It’s always interested me to deduce things about people based on their inadvertent tendencies: Freudian slips, unconscious facial expressions, words whose meaning contradicts the tone that speaks them.

That being said, dreams fascinate me because they are unconscious. Rather than proclaiming themselves explicitly, the messages of dreams are often embedded in symbolic imagery.

For instance, I often dream that I’m back in the house I grew up in. Though I have not lived in this two-story tudor for over two years, in my recurring dream I’m lounging around in there like it’s no big deal. At times the new residents will casually cross paths with me in the kitchen or the bedroom, acting as if my presence is perfectly normal.

At face value, the message of this dream is simple: my old home will forever be a part of me. But dig a little deeper and a psychoanalyst might say that at this point in my life, the dream suggests I’m having trouble letting something go.

Many psychologists will say that if you’re having a recurring dream, it’s most likely a result of your denial and repression. Something is demanding attention in your life and you’re either repeatedly ignoring it or dealing with it in an ineffective way. In my dream the house could probably be a symbol for many things that I have unknowingly held on to over the years.

In another dream, I’m laying down on a platter in the center of my dining room table, slathered in a thin layer of olive oil and garnished with rosemary. A family of ducks sits around the table, clutching knives and forks in their outstretched wings as they prepare to devour me.

This recurring dream is most likely to occur during midterms when copious cups of coffee have been consumed throughout the day and the nerves are running haywire. Its likely message? “Girl, you’re anxious. Calm the hell down.”

In any case, our unconscious plants images that, when deciphered, can shine wisdom on our waking lives. When you’re overwhelmed, it’s usually from an accumulation of causes that can be hard to disentangle and pinpoint when your mind isn’t at its most lucid and well-functioning. Dreams serve to do some of this work for us, which is oftentimes why anxious people are told to “just sleep on it” when faced with a conundrum.

To emphasize the importance of dreams, a Stanford study tracked 24 subjects via EEG mapping while they slumbered. Researchers found that the effects of dream events are far more potent and influential on an individual than are simple daydreams or waking imagery, having close to the same effect as real life events. So basically, if you want to be more productive in a task, dreaming about how to carry it out would be more efficient than simply thinking about how you’re going to carry it out.

It may seem impossible to “dream on command,” but there is actually a branch of dreaming referred to as lucid dreaming where you can control the happenings of your slumber show. Although it sounds like a novel concept, countless studies have been done on lucid dreaming, while multiple books have explored its potentialities.

Usually, a lucid dream – or “dream yoga,” as referred to by the Tibetan monks – starts as a normal dream. You wander about, unaware that you’re dreaming, until you notice some impossible or unlikely event, like a winged hippo or a talking jellybean. At this point, realization of pseudo-reality hits, and the normal dream becomes lucid.

There are countless benefits to learning the art of lucid dreaming. Within the context of college life, lucid dreams may provide the training-ground for rehearsing job interviews, social interactions, future dates and future sporting events. Experienced lucid dreamers can effectively improve upon many skills by way of practicing them in the safe, controlled, imaginative environment of the dream. Long-term benefits to lucid dreaming include decreased fear of death and the unknown, greater intelligence and memory recall, and enhanced imagination.

In short, lucid dreaming can not only be an exhilarating experience, but an extremely productive use of time, allowing you to practice for other areas of your life literally as you lie completely still in your bed. It takes practice, but you can become an experienced lucid dreamer using a number of techniques, one of them being to keep a dream diary in which you write down every single detail that you can recall about your dream as soon as you wake up. In addition, minimizing screen time before you go to bed has been found to increase the likelihood of having a lucid dream.

A pivotal period for dating, career decisions and self-creation, college may be one of the most opportune times and places to hone your lucid dreaming skills. Happy dreaming to all of you!

You can reach ELENI STEPHANIDES at estephanides@ucdavis.edu with your psych-related problems, but she might just tell you to sleep on it.

