addition to dreams chunk

In the New York Times article, "In the Dreamscape of Nightmares, Clues to Why We Dream at All", by Natalie Angier, it discusses what might cause certain nightmares. It begins by describing a man that started out with a traumatic childhood, being physically abused by his schizophrenic mother as he would lay in bed trying to fall asleep. He grew up to be a relatively normal man, until one nght when he awoke to find a burgalur going through his things. He then began to have horrible nightmares in which there was a middle aged woman intruder, and a knife hung above his head.
A psychologist, Dr. Ross Levin said; "The old fear memories have not gone away.. [they] were easily reactivated by the recent trauma." The doctor claims that nightmares can often be altered by using certain excersizes in which we gain more control in our dreams.
I found this part of the article to be interesting. It shows you how past experiences and traumatic events in our lives can lead to our dreams. Unresolved issues in our daily life can affect our dreams in very abstract ways.