The Science Behind Dreams
If you are a human being, you have had a dream. Even if you can’t recall any of your dreams, you’re still dreaming. It’s a function that humans require to sustain life. Dreams come in the most quality rich portion of sleep called the R.E.M. Stage and are imperative to creating energy, proper metabolism, and mental health—despite how weird these dreams may come across as at times. But why do we dream? Why is it so imperative for our bodies to dream? In this article, we’ll take a look at what science has to say about it all.
Why Do We Dream?
With all of the knowledge that science has to offer about dreams, unfortunately, there’s no concrete reason that’s ever been provided as to why we dream. Science has at least been able to deduce that when we go about our lives after a period of not dreaming, we’re in for some major repercussions. One of the most notable side effects of not dreaming is heightened irritability, anger, anxiety, and depression. Many people also have experienced hallucinations when participating in studies in which they are not allowed to dream.
What is a Dream Then?
This is another question that bears no definitive answer. From the beginning of time, many people believed that their dreams were prophecies of the future. However, the belief that dreams are actual prophecies stems from a time where humans did not have much insight as to where we came from, why we’re here, or where we’re going, so it’s easy to see how they would be construed as such.
In more recent times, many psychologists believe that dreams occur in order to help us process emotions that we may not know how to handle, better store memories, and even help to solve critical problems within our waking lives.
What do Dreams Actually Mean?
This is a question that has many experts divided. Some believe that even the most outlandish types of dreams are representations of certain feelings. For example, seeing blood in your dream tends to represent a type of new life that’s about to be had—whether an actual new life such as a new baby, or perhaps a type of re-birth. Having a dream in which you are participating in an extramarital affair may represent feelings of constriction in your waking life. The list truly goes on and on. On the other hand, some experts believe that if you dream that you are swimming in a pink ocean with green whales and orange dinosaurs, that’s your dream and there’s no extra representation. If you’ve dreamt of a green whale—your mind simply constructed a green whale while you are asleep, and that’s that. This might seem like a nihilistic approach, but for some, it is seen as a type of peace of mind.
Can You Control Your Dreams?
The short answer to this is: kind of. In the stage of sleep somewhere between R.E.M. sleep and actual awakening, there is a phase called lucid dreaming. Think of it as your brain is setting a backdrop, and you can control the details and storyline—if you’re versed in this practice. It is definitely something that many people do have to work on. They work on this by keeping dream journals, and if they’ve really got their circadian rhythm (better known as their natural sleep pattern) down pat, they can actually almost wake up during that time, and control exactly what happens. People have been noted to turn trees into buildings, boxes into animals, and other types of odd things. The mind is undoubtedly incredibly powerful. However, this is only possible between R.E.M. sleep and awakening. There is absolutely no way to do this during regular R.E.M. sleep as your body, as well as your brain is in almost a complete paralysis.
Most experts, however, recommend that you let your brain do what it wants to do and not interfere with the dreaming process at any stage. The reason for this is because if your brain is trying to give you an important message or tie some conscious facts together, you could very well interrupt receiving that important message by changing your dream’s story, so to speak.
All in all, dreams are just as unique as the people who have them—if not even more unique. Even babies in utero that are past the twenty eight week mark have shown signs that they’re dreaming as well. There are over seven billion and counting people on this planet that are all dreaming, and each individual dream means different things to different people. How do you interpret your dreams?