If You Love Him, Ignore the Snore?

Don’t! Snoring may put you at a greater risk than those who are overweight, smoke or have high cholesterol to have thickening of the carotid artery, which can lead to heart attacks.

Surgeon Robert Deeb says, “Our study adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that isolated snoring may not be as benign as first suspected. So instead of kicking your snoring bed partner out of the room or spending sleepless nights elbowing him or her, seek out medical treatment for the snorer.

"Snoring is more than a bedtime annoyance and it shouldn’t be ignored. Patients need to seek treatment in the same way they would if they had sleep apnea, high blood pressure or other risk factors for cardiovascular disease."

And what about dreams? Psychologists think that dream images could provide insights into people’s mental health problems and may help with their treatment.

Psychologist Lance Storm has been studying dream symbols (or "archetypes") and their meanings, as described by the famous psychologist and psychiatrist, Carl Jung. In the early 1900s, Jung proposed that these archetypes were ancient images stemming from humans’ collective unconscious. He believed that dream symbols carried meaning about a patient’s emotional state which could improve understanding of the patient and also aid in their treatment.

Storm says, "Jung was extremely interested in recurring imagery across a wide range of human civilizations, in art, religion, myth and dreams. He described the most common archetypal images as the Hero, in pursuit of goals; the Shadow, often classed as negative aspects of personality; the Anima, representing an element of femininity in the male; the Animus, representing masculinity in the female; the Wise Old Man; and the Great Mother.

"There are many hundreds of other images and symbols that arise in dreams, many of which have meanings associated with them – such as the image of a beating heart (meaning ‘charity’), or the ouroboros, which is a snake eating its own tail (‘eternity’). There are symbols associated with fear, or virility, a sense of power, the need for salvation, and so on.

"In Jungian theory, these symbols are manifestations of the unconscious mind; they are a glimpse into the brain’s ‘unconscious code’, which we believe can be decrypted. Our research suggests that instead of randomly interpreting dream symbols with educated guesswork, archetypal symbols and their related meanings can be objectively validated. This could prove useful in clinical practice."

What’s next? A dictionary of dream symbols? And if so, would they be consistent worldwide or (more likely) vary from culture to culture?

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