The Egyptians also prized the Israelites as dream interpreters. Joseph, sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, was able to rise from poverty to a position of considerable power by correctly interpreting the Pharaoh's dream that foretold seven plentiful and seven lean years in the ancient kingdom (Genesis 41: 138).
In the second century AD the Sophist philosopher Artemidorus of Daldis (who makes two brief and enigmatic appearances in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar) drew together the wisdom of earlier centuries, much of it already collected in the great library of the Babylonian King Asurna at Ninevah. His researches appeared in five highly influential dream books. Although many of his interpretations sound quaint to present-day ears, Artemidorus was surprisingly modern in some respects ( Fontana 89).
In the West, little progress was made in the study of dreams in the centuries after Artemidorus, as it was thought that he had made their mysteries plain. In nineteenth century Europe even philosophers such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) and Johann Friedrich Herbart (1777-1841) began to regard dreams as worthy of serious psychological study, and thus the way was prepared for the revolution in dream theory that began at the end of the century with Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). The Swiss-born psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961) worked closely with Freud between 1909 and 1913, but found himself distanced by Freud's views (Wad 120).
More than likely, everyone dreams. Although many forget most or all of the dreams that visit them during the night, normally one fifth of the night is spent dreaming. Most "big" dreams occur during REM, or Rapid Eye Movement, sleep are filled with narratives, symbols, and detailed dream scenery. As we fall asleep and in the moments before we wake up, we experience hypnogogic and hynopompic dreams. We dream at other phases of the night as well, and although some of these dreams are indistinguishable from REM dreams, most are fragmentary, less meaningful, less vivid, and rarely remembered upon waking (Wade 173).