Over the course of my life I have become curious on what makes us dream and why. Sometimes I am able to remember my dreams and when I do I never understand them. Most of what I dream is strange and inexplicable, and really makes me think about why it is that we have dreams. Therefore in this blog I want to address why we dream. A couple of online sources I have researched have helped me further comprehend the subject. The dreams we have can incorporate every image, idea and sentiment that occurs throughout the day. Dreams can be astonishingly vivid and intense or extremely unclear. Scientists all over the world have been performing sleep studies for many years to further understand dreams, however we still aren’t completely positive about how and why we dream. It’s understood by the entire scientific community that everyone dreams, however, the amount of dreams we remember usually depends on the person. There are numerous theories on the matter of dreaming and why they occur. One of these theories is that dreams occur to aid the brain in the process of sorting through everything it has experienced over the course of the day. A person typically experiences hundreds of thousands of thoughts each day, and while we sleep the brain goes through all of this information to see what it needs to remember and what it is able to forget and get rid of in order to make room for new memories. Another theory that has been developed is that dreams usually depict our emotions. If you are pondering something heavily on your mind during the day, odds are you may dream about it either specifically, or through comprehensible imagery. As long as many features of the human brain remain a mystery, we probably won’t be able to determine with complete certainty precisely why it is that we have dreams.
http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/your-dreams
http://io9.com/10-theories-that-explain-why-we-dream-897195110
I really appreciate this post because it’s such a valid and relevant question, since it’s something we can all relate to. I’ve always wondered why we dream and why we dream the dreams we do. I do think that what we experience in the outside world while we’re awake influences our dreams but, sometimes, they seem to make no sense at all! It’s an interesting topic to do research on and broaden your knowledge on.
I found your post very interesting. I am very interested in the sleep cycles so I did some research on nightmares and what might cause them. You should check out this link it gives a list of things that make you more likely to have nightmares.
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/nightmares-in-adults
I always wonder why I dream. Sometimes my dreams are relevant to my thoughts during the day and then other times my dreams make no sense. I try and figure out what certain things mean in some dreams but I usually cannot figure it out. I love dreaming though I think it’s really cool and interesting that we see this vision in our sleep and can at times relate it to events going on in our every day lives.
I agree that dreams are strongly correlated with our emotions, specifically anxiety. Normally when I remember my dreams, they have to do with something that I had been worrying about. But it’s hard to decide if dreams really do have some sort of meaning because each individual has 8-9 dreams each night and they rarely remember them.