Dreaming is something we all experience at some point in our lives. But what are dreams? And
why do we dream at all? Today we are going to attempt at answering some of these questions.
We will dive into many explanations of why we dream. But before we get going,
be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss out on any of our future uploads!
Ok, so what is a dream? When we sleep,
a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occur in our minds. We call this phenomenon a dream.
A person usually dreams in the REM stage of sleep where most of the body is paralyzed combined with
unregulated heart-beat, breathing, and body temperature. In the REM or Rapid Eye Movement
stage, a person’s eyes are doing exactly that, they are constantly flickering in all directions.
What’s interesting about REM sleep is the fact that the brain activity of a person during
this period of sleep is almost exactly like the brain activity of a person who is fully
awake. Due to this fact, REM sleep is also known as ‘Paradoxical sleep’. A person can also have
dreams at any other stage of sleep; however, these dreams are often not so memorable. Furthermore,
a dream can last anywhere between a few seconds to about 30 minutes in length, and those that
awaken during the REM period of their sleep are often the ones who remember their dreams.
For thousands of years, scientists and philosophers have tried to answer the question of
what dreams are and why humans and other animals dream. Early civilizations thought of dreams as a
medium between our world and the divine world of the Gods. In fact, the Greeks and Romans firmly
believed that dreams had certain prophetic powers. Although dreams have been a topic of scientific,
religious, and philosophical interest throughout history, we still do not have a clear answer as to
why we dream despite the current technological advancements. We do, however, have developed
many theories on the purpose of dreams that can help us shed some light on why we dream at all.
Sigmund Freud’s theory falls under the psychological ideology which views dreaming
as a way of coping with events or problems that require much of our time in our waking lives.
Near the end of 1900’s, Freud put forward his theory of dreams based on the idea of repressed
longing. His theory was centered around the fact that dreaming allows us to sort through
unresolved, repressed wishes and desires that we are not able to express in a social setting.
According to Freud, dreams allow the unconscious mind to act out those
unacceptable thoughts and desires originating from our primal needs.
The purpose of dreams under this ideology is to bring these repressed wishes and deepest desires
to the surface so that the dreamer can confront and reconcile these repressed feelings. He also
described two different components of dreams, namely, manifest content and latent content.
The manifest content is made up of the actual images, thoughts, and content contained within
the dream where as the latent content represents the hidden psychological meaning behind the dream.
Freud’s theory contributed to the rise of dream interpretation, which remains popular even today.
Carl Jung studied under Freud but soon branched off in his
own direction. Although he agreed with Freud’s psychological origin of dreams,
he disagreed with the fact that dreams originated from our primal needs and repressed wishes.
He felt that dreams allowed us to reflect on our waking selves, think through issues,
and solve our problems. He described dreams as messages and urged people to pay attention to
these dreams for their well-being. He came to believe that dreams represent revelations that
can uncover and help to resolve emotional or religious problems and internal fears.
Physiological theories are based on the idea that we dream to exercise
various neural networks that some researchers believe affect certain types of learning. In 1997,
J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley proposed the action-synthesis hypothesis of dreaming
which threw out the old psychoanalytical ideas. This theory proposes that during REM sleep,
circuits in the brain become activated causing areas of our brain to create random electrical
impulses. Thus, the brain synthesizes and interprets this internal activity and attempts
to find meaning in these signals. So according to this line of thinking, our dreams are nothing
more than our brain trying to put together a story using various images, sensations, and
memory fragments from our waking life in trying to make sense of these electrical impulses.
According to the Continual-activation theory, both conscious and non-conscious supplementary
systems of working memory have to be continually activated to maintain proper brain functioning.
In other words, when you fall asleep, your brain automatically triggers the generation of random
memories and events which you experience as dreams so your brain does not completely shut down.
This implies that our dreams may not be anything more than a screen saver
built in to protect the brain from completely shutting off.
Information Processing theory, also known as the self-organization theory of dreaming,
explains dreaming as a side effect of brain neural activity as memories are consolidated
during sleep. This theory suggests that one of the main reasons for why we sleep is because
it allows us to consolidate and process all of the information and memories that we have
collected during our waking day. Under this view, during the process of consolidation of memories,
some memories are strengthened while others are weakened.
The primitive instinct rehearsal theory proposes that we dream
to better prepare ourselves and to confront dangers in the real world.
The dream simulations provide a safe place for the dreamer to practice their fight or flight response
and be ready to make the appropriate call when the need arises in their waking life. The theory
suggests that practicing or rehearsing these skills in our dreams gives us an evolutionary
advantage and helps to explain why so many dreams contain scary, dramatic, or intense content.
The emotional regulation dream theory states that the function of dreams is to help us
process and cope with our emotions or trauma in a safe place while we sleep. This theory
suggests that REM sleep plays a vital role in emotional brain regulation. It also helps explain
why so many dreams are emotionally vivid and the fact that emotional or traumatic
experiences tend to show up more often in dreams. Research has also shown a correlation
between the ability to process emotions and the amount of REM sleep in humans. This suggests
that dreams function as a form of psychotherapy and can help heal traumatic experiences.
If you made it to the end of this video, here are a few fun facts on dreaming! Did you know
that blind people also have dreams? People who are born blind do not see any visuals but have
dreams equally vivid involving their other senses. Another fun fact is that animals also dream just
like us! If you ever see your dog or cat move their paws or make "yipping" sounds during their
sleep, they might be dreaming about that nice sizzling steak! Hmmm, getting me hungry for sure!
Well, these were our picks for some of the leading theories that try to explain why we dream.
Did we miss anything? What are your thoughts on why we dream? Let us know in the comments down
below! If you liked this video give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven’t
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So keep dreaming, and make your dreams come true! Until then, we'll see you in the next one!