iTunes U which includes topics such as Health, Science, Business and Engineering. Perhaps of most interest to visitors to my blog would be the availability of material on depression, anxiety, sleep, dreams, behaviour and even meditation. The content is provided by a host of Universities and Colleges and other organizations and much of it is of a very good quality.

 

I recommend you use the iTunes U url which should open the iTunes software on your computer and then use the Power Search from the Quick Links section. You can tell the power search to just focus on iTunes U and then enter your keywords in the description such as depression, anxiety, behaviour or bipolar. I was surprised to see the results that got returned.

Ones that might be of interest to you (I am not recommending them, just highlighting the varied range available):-

• A Mind of their own: Bipolar Disease in Children by Karen Brown (American Public Media) (audio)
  At what point do irritabilit, mood swings and tantrums in children constitute a mental illness? This program looks at three children with bipolar illness, their families, and the professionals who work with them.
• Familial Mood Disorders by Natalie L. Rasgon (Movie)
  Depression and bipolar disorders can be passed down in families but are common in women. See what can be done to treat mood disorders and associated reproductive dysfunction.
• Health Matters: What is Social Anxiety Disorder (Audio)
  
• Simple Mindfulness Exercise (Audio)
• Coping with Anxiety and Depression in Uncertain Times (Movie)
  The experience of psychological trauma is not an uncommon occurrence in today's society. Recent research indicates that severe psychological trauma can cause symptoms of persistent anxiety and depression. 

Actually, if you do find ones that you recommend it would be great if you could let me know and I'll do the same. Perhaps together we can come up with a list of really useful resources for people like us.

During the last month or so I have had some problems with my dreams and this has created an interest in dreams that I have never had before. A few years ago, I became aware of when I was dreaming and began to control some elements of my dreams. If part of a dream seemed very odd then I could replay that part of the dream and even change that part of the dream. As my awareness increased the length of time I was aware of dreaming increased and the number of different dreams I had during a nights sleep also seemed to increase.

This might all sound a bit odd, even unbelievable or perhap interesting or exciting but at the moment whilst I never suffer from nightmares (after all I am in control) I do sometimes get left quite emotional and the quality of my sleep is effected. My personal feeling is that dreams are not there to be interpreted and so that part doesn't interest me (maybe it will later?), for the moment I am interested in learning about why we dream and the impact this has on our wellbeing.

The things I dream of are incredibly odd and the places I visit and the people I meet in my dreams are not always familiar to me. Sometimes when I dream I am not always myself and may be seeing things from a different perspective. Where do these images come from and what purpose if any do they serve? I would love to hear if you can you control your dreams or if you have had any strange dream experiences (I can think of one as I write this - I'll save it for later) or if you have any pointers to information on the science of dreams.