Why do we have dreams when we sleep?
Answer:
Two different schools of thought exist as to why we dream: the physiological school, and the psychological school.
Both, however, agree that we dream during the REM, or rapid eye movement, phase of sleep. During this phase of sleep, our closed eyes dart rapidly about, our brain activity peaks, and our muscles suffer temporary paralysis.
Some scientists take the position that dreaming probably has no function. They feel that sleep, and within it REM sleep, have biological functions (though these are not totally established) and that dreaming is simply an epiphenomenon that is the mental activity that occurs during REM sleep. I do not believe this is the most fruitful approach to the study of dreaming. Would we be satisfied with the view that thinking has no function and is simply an epiphenomenon--the kind of mental activity that occurs when the brain is in the waking state?
Therefore I will try to explain a current view of dreaming and its possible functions, developed by myself and many collaborators, which we call the Contemporary Theory of Dreaming. The basic idea is as follows: activation patterns are shifting and connections are being made and unmade constantly in our brains, forming the physical basis for our minds. There is a whole continuum in the making of connections that we subsequently experience as mental functioning. At one end of the continuum is focused waking activity, such as when we are doing an arithmetic problem or chasing down a fly ball in the outfield. Here our mental functioning is focused, linear and well-bounded. When we move from focused waking to looser waking thought--reverie, daydreaming and finally dreaming--mental activity becomes less focused, looser, more global and more imagistic. Dreaming is the far end of this continuum: the state in which we make connections most loosely.
Some consider this loose making of connections to be a random process, in which case dreams would be basically meaningless. The Contemporary Theory of Dreaming holds that the process is not random, however, and that it is instead guided by the emotions of the dreamer. When one clear-cut emotion is present, dreams are often very simple. Thus people who experience trauma--such as an escape from a burning building, an attack or a rape--often have a dream something like, "I was on the beach and was swept away by a tidal wave." This case is paradigmatic. It is obvious that the dreamer is not dreaming about the actual traumatic event, but is instead picturing the emotion, "I am terrified. I am overwhelmed." When the emotional state is less clear, or when there are several emotions or concerns at once, the dream becomes more complicated. We have statistics showing that such intense dreams are indeed more frequent and more intense after trauma. In fact, the intensity of the central dream imagery, which can be rated reliably, appears to be a measure of the emotional arousal of the dreamer.
Therefore, overall the contemporary theory considers dreaming to be a broad making of connections guided by emotion. But is this simply something that occurs in the brain or does it have a purpose as well? Function is always very hard to prove, but the contemporary theory suggests a function based on studies of a great many people after traumatic or stressful new events. Someone who has just escaped from a fire may dream about the actual fire a few times, then may dream about being swept away by a tidal wave. Then over the next weeks the dreams gradually connect the fire and tidal wave image with other traumatic or difficult experiences the person may have had in the past. The dreams then gradually return to their more ordinary state. The dream appears to be somehow "connecting up" or "weaving in" the new material in the mind, which suggests a possible function. In the immediate sense, making these connections and tying things down diminishes the emotional disturbance or arousal. In the longer term, the traumatic material is connected with other parts of the memory systems so that it is no longer so unique or extreme--the idea being that the next time something similar or vaguely similar occurs, the connections will already be present and the event will not be quite so traumatic. This sort of function may have been more important to our ancestors, who probably experienced trauma more frequently and constantly than we (at least those of us living in the industrialized world) do at present.
Thus we consider a possible (though certainly not proven) function of a dream to be weaving new material into the memory system in a way that both reduces emotional arousal and is adaptive in helping us cope with further trauma or stressful events.
The physiological theory centers upon how our body, specifically our brains, function during the REM phase of sleep. Proponents of this theory believe that we dream to exercise the synapses, or pathways, between brain cells, and that dreaming takes over where the active and awake brain leaves off. When awake, our brains constantly transmit and receive messages, which course through our billions of brain cells to their appropriate destinations, and keep our bodies in perpetual motion. Dreams replace this function.