My last week consisted of restoring files after my computer decided it hated me, gave me that blue error screen of death and proceeded to have a major glitch in its operating system. After rushing it to the computer hospital and praying that it wasn’t going to die forever, I realized just how much of my life is contained on my hard drive.

Let’s be real. I could survive without the pictures from my seventeenth birthday party and cute photographs of my cats. But my computer had all the research I needed for my project that was due three days after it crashed. It had all the papers I had ever written. Our hard drives house gigabytes of memories and ideas, countless hours of hard work and not-so-hard work.

The fact that I might never again open “final draft resume.doc” or “spinsters report.pdf” felt dreadful, almost like losing a friend. The news that I could once again be reunited with my file friends after my computer was repaired brought on that peculiar happiness that comes with finding an old pair of sunglasses or that awesome Blink-182 CD you thought you had lost forever.

After the initial shock of almost losing my laptop to the Hades for motherboards, I felt strange for having such a strong attachment to an inanimate object. Is it healthy that our culture is so reliant on cold, hard machines? Are we on the path to an Asimov future full of rebel robots killing us?

Even thinking about how much the presence of computers in our daily lives has changed just over the past 10 years is crazy. The first iPod came out in Oct. 23, 2001. On Oct. 25, 2001, Windows XP was first released. Ten years ago, everyone who was cool used AOL, Dell was the top-selling PC maker and Facebook wouldn’t be founded for another three years. YouTube wasn’t founded until February 2005.

“So much of my life is consumed by Facebook, YouTube and Gmail, it’s weird to think that those weren’t around eight years ago,” says Meenal Tambe, a junior computer science major who spends most of her days in front of a computer screen.

A recent experiment called the world Unplugged looked at students from 12 universities in 10 countries, including students at the University of Maryland, to research how reliant we are on our beloved machines. The experiment concluded earlier this year that being cut off from computers, cell phones, iPods, television, radio and newspapers for just 24 hours can cause negative psychological and physical symptoms – symptoms associated with withdrawal.

The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change sponsored the experiment and has different student reactions to media withdrawal posted on their website. Responses include: “I felt like a drug addict.” “I went into absolute panic mode.” “I feel paralyzed – almost handicapped in my ability to live.”

Only 21 percent of the voluntary participants realized the benefits that unplugging from media might bring. Cravings, mindlessly reaching for their phones or laptops, anxiety attacks and depression were reported by the students. Most suffered from information withdrawal syndrome.

The experiment is a good indicator of how much we rely on media just in our hour-to-hour lives. I know the only time I go more than a few hours without media is when I’m sleeping.

Professor David Nicholas, of the University College of London, has suggested that our generation, the “Facebook generation,” undergoes mental changes because of our insane amount of time spent surfing the web. After three years of research of British teenagers, he concluded that our brains are being rewired and our ability to concentrate is dwindling because of the “quick switch between pages” nature of the internet. Focusing on reading a book or writing a paper is supposedly getting harder and harder to do.

Neanderthals could survive without Google and Mozilla Firefox, so why can’t our generation do the same? Well, Homo sapiens, if we are to be successful and knowledgeable in this complex world, we need media. With so much information being thrown at us from all directions at all times, if you’re not plugged in, you’re left out. It’s not a good thing that most of us are addicted to media, but it is what it is.

Although our future might look like a horrific science fiction novel to some, I think it will be sunny and bright. We will stroll along hand-in-hand with our file friends, Facebook friends, Twitter followers and e-mails, waiting for the day the robots take over.

CORRIE JACOBS looks forward to the day she gets to move to Mars after the machines rule the Earth. Need to book a spot on her space shuttle? Reach her at cljacobs@ucdavis.edu.

We at Health Education and Promotion (HEP) were excited to see Corrie Jacobs’ informative article on the importance of sleep and napping. We know that most college students’ schedules are a balancing act of commitments to work, school, internships and extracurricular activities, making sleep the first thing to go. But when students cut out sleep, performance in school can suffer. In fact, according to 2009 National College Health Assessment data collected on our campus, about one in five UC Davis students report suffering negative academic impacts – such as a failing grade or dropping a course – as a result of sleep difficulties.

