꿈 이야기 & 나이가 든다는 것은

[프란치스코]

꿈 이야기
The sleep secret
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How lucid dreams can make us fitter, more creative and less anxious

Freud described dreams as windows into our repressed desires. Today, researchers are using them to boost athletic performance and help veterans with PTSD, unlocking huge benefits for us all

For Carl Jung, dreams were a link to the collective unconscious. 

It can be particularly difficult to untangle the meaning of recurring dreams like this, given they leave people drained and upset. Isabella Gray had a nightmare about having to drive a bus – definitely not job-related as she works as a goldsmith. “I used to have the dream all the time. I would be driving from an odd vantage point, like from the top deck, reaching right down to the steering wheel with long arms or trying to drive the bus down narrow steps. It happened so regularly that I would wake up stressed and tired.”

Gray heard dream psychologist Ian Wallace on a radio show and emailed him about her dream. “He told me my bus dreams were about having to control everything in my life and feeling there is no support. And I did feel like that! I look after a lot of people; everything is on me all the time. As soon as he explained it to me, the dreams completely stopped, never to return.”

After a week of noting down your dreams, you may look back and see you’ve had three zombie dreams.

Of all the different types of dreams, Blagrove mentions that the most poignant and comforting is also one of the most common – a recurring dream featuring a loved one who has died. “Although those dreams are bringing back the pain of loss, they can be healing because sometimes the person will appear fit and well. They might have a message like: ‘Everything will be OK’ or other words of reassurance. That can be deeply meaningful for the dreamer.”
(Anita Chaudhuri, 가디언)

My exhibitionist girlfriend. I wonder what else she has in store

나이가 든다는 것은
Never past your prime! 13 peaks we reach at 40 or later – from sex to running to self-esteem.

Ageing doesn’t have to mean slowing down. In fact, you’re more likely to win an ultramarathon in midlife, not to mention get happier, wiser and more body confident

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/19/never-past-your-prime-13-peaks-we-reach-at-40-or-later

It's easy to fixate on everything you’re getting worse at as you age. I’m 48, and trying to remember a phone number long enough to dial it, write under time pressure or sprint after the bus all leave me marvelling – if that’s the word – at my evaporating abilities. Muscle and bone mass decline from your 30s, and midlife can feel like a slippery, baffling slope towards decay (yes, I am fun to be around, thank you for noticing). But are there things even someone as ancient as me can still get better at?

The assumption that ageing is inevitably a process of cognitive and physical decline is one Daniel Levitin, professor of neuroscience at McGill University, sought to challenge in his book The Changing Mind. “Our societal narrative is not based on science – it’s based entirely on prejudice,” he tells me. “Contrary to popular myth, we never stop learning or growing new brain connections.” Hearing this, I’m reminded that my newfound love of birds has furnished me with a shiny new mental library of calls and feather patterns. I’ve also managed, with practice, to improve my terrible sight-singing at choir.

Sixties
Winning a Nobel: 61 and 63
Conflict resolution: 65
Sexual satisfaction and wisdom: 60s?
Vocabulary: 65

Being nice: over 60

There are both structural changes in the brain and neurochemical ones. The amygdala, the brain’s fear centre, shrinks with age, causing older adults to become more trusting, compassionate and empathic. Men produce less testosterone, which makes them less aggressive and less disagreeable. And there emerges a positive bias in memory recall – older adults tend to recall more positive memories and fewer negative memories. They also become more tolerant and accepting – what we call ‘grandparent syndrome’. One of the reasons is that, after a certain age, you realise: I’ve had it pretty good. I’ve made it this far. I’m grateful.”

Seventies
Body confidence: 74 (for women)
For men, it came even later, at about 80. A poll from 2014 is hardly definitive evidence, but a literature review in 2015 also found “the importance given to body image as it relates to physical appearance is lower” in western seniors than their younger counterparts

Eighties
Happiness: 82
"Happiness may seem like a young person thing,” says Levitin. “But the surprising thing is when older people are asked to pinpoint the happiest time of their lives, the most common response is not an age in childhood, teens, or early adulthood, it’s 82.” 

When you look at everything we can excel at in later life, perhaps that is not so surprising after all.

(Emma Beddington, 가디언)