Two underpinning physiological facts go towards supporting this theory of dreams. The first lies in the fact that the first two or so years of ones life, the most formative ones for learning, are also the ones in which the most REM sleep occurs. It follows that during this time of the greatest REM sleep, we experience the greatest number of dreams. The second physiological fact that lends credence to this theory is that our brain waves during REM sleep, as recorded by machines measuring the brain's electrical activity, are almost identical in nature to the brain waves during the hours we spend awake. This is not the case during the other phases of sleep.
Psychological theorists of dreams focus upon our thoughts and emotions, and speculate that dreams deal with immediate concerns in our lives, such as unfinished business from the day, or concerns we are incapable of handling during the course of the day. Dreams can, in fact, teach us things about ourselves that we are unaware of.
Connections between dreams that the human psyche have been made by many people over thousands of years. The famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle wrote in his "Parva Naturalia," over 2,200 years ago, of a connection between dreams, waking experiences, and emotional needs.
Others have delved into more complicated explanations for dreams, such as the prophetic nature of dreams written of in the Bible, which was and is a belief held by many cultures. Sigmund Freud, one of the fathers of modern psychology, believed dreams to be symbolic of any number of things buried deep within our minds and our memories.
Until someone proves or disproves one of these theories, or poses an alternate one, we are left at square one. Our knowledge as to what causes us to dream is limited to the fact that we do dream, and that dreams occur during the REM phase of sleep. Sweet dreams!
Is you sub-conscious trying to prevent you, preparing you, or simply telling you, letting you know something?.
From old tales they say its that your spirit wonders while you sleep and it warns your from future occurences .. but who know sif thats true it could just be your daily thoughts ... i am sure there is an accurate answer to this question .
RIM
…..The scientific explanation -
When you sleep, your body and perception systems are shut down, but your brain stem continues to fire. The cortex is only minimally active. The content that has been most active in your brain during waking hours—perceptions, experiences, thoughts and feelings, processed consciously or unconsciously—are still “peaked” and they associate with other images already stored in your cortex. In other words, the brain references this content, but not in a rational way, not using input from the external real world as in waking hours. So the story connectedness isn’t like everyday experience, but rather a strange flow from one image to the next.
Dreams can’t magically foretell the future; they don’t contain messages to guide your life. They are sequences of associated images stimulated by feelings left over from the day’s experiences. So their significance is that they can reveal what your current issues are. All you need to do recall what kind of images were in your dream and think about how they relate to feelings you’ve had recently.
I think it is a way for your brain to deal with the day to day stress of life.
when you think of any thing before sleeping u will be getting it as a dream or if someone is speaking while your sleeping then also u r going to dream it.
Dreams occur during REM sleep (rapid eye movement). This is when your brain's activity is highest. We actually have dreams every night during REM, though we may not remember all of them. According to dream analyzation, the characters in dreams represent different parts of yourself. Some people have prophetic dreams, but most dreams reflect the distresses and eustresses ("bad" stress and "good" stress) of day to day life. It is the brain 'working things out,' so to speak. Parts of our brains that we don't use during the day are exercised at night.
To deal with the events of the previous day. Our dreams are basically the only time our mind can relax and get a grip on everything.
That's why dreams usually have meanings relating to your real life as well.
your dreams are what you feel or want you can also have the dreams you're dreaming passed on to you by other people who are dreaming them
From what I understand dreaming is when our Neurons grow new dendrites, thus making new connections with other neurons. This is a time when the brain process what has happened during the day, and decides where to store it for more long term use. The reason that you dream about current things and things from the past is that the connections in our brain may connect current things to things from the past, so when you store the new memory, you access the old memory as well.
You know Jennifer just absolutely amazes me with the stuff she knows. I use to consider myself pretty smart, but, not anything like this. Great answer.
I think that we have some good or bad or any things to belive in ourself before sleep then we have dreams in some night.
I believe it's the brains way of testing it's circuits while we're asleep, a form of mental servicing. Have a good day.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FunQA.com does not guarantee the right.
More Questions and Answers: