Hey, if it’s good enough for Bradley Cooper, who are we to argue?

In case you somehow missed the recent press blitz, Cooper stars in and directs A Star Is Born, which also features Lady Gaga.

The movie has “revived interest in a somewhat obscure field: dream analysis”, according to the Guardian, although most people refer to it as ‘dream study’.

During a recent interview, Cooper spoke about how he worked with his mentor, acting coach Elizabeth Kemp, who taught him the techniques that he used during the filming of the movie.

So, what’s all this about?

While not exactly a mainstream practice, dream study goes back at least 3,000 years and has a devoted following today…

Humans have an estimated three to five dreams a night, with Rapid Eye Movement (REM), or dreaming sleep, most commonly falling towards the end of the night. “Dream work” has roots in the techniques of the famed theater actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski and the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, Kim Gillingham, a teacher of the technique, told me.

Dream work is not just for actors, Gillingham said…“For one thing, if we have an unresolved trauma or something from childhood, or a pattern that’s inhibiting us, or a pattern that’s drawing us again and again to addictive behaviour, self-loathing behaviour, an old tape running in your head, the dreams will serve up the reality of that for us to work with,” the 55-year-old, who has been in the field since discovering it in her 20s…

She also believes that dreams present solutions. “Psychologically, physically, emotionally, I believe wholeheartedly in the comprehensive healing package of what the dream brings for everyone – for the plumber, saint, all of us, have this genius guiding material coming through in our dreams in the night.”

The plumber and the saint, and everything in between. Sounds a bit Alanis Morissette-like.

The Guardian then goes on to describe, in great detail, what one of Gillingham’s workshops is like, so here’s some of that:

People, mainly actors (including some pretty famous ones that I’m not allowed to name), were taping sketches – private images from their unconscious – on to the wall and quietly making notes in their dream journals. At the front was an “altar” decorated with flowers and candles…

The class was divided into two parts. The first was spent largely with our eyes closed, working individually under Gillingham’s instruction, mentally revisiting the scene of our dream and going to a childhood memory. The second was more like an acting class and revolved around a practical group exercise.

Sorry, I think I bored myself to sleep there. You can read the full description of the workshop here.

Before we go, let’s hear from Dr Rubin Naiman, a psychologist and sleep and dream specialist at the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine:

Naiman has worked with numerous artists and musicians – including a “world-renowned rock’n’roll group” he cannot name. As well as creativity, dreaming is an essential component of good mental health, he said. It serves as an antidepressant and an anti-inflammatory and is good for memory. “We have a nighttime therapist in our head if we dream well.”

But he warned of the dangers of using technology to try to manipulate dreams by “dream hacking” – a recent interest in monitoring brain waves in order to interrupt sleep to impose lucid dreaming.

Stay out of my dreams, technology.

I’m about ready for a nap.

[source:guardian]