HW11: What is inside your bangungot

                Last night I was watching an episode of Danny Phantom entitled “Frightmare”. The episode is about Danny, having the greatest dream, he was the star in his football tea m, and he was smart enough to have an “A+” in his Science test. It was perfect until something shocking happened that turned his wonderful into a nightmare. He was desperate to save his friends from sleeping so he tried to wake them up by penetrating their dreams.

                While I was watching how Danny penetrated his friends’ dreams, I wonder what can be my friends’ dreams about.  I consider myself to be eternally curious, I wanted to ask my friends what they dream about, specially their nightmares. Do they dream about demons? Or do they dream about being attacked by monsters? Or do they dream about their strict scientific teachers?

                And so when I researched about it, I stumbled upon an article about a study on “A Phenomenological Study on Bangungot among Young Filipinos”. the study is about the common nightmares of Filipino people.

                The researched stated that most of the common themes of Filipino nightmares are supernatural activity, demonic encounters, a mix of reality and unlikely circumstances and being in paradise. Here is the tabulation of data:

                The results of the survey show most of the dreams that Filipinos have is unreal. A good explanation for this is maybe because we are familiar with a lot of legends about scary creatures, and that we were raised to be afraid of these creatures, we usually have them as the topic for our unpleasant dreams. We have been familiar with aswangs, tiyanaks, white ladies, duwendes, and other weird creatures. I bet that most of us are terrified of these creatures because when we are still young, our grandparents would usually scare us to sleep, using all these monsters and demonic characters.

                If you ask me, I think that it is because of our traditions and culture, why Filipinos tend to have the same types of nightmares. Because of how we learn stuff when we are kids, or how our elderly believe in the supernatural. Maybe this is because we had a historical background in terms of these things; we are all familiar that Filipinos are used to believe in spirits, worshipping inanimate objects. And though we had changed our beliefs when the Spaniards came, some of us still believe in these things. We may not worship them anymore, or look up to them in a religious aspect, their influence is still very much alive.

HW10: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

     This paper attempted to ascertain the relationship of food and dreams. But this research paper focused on the effects of common Filipino flavors in Filipino students’ dreams.

     This research used the descriptive approach whereas the data are gathered through series of research, surveys and interviews. The results of the research are the following:

1.      Food does have an effect dreams though it is not direct. Food affects metabolism and metabolism tends to affect the dreams.

2.      Filipino flavors, namely sweet, salty and sour taste has a specific effect on dreams. Salty food results in nightmares, sweet food can give sweet dreams in moderation, and nightmares in maximum quantities.

3.      The time of eating and sleeping also affects dreams. Not eating before sleeping causes nightmares, as well as sleeping immediately after eating.

Conclusion

     Based on the data gathered from the research, the following conclusions are drawn:

1.      After researching and performing surveys, the researcher believes that it is important to have a balance between the diet and schedule of a person, especially students.

2.      Time is still important not just the quantity. Eating too much or too little affects the body the same.

Recommendation

     After drawing the conclusion of the study, the researcher hereby make the following suggestions/recommendations:

1.      Planning what to eat can help a person in sleeping, or to be more precise, having good dreams. Eating the right type of food in the right quantity in the right time can be helpful, not just to once health but as well as psychological health.

2.      Further researchers should design an experiment that will test of other flavors on people’s dreams. The research should also last for a few days in order to show consistency.

References

a.      Electronic Media

“How Dreams are created.” Retrieved October 13, 2012 from http://infiniteminds.info/Lucid-Dreaming/How-are-dreams-created.html

“What parts of the brain produces dreams.” Retrieved October 13, 2012 from http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.livestrong.com/article/78256-parts-brain-produce-dreams/

“Mood-Food Relationship.” Retrieved October 15, 2012 from http://www.diet.com/g/moodfood-relationships

“Causes of Bad Dreams.” Retrieved October 16, 2012 from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/causes-of-bad-dreams.html

“Sweet (Salty, Savory, Sour and Spicy) Dreams: Food and Your Dreams.” Retrieved October 16, 2012 from http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/how-food-affects-you-dreams

“Bangungot: A Deadly Nightmare.” Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=156500&publicationSubCategoryId=75

 

HW9: Dream On!

Have you ever experienced having story sessions with your grandparents, telling you stories on how the sampaguitas came to this earth, or why pineapples look that way. Because I sure did!

