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\nWhy do we dream? What do dreams mean? What are dreams? We know that we dream while we are asleep. Sleep can be divided into two categories rapid eye movement or REM sleep, and non-REM sleep. When you fall asleep, non-REM occurs first,...\nWhy do we dream? What do dreams mean? What are dreams? We know that we dream while we are asleep. Sleep can be divided into two categories rapid eye movement or REM sleep, and non-REM sleep. When you fall asleep, non-REM occurs first, then you fall into an REM sleep.
Deep sleep actually occurs in non-REM sleep. During this time, you body temperature and heart rate fall, and the brain uses less energy. About 90 minutes later, however, we go into REM sleep where our brain activity picks up again, and is very similar to when we are awake. Although this is a smaller portion of total sleep, only about 20-25%, this is when dreams happen.
During REM sleep, the brain is telling the body to move, just as if you were awake, but a tiny area of the brain called the pons, causes the body to be paralyzed. The only thing that is not paralyzed is your eyes. That’s why you have rapid eye movement during this period. But what is the purpose of sleeping? One purpose appears to be to restore the brain’s energy.
But what is the meaning of dreams? Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, explained dreams as manifestations of a person’s innermost desires. He believed that almost all dreams held some kind of sexual meaning. But the theory that symbols in dreams have meaning is rejected by most scientists today, and much of Freud’s theory has been discredited.
So if Freud was wrong, then what do dreams mean? There are a few characteristics that all dreams seem to have in common.
1) We usually cannot remember them
2) When we do remember them, they do not seem to make sense
3) They seem to trigger some of our deepest emotions
4) They seem profound
Can these characteristics of dreams be explained by science? Yes. During REM sleep, the part of brain involved in logic and reason, called the prefrontal cortex is turned off, but the emotional part of the brain, located in the hippocampus and amygdala are very active. Since our reasoning ability is not really working, dreams don’t make sense, but everything that we dream about triggers our emotions because that part of our brain is super active.
Also, norepinephrine decreases in the body. But this chemical is also involved in helping us form memories. So, because it is down during sleep, our ability to form memories is reduced. This is why we can’t remember dreams. The levels of another brain chemical called serotonin is decreased. According to neuroscientist, Dr. Robert Stickgold, this lowered level of serotonin biases the brain to think that whatever it is experiencing is important.
So if this profoundness is an illusion created by the chemical activity in the brain during our sleep process, then why do we dream? One theory is that the purpose of dreams is to help you store and build important memories, and also get rid of or delete unimportant memories. This is similar to defragmenting the hard drive on your computer.
Your brain gets thousands, and maybe millions of sensory inputs daily. Biologically, some of these may be important to your survival, but most are unimportant. During sleep, your brain sorts through these inputs of the day, and figures out what to keep in long term memory, and what to delete. So REM appears important for remembering as well as forgetting.
But why do some people have some of their most creative thoughts through their dreams?Scientists have proposed that during sleep, biologically our brains are not required to focus on survival activities. During REM sleep, our minds, with the burden of survival being turned off, and the logic portion of our brain, in the prefrontal cortex turned off, we can freely associate ideas and thoughts and perhaps try out different combinations without the constraints of logic or survival bias in our brain. This can allow some of the wildest and creative ideas.
But there is also a theory that dreams don’t serve any function at all. Owen Flanagan, Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, thinks that the brain is just firing certain sets of neurons randomly. And dreaming is just our brain vaguely trying to make sense of it all. Could it be that it is all really just meaningless?
From a Darwinian perspective, dreams must have fulfilled some biological requirement that gave us some benefit for natural selection, otherwise, we probably would not have retained this function.
According to Antti Revonsuo, Professor at the University of Turku in Finland, dreams prepare humans for recognizing and avoiding danger by presenting a simulation of threatening events. This is called the threat-simulation theory.
Although there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that the content of our dreams have any profound meaning, the biological purpose appears to be more clear cut. Dreams help the brain function better, and probably give us advantages in terms of creativity, problem solving and danger avoidance.
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Resource Details
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\n- Media Length
\n- 10:51
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\n- Grade
- 12th - Higher Ed
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\n- Source:
\n\nArvin Ash\n\n
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\n\n- Language
- English
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- Fine Print: Educational Use
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