinating talk from the HG Diploma course throws new light on our evolution as he explains the crucial role of the REM state and much more...

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What is dream sleep?

An imaginary perceptual experience that occurs primarily in REM sleep. The expectation fulfilment theory of dreaming explains how we act out our unexpressed emotional expectations (positive and negative) through the medium of metaphor in our dreams. Dreaming reduces stress and preserves the integrity of our emotional responses. Excessive and intensive dreaming has been linked to clinical depression. Dream phenomena occurring while patients are awake have been linked to schizophrenia.

More information about why we dream can be found in the book Why We Dream: the definitive answer 

> Click here to explore a website dedicated to why we dream

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  • Work and the mental health continuum

    Ezra Hewing describes how he helped a large insurance company change perceptions about stress and improve the mental health and wellbeing of its employees.

  • The Century of the Self

    Ivan Tyrrell explores with Adam Curtis how Freudian ideas are flourishing in business and politics today and insidiously influence all of our lives.

  • Exploring the CULT in culture

    Looking at cult behaviour. A revised version (including additional material) of an article by Ivan Tyrrell, first published in 1993, that explores Dr Arthur Deikman's enlightening work on cult behaviour. 

  • From self-harm to self-belief

    Emily Gajewski describes how the human givens approach has provided a practical focus for working with women struggling to cope with everyday life

  • How biohistory affects human nature

    Jim Penman tells Ivan Tyrrell how biology drives our social history, explaining temperament change within cultures and the rise and fall of civilisations.

Latest News:

HG practitioner participates in global congress

HG practitioner Felicity Jaffrey, who lives and works in Egypt, received the extraordinary honour of being invited to speak at Egypt’s hugely prestigious Global Congress on Population, Health and Human Development (PHDC24) in Cairo in October.

SCoPEd - latest update

The six SCoPEd partners have published their latest update on the important work currently underway with regards to the SCoPEd framework implementation, governance and impact assessment.

Date posted: 14/02/2024