I can still remember when I went to a play outside the church in our province with my grandmother. The play was about the legend of the lansones fruit. It was a good play and the plot was interesting, and being a kid, I actually believed what the play suggested to be the origin of the fruit.

Filipinos are known for all the myths about almost anything. And we have so many stories that are very interesting and can really make you think after hearing them. We have all sorts of stories about almost anything under the sun, clearly a unique characteristic of Philippine culture.

One of the interesting Filipino myths is about dreams. We have some myths about what dreams really are. Though some may be quite the same as to the other beliefs about dreams, you can still see the Filipino touch. The first Filipino myth about dreams is all about the urban legend batibat.

According to Ilokano legends, the batibat is a magical creature that sits on the person while he or she is sleeping, causing the dreamer to have nightmares, suffocate, then die in the process. This is quite disturbing if you ask me, since this story is mostly relied on little kids. This story would usually scare children and can even cause fear of sleeping, if you think of the worst thing that could happen.

Another myth that I have researched, according to the article “Philippine Myths on Dreams”, is about dreams being souls or spirits that travel. The article says that once the person is asleep, his body and soul separates, then the soul actually travels in the dream land, which is like the real world, with a few weird aspects like how running can be either too fast or too slow. Also according to the article, “This explains why, says this Philippine myth, lots of people feel they have been in a place they have actually never visited before.” That is why, we Filipinos are fond of saying “I know this place!” or “I think I've been here before.”

Filipinos are also fond of saying that dreams are actually hints or actually glimpse of the future. This may sound familiar, because this is also a definition of dreams by many dream enthusiasts but we tend to take this belief a level higher. Remember your mother saying that she dreams of something then she says its corresponding number? Or when you dream off your teeth falling, your parents will tell you that someone is about to die in the family? That is a typical way of how Filipinos interpret dreams as future tellers. And to be honest, there are a lot out there that actually believes in these dream interpretations.

      Honestly speaking, I can say that we have funny ways of seeing what dreams are. As a dream enthusiast, I am still debating whether I find these beliefs amusing or disturbing. But nevertheless, I still embrace this because no matter what I do, I am still a Filipino that once believed in this myths, and I’m proud of it!

HW8: Taking deserts to bed

I remember when I was a kid; I would hide from my mom whenever I feel like eating extra plates of rice or extra plate of deserts. Sometimes it’s just so hard to resist the urge to have something that you love, and in my case that is food.

Now since I am proud to be a Filipino, I want to talk about two flavors that I know every Filipino just simply adores: sweet and salty food. And since this blog is simply about dreams, I would like to discuss about its connection.

First is the effect of sweet food on dreams. An article in Livestrong, “DOES SUGAR GIVE KIDS NIGHTMARES?” showed that food with sugar content can have an effect on dreams by causing physical sensation. These sensations can be felt while the person is still sleeping like how we tend to be affected by the sounds in our environment while we are sleeping.

Do you remember sometimes when you tend to take with you the background music that you were listening before you fell asleep? According to the article, since sugar can give a burst of energy, this can cause a stimulation in the body that can cause the brain to interpret it as excitement and take it to their dreams.

But in a way, sweet foods like chocolates secretes theobromine and caffeine that can disrupt sleep or even cause nightmares.

 

On the other hand, there was also a study conducted by the European Society of Endocrinology that showed how salty food affects dreams. According to the research, eating salty food before sleeping can cause sleep disturbances that can lead to sleeps that are not deep. And since the subjects of the research are distracted with their sleep, “…NON-REM decreases and REM increases so that the individual dreams a lot and even sometimes has nightmares.” This just shows that food really has a effect on dreams though it’s not necessarily direct. (http://www.endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0011/ea0011p590.htm)

These data just proves why we Filipinos have a lot of cases that involve nightmares. But nevertheless, I believe that we still can’t fight the fact that sweet and salty food are already a part of our culture and Philippine genes, so the only thing that we can do about it is to try and regulate these inevitable tastes.

Eat well!

HW7: SURVEY REPORT

SURVEY REPORT

            In order to gather information for the research on the effects of food on dreams, the researcher conducted surveys and had a few interviews. The researcher chose to conduct the survey on a group that can have similar set of activities and schedule in order to achieve a sort of controlled set up. All the respondents are AC students, and almost 95% of the respondents came from the same block. The researcher also had a few interviews to ask more specific questions concerning the questions asked in the survey. The interviews tackled follow-up questions concerning the time difference of when they eat and sleep and other night routines.

