hello and welcome back to life's biggest questions I'm Ron Mackenzie lafurgey
sleep is one of the few constants in our lives everyone does it whether we like
it or not to some sleep is simply a waste of time that could be put to
better use the others sleep is a haven the time of safety and sometimes a time
of dreaming but why is it that we dream these visions have a function or are
they just a happy or nightmarish side-effect of sleep
let's explore if you want more science videos check out our biggest science
questions playlist on the channel but first get ready it's time to ask the
question why do we dream this is a very difficult question particularly
considering sleep itself is largely mysterious to us we know that sleep
allows us to consolidate and solidify memories rejuvenate our body repair
damaged tissue synthesize hormones and grow muscle but we just aren't certain
why just about all life on Earth has evolved to do it particularly
considering how defenseless we are while we sleep some believe it was to conserve
energy and minimize the necessary caloric intake others believe who is to
avoid predators but the fact remains that sleep is necessary to our bodies
however things get even stranger when we look at what our brains are doing while
we sleep and why we're shown strange visions that we call dreams before we
discuss why it is that we dream we should probably discuss how it is that
this occurs as we sleep our body cycles between a number of stages throughout
the night we transition from light sleep to deep sleep and then to rapid eye
movement or REM sleep before starting the cycle once again most Dreaming takes
place in the REM stage name for the movement of the eyes during this time
the average person has 3 to 6 dreams a night although 95% of dreams are
forgotten by the time you get out of bed at this stage our heart rate and
breathing rate increase sometimes with certain irregularities this is also when
some experienced sleepwalking and bedwetting this stage sees heightened
desynchronized brain waves that are similar to those seen while one is awake
which explains why dreams can often feel very much like they are real when awoken
during this stage you're more likely to remember the dream you are having than
waking up at the conclusion of the sleep cycle so now we know something about how
dreaming works but do we know why we do it
sadly as with so many of life's biggest questions the reason for dreams is
largely a mystery to us there have however been a number of ideas put forth
that have some evidence supporting them some believe that dreaming helps us to
interpret and remember in formation we took in during the day this
is largely based on studies that found that individuals that were taking a
language course during a dream study dreamed significantly more than those
not in the course however there are a number of alternate explanations for
this for instance it could just be that those in the language course have more
on their mind which expressed itself as dreams rather than the dreams being of
any particular use others think that dreaming is a way to work through
difficult emotions and experiences the findings that dreams tend to be related
to important stressors and events in one's life support this idea although
many alternate explanations exist furthermore it's been found that those
under significant stress have more dreams and more powerful ones leading
some to think that dreaming can help our brains to sort through various problems
and even work to solve them again however the causation is not clear still
others believe that dreaming is simply the brains response to the various
biochemical changes and electrical impulses that happen while we sleep this
position would hold that dreams aren't particularly meaningful and are simply
random firings in the brain but science does not have the monopoly on ideas
about dreams for centuries members of various religions have claimed to
understand why it is that we dream some believe these dreams to tell of past
lives and experiences others believe that people and objects in dreams can
have symbolic importance to one's life there are even some people some might
say charlatans who claim to be able to interpret dreams claiming that they can
predict the future or tell things about the person that they may not be aware of
while some of these ideas are more scientifically supported than others we
don't know for sure which is correct it could even be that several ideas around
dreaming are correct and that it plays a number of roles in our well-being
however until progress is made in dream research
we'll be stuck making educated guesses like these before we wrap up there's one
phenomenon that could use some love nightmares
nightmares can be caused by a number of things changes in diet new medication or
increased levels of stress sometimes cause people to experience bad dreams
those suffering from certain mental disorders like depression tend to have
more nightmares as well personally when I was younger drinking too much water
before bed all but guaranteed a visit from the lady with the long horns or the
terrifying Warblers yeah I was a weird kid sadly while we understand the
stressors that can bring about nightmares we're still hamstrung by our
limited understanding of dreams themselves and now we return to our
question why do we dream what we aren't exactly sure we
an understanding of the mechanisms that cause one to see images but we don't
know why this occurs nor the significance of these visions it could
be that it helps us consolidate our memories or process our emotions our
dreams may tell us things about the past or even the future or it could be far
less interesting than that dreams could simply be our brains spitting out images
as it goes through the biochemical and electrical changes found during sleep as
of now we can't know for sure but my goodness is it interesting
thank you for watching life's biggest questions I hope this was interesting
and informative and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own
if you like this video please thumbs up and subscribe to the channel down below
while you're down there let me know the strangest dream you've ever had I once
went on a quest to collect keys from Mother Nature only to have my brains
leached out of my head by the evil brain sucker
ouch until next time I'm Ron McKenzie lafurgey with life's biggest questions
wishing you the best of luck on your quest for answers