Jacobs also noted that naps can boost performance and concentration – and she’s totally right! The benefits of napping, including better academic performance, outweigh potential costs such as taking time away from studying. Napping can actually help you study more effectively by allowing your brain the down time it needs to process and store new information in your permanent long-term memory.

HEP offers napping and sleep resources for students, including nap kits containing an eyeshade, earplugs and napping tips that you can get for free by visiting the Health Education and Promotion department on the third floor of the Student Health and Wellness Center. To find the best places on campus to nap, ranked and reviewed by your fellow students, check out our Nap Map by going to healthcenter.ucdavis.edu/hep/well/napping.

Sweet dreams!

Amelia Goodfellow

Sleep and Stress Student Assistant

Health Education and Promotion

While President Thongsavat has made it clear that Speaker Dias will not be appointed to head the City and County Affairs office, this does not mean her case challenging the hiring process is meaningless. Instead, Dias represents future UC Davis students who may face a far worse violation of their right to a fair hiring process in the ASUCD.  

The precedent the Court establishes in this case will determine if an ASUCD President has any room to deviate from the rules that ensure due process in ASUCD employment. If the Court allows a President leeway here, where is the line between fair and unfair?  

While Dias won’t be hired, it’s important to be certain that the hiring decision for her and for future UC Davis students to other ASUCD positions always takes place under a process that guarantees fair employment opportunity in the ASUCD.

Jeremy Koo

Former ASUCD chief justice (acting)

Class of 2011, political science

The administration at California State University, Sacramento recently charged the “Sac State Four” with code of conduct violations for their April sit-in at the campus’ Sacramento Hall.

For their disciplinary hearing, the four protestors – Amanda Mooers, Yeimi Lopez, Nora Walker and Mildred Garcia Gomez – were not allowed representation as per an October executive order by CSU Chancellor Charles Reed.

Regardless of whether the women were in violation of administrative codes, CSU should have permitted the students’ legal representation at the hearings.

Mooers, Lopez, Walker and Gomez were all issued warnings for their first conduct violations. In the event that they receive second violations, they would face probation or expulsion.

The misconduct notices to the four students stated that they acted in violation of the California Administrative Code policies, including the rules regulating the time, place and manner of individual expression and conduct on campus. They were accused of not complying with administration or police, and unauthorized camping and lodging.

If charges are serious or controversial enough, as in this case, it would seem fair for students to have counsel, especially when they are facing administrative officials.

UC Davis School of Law professor Rex R. Perschbacher said he felt the danger of having lawyers on both sides is that the focus can get drawn away from students and administrators. However, in any other legal case, defendants and plaintiffs are granted the option of representation.

There’s no justification for denying students their sixth amendment right to an attorney, even if the matter is handled within the school court system. CSU and all other universities should respect students’ legal rights.

Sabrina Dias, Outreach Assembly speaker, has filed an ASUCD lawsuit against current ASUCD President Adam Thongsavat for improper hiring practices. She interviewed for City and County Affairs director but was not hired.

 ASUCD bylaws state that both the president and the outgoing director, or the next highest officer, must be present at interviews for the incoming director. While both officials were present for the two other candidates’ interviews, the two officials could not coordinate their schedules for Dias’ interview. Thus, Thongsavat was the only one present. Dias should have had the same interview process that the other candidates were given.

While both the president and the City and County Affairs official have busy schedules, they should have worked harder to find a time that worked for both of them.    

Bylaws are written for a reason and should be followed unless there is an extraordinary circumstance. It is important that the necessary officials are present at interviews, so that they can make the best and most informed decision for ASUCD.

Dias’ interviewing process was not the first time that ASUCD has broken hiring practice bylaws. At an April 21 senate meeting, senators discovered that some commissioners had been hired in an illegal interview setting, in which officials who were supposed to be on the hiring committee were not present at the interview.

ASUCD should strive to follow the bylaws that govern them, and should not ignore them whenever they please.