            The first question in the survey asked about how many times the respondent dreams in a week. This question intended to answer how much the respondent can remember the dream that they had. 10 out of 25 respondents claim that they dream more than twice in a week, another 10 out of the 25 respondents said that they dream twice a week, and the remaining 5 claim to dream every night. This data can be considered as a good sign for the researcher because most of the respondents are able to remember the dreams that they had, thus having more reliable data. With regards to the type of dreams the respondents usually had, 48% of the respondents claim to usually have nightmares, while respondents with happy dreams are only 20%, 32% claim to have re-occurring dreams or those dreams that happen over and over again. 32% of these dreams are said to be vivid in a way that the respondents did not even realized that they were dreaming until they woke up. With regards to the relationship of food on their dreams, survey results show that most of the respondents who had nightmares either ate something salty (33%),ate something light like chips and sandwiches (33%), or didn’t eat at all (17%). Almost all the respondents who often had happy dreams usually eat something sweet. Vivid dreams are also incorporated with salty food while Re-occurring dreams mostly happen to those who eat light meals.

            As a researcher, I somehow expected the results. I had expected most of the respondents to answer either salty or light meals as to what they eat before they sleep because these types of food are the usual meals these days; salty dishes because of our culture and light meals specially for busy students like college students. But I didn’t quite expect for remarkable similarities in the results. Honestly, I thought that the details will be all over, but most of the answers of the respondents are the same. My expectation about having nightmares when you don’t eat before sleeping or possible being a bit hungry was also well established in the results.

Graphs:

HW6: Something to die for :)

It is a common knowledge for the Philippine Culture to be a mixture of a lot of other traditions and beliefs since we are colonized a few times and influenced by many countries through trading or barter.

And one of the most influenced parts of our culture is the Philippine cuisine. According to an article in Global Gourmet, Filipino Flavors are basically Malay in origin with a touch of Spanish, Chinese and American influence.

But being creative in nature, Filipinos kept on finding ways to transform these dishes into something that we can say as our own. We add flavors and use techniques that are uniquely Filipino.

Some examples to this are the dishes that are considered to be national symbols of Filipino food like adobo, lechon or even pancit. These foods came from different places, but we tend to add our own identity by incorporating spices that can be considered as a Mexican influence. Mexican flavor is a bit spicy because of the spices that are also known to be found in the country. Again, if you look at it, these 'National Dishes' are from different places, but if you put it together, with the touch of Filipino hands, it will the a wonderful Filipino delicacy!

Filipinos tend to mix up different tastes from different places to make a unique taste while having the same ingredients. According to another article by Aradmin, entitled “Philippine Culture and History”, all of those dishes that were from our colonizers where “…indigenized—Filipinized by the ingredients and by local tastes.” Meaning dishes are usually based on the place where they are made. For example, pancit has many versions; we have pancit malabon, which is made with oyster since the place is famous for fishing pancit Marilao has rice crisps since the place is in Luzon, famous for the rice industry.

                Overall, though the flavor of Filipino food can’t be considered as an original, the fact that we can make delicious dishes from unusual variety of food, it alone makes the Filipno flavor, something to die for!

Happy Eating!

HW5: Cover Letter

SURVEY COVER LETTER

Date:

Dear Respondent:

I am an undergraduate student under the direction of Mr. Dustin Celestino in the English Department at Asia Pacific College.  I am conducting a research study entitled, “The Effects of Food on Dreams” The purpose of this study is to know if there is a relationship between dreams and food. The participants will be high school to college students.

Your participation will involve answering a survey form and answering an interview and should only take 5 to 10 minutes.  Your involvement in the study is voluntary, and you may choose not to participate or to stop at any time.  The results of the research study may be published, but your name will not be used.  Your identity will not be associated with your responses in any published format.

If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to call me at this number, 0909-524-9460 or send an e-mail to this address, geolinamajadas@gmail.com. Questions about your rights as a research participant or concerns about the project should be directed to the English Department at Asia Pacific College at 852-9232.

By returning this questionnaire in the envelope provided, you will be agreeing to

participate in the above described project.

Thanks for your consideration!

Sincerely,

Geolina T. Majadas

Bachelor of Science Major in Accountancy Student, Asia Pacific College