When Danielle Fabru was 6 she
had a nightmare that Michael
Jackson was outside her window.
“I’ll never forget it. Michael
Jackson was in my window. The
white face and the black hair
smashed against the window,”
said Fabru, 19, an accounting
major from Levittown.
Why we dream is still a mystery,
but there are a lot of theories.
“No one knows why we sleep
much less why we dream,” said
Deborah Sedik, a psychology professor
at Bucks.
“Some of the theories are the
problem focus theory (dreamers
work out problems while sleeping)
and activiation-synthesis (the
brain makes sense of random firings),”
said Sedik
“Perhaps the most famous of all
is Freudian psychoanalytical theory,”
said Sedik
Psychoanalytic theory claims
that dreams are a way of releasing
our unconscious desires.
Sedik warns that there is not
much empirical evidence supporting
psychoanalytic theory.
“Dream studies become interesting
because every person identifies on a personal level with each
of the theories or several theories
at once,” said Sedik
Sedik doesn’t really have a favorite
theory on dreams.
“It is one of those areas of psychology
where there are still a lot
of questions,” said Sedik
“The most fun is the dream
analysis, different symbols meaning
different things, but there’s really
no empirical evidence to back
those suggestions.”
There’s a lot of variety around
campus when it comes to dreams.
Student dreams ranged from
frightening to mundane.
Scary dreams really seemed to
stick with students.
“I had a dream that my grandfather
drove his car into the
Delaware River because he wasn’t
paying attention,” said
Nicholas Caron-Clement, 18, a
computer science major from
Pipersville. Caron had his parents
call his grandfather when he woke
up. His grandfather was fine.
Weston Moran fell asleep and
became a character in the popular
horror movie “Paranormal.”
“It was kind of like the movie, I
woke up, but I didn’t really wake
up, I woke up in the dream. I was
the one being attacked by demons.
Then, I woke up for real,” said
Moran, 19, from Churchville.
Dan Hibbs is a Phillies fan even
while he is sleeping.
” I had a dream the other night
that I was eating breakfast with
the Phillies,” said Hibbs, 19, a
business major from Levittown.
Some were less than comfortable
sharing what they dream
about in any sort of detail.
“I honestly can’t think of a single
appropriate dream that I’ve
had,” said Jamie Suveg , 18, a liberal
arts major from Bensalem.
Others do the same things they
typically do in real life.
“I played ‘Oblivion’ (an XBOX
360 game) a lot so I was playing
‘Oblivion’ in the dream. I had that
dream a lot,” said Michael Esposito,
19, a liberal arts major from
Bensalem.
“I guess it was something about
grades. There was a biology exam.
Usually I don’t remember my
dreams, but sometimes a dream
will wake me up if it is scary,”
said Pankti Mehta, 23, a physical
therapy major from Bensalem.