Thongsavat said he will not be attending the ASUCD court hearing and felt Dias may have filed the suit because she was bitter about not being hired. No matter her reason behind the lawsuit, Dias was correct in pointing out issues in the hiring process.

We see this as a good opportunity for ASUCD to review its bylaws and make sure all rules are followed.

There are times when socially conservative Americans and I part ways. But one issue that we both see as a terrible problem in our country is infidelity.

A friend of my wife’s recently found out that her husband wants a divorce. They had been growing apart for years, and unknown to her, he had been cheating on her for quite some time.

While it is galling in principle that he be the one to demand a divorce from her, the situation is really emblematic of an immoral turn our society has taken in recent decades.

Once upon a time, cheating on your significant other would create an uproar with substantial social problems for you. Now there are far too many indicators that we’ve grown soft on the unfaithful among us.

Plenty of songs take the side of the offended partner (usually a woman) who triumphantly/angrily rebukes the cheater. But some other chart-toppers promote infidelity without a hint of controversy.

“Hotel Room Service” by rapper Pitbull requires girls in the chorus to “forget about your boyfriend” before they meet the singer at the hotel room (the song peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100). Enrique Iglesias explains in “I Like It” (topping out at No. 4 on the Hot 100) that “My girlfriend is out of town/And I’m all alone/Your boyfriend is on vacation/And he doesn’t have to know.”

Even country music isn’t immune. In Sugarland’s beautifully-sung “Stay” (No. 32) the speaker is a mistress begging her lover to leave his wife for her. Oddly enough, the ending of the song is seemingly supposed to elicit sympathy for the woman, as she is “up off her knees” and tells him to stay in his wife’s bed instead.

What a novel concept. Too bad she didn’t think of that before she had sex with a sleazy married man.

An infamous website which does not deserve the meager publicity I have to offer, advertises itself as a hookup network for married people. Their motto? “Life is short. Have an affair.”          

“The World’s Premier Discreet Dating Service with over 9,315,000 anonymous members,” the site brags as you first enter its domain, announcing a depressing number if I ever saw one.

In the FAQ section, those in charge attempt to defend themselves against the accusation that they promote cheating.

“No, [the site] does not encourage anyone to stray,” they write. “In fact, if you are having difficulty with your relationship, you should seek counseling. However, if you still feel that you will seek a person other than your partner to fill your unmet needs, then we truly believe that our service is the best place to start.”

 Don’t do it, they say, but if you feel like it just sign up and we’ll have you breaking the eternal bonds of marriage in no time!

Bull. If this website did not “encourage anyone to stray,” it would not exist. The site makes money precisely because it makes it easier for cheating to occur. As soon as it doesn’t provide a service in the free market, it’s bankrupt (financially, after already being morally so).

Too many of the young have bought into this warped world-view. My wife once reported with dismay that her freshmen girls’ basketball team scoffed at the idea of a sexually loyal man and laughed that cheating is just how boys work. Putting aside 14-year-old girls having experience with sexual fidelity or infidelity, it is truly disheartening to see such low standards among supposedly idealistic youth.

Polls on the subject of cheating vary and precise numbers are hard to come by, but with married people, for example, probably somewhere between a quarter and a third have engaged in a sexual act with someone other than their spouse.

 Everybody has been touched by the consequences of this moral slouch. More than a few of my own friends have been cheated on, even at our young age, and not one of them survived without deep wounds. The damage to our relationships and well being is literally incalculable. But we can do so much better.

To the cheater who might be reading, I hope you feel as guilty every day as you should. If the relationship is that bad, then either repair it or get out. A detour to some other bed is simply disgusting.

To the rest of us, I say we will all live in a better society when we once again shun those who cheat in committed relationships, or worse, in marriages. Those who facilitate wandering procreative acts or are the “mistress” – male or female – should be equally ostracized.

It’s time we started treating cheaters like they’ve actually broken a rule.

If ROB OLSON’s wife is curious why an infidelity networking website is in his search history, she can reach him at rwolson@ucdavis.edu.