Why do we dream? Let's chat about the possibilities about the dream world.

Why do we dream?

There are so many different theories as to why we dream. Today, we will get into what I think are the main three. The first being that dreams have no reason and are really just images that come with neurotransmitters processing through the night. Other scientists and dream researchers believe that it’s the consolidation of life events, and those events are being processed and categorized through these dreams. Even more so, some believe that dreams hold heavy meaning and it’s very much connected with our emotional beings and states, as well as spiritual. From there, many other theories can be posited, but these, I would say, are the topmost three branches from which all the theories stem from.

First of all, let’s chat briefly about what dreaming is. Dreaming is usually during our REM sleep. Our REM sleep is after the first few stages of sleep, as we go deeper into the sleep stages. Each night, we go through these sleep stages, ending at our REM sleep. Once the REM stage is over for the first time, we go through each sleep stage again, and arrive at the REM stage once again. It’s all one big cycle. As the night goes on, we go through the early stages of sleep faster, and stay in our REM longer.

Dreaming is Meaningless

The first theory that has been taken by scientists and others alike for hundreds of years is that dreams have no purpose, no meaning and no function. It’s just white noise and images that our brains conjure up while our brains are resting during the night. (Paulson et al, p. 28, 2017) Years ago, no one could agree on what dreams were, let alone if they meant anything at all. The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, said that dreams were all about wish fulfillment. In my opinion, I think this has less to do about the facts and a little more to do with Freud himself. Carl Jung, on the other hand, said that dreams were “the little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul,” (Paulson et al, 28, 2017). Most scientists today would not agree with these two men. Alan Hobson, the man who really jump started most of the modern day dream research, believed in Activation-Synthesis Theory. This theory states that dreaming occurs because the brain is trying to process the neural activity that goes on in our heads. This would make the imagery that comes with dreams make sense, as our brains are very imaginative.

Consolidation of Life Events & Processing

While scientists are skeptical about dreams and their meaning, others believe that dreams are a way for the brain to process and problem solve in a way that the waking brain is unable to. Kelly Bulkeley says, “Dreaming is a kind of play. It’s a way for children to prepare for adulthood and create scenarios in which they can survive and thrive.(Paulson et al, p. 29, 2017) This would make sense as there are a lot of nightmares involving school. You know you’ve had one, even after you graduated. Leaving behind the nerves of school is not something we can forget after a good night’s sleep. Another theory about dreams is that it’s a kind of biochemical state, replenishing neurotransmitters as we rest, and our brains relax. (Paulson et al, 30, 2017) One story that some may know and some may not, is about Kekule and the Benzene ring. “ He fell asleep and dreamed that he saw atoms dancing around in front of him, that the atoms began to join together—he said forming snakes, but clearly snakes were made of atoms. Finally one snake reached around and took its tail in its mouth and he woke up realizing that benzene was a closed ring structure, which was the first known molecule that was.” (Paulson et al, p. 32, 2017) Now, this theory doesn’t make it entirely clear if there is meaning to why we dream, more so stating the facts that we dream and sometimes it can be helpful in thinking and problem solving.

We Dream because Dreaming is Essential

A lot more people like to lean towards the notion that we dream because it’s human nature, as well as meaningful and sometimes spiritual. While this stance is less scientific and can’t be proven as easily as the other theories with a brain scan-it has a lot more participants speaking up. Whether you’ve had a dream that made you feel alive, or you had a dream that made you feel-you can’t deny that they can be powerful. Other times, not so much. But we all know the feeling of waking up from an incredible dream. Maybe you were flying, maybe you were doing something you have always wanted to do. Either way, and even if you forgot it ten minutes later-you can still remember that indescribable feeling. Honorable mentions include King Nebuchadnezzar from the old testament in the bible having dreams that foreshadowed the ending of his rule and downfall as well as everyone you’ve ever talked to about having dreams that seemed too powerful to just be a dream.

References

Paulson, S., Barrett, D., Bulkeley, K., & Naiman, R. (2017). Dreaming: a gateway to the unconscious? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1406(1), 28–45. https://doi-org.ez.mysapl.org/10.1111/nyas.13389