Have you ever woken up feeling strange and borderline concerned after having one of those wacky dreams? Do you ever think about what those dreams meant or if they mean anything at all? If you think about it; dreaming, in general, seems like such a peculiar phenomenon.
So why do we dream?
Well according to Sigmund Freud, since we live in a society which has it's own restrictions; in order to be accepted and survive as a civilised person, we discipline ourselves by repressing different impulses and urges. He believes nothing that we do or think occurs by chance as they are all motivated by our unconscious. So when we repress our impulses or desires, they find a way to express themselves while we sleep - when the unconscious is most active. And they are expressed in the form of dreams.
In his very popular work 'The Interpretation Of Dreams', Freud talks about how analysing dreams can help you understand people's personality. This gave rise to the popular trend of dream analysis, wherein with the use of symbolism and metaphor, people started psychoanalysing dreams.
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For e.g: If you see food while dreaming it symbolises knowledge as food nourishes your body just as gaining knowledge nourishes your brain.
Also seeing the act of killing represents a desire to kill a part of your personality and/or represents your hostility towards someone or something.
There is another theory which states that dreams are actually an epiphenomenon, meaning they don't have any primary function and are a result of some other activity. Our brain never stops working even while we are asleep. At night-time, the brain's electrical impulses are received by the conscious part of the brain which, at this point, isn't doing a whole lot. So when it receives these signals, it tries to make sense out of it and create a cohesive story - thus forming dreams. Therefore, dreams are not direct messages from the brain, but a literal Freak-out session of the conscious cortex. So our dreams come across as random and, therefore, don't make a lot of sense.
This theory essentially trumps the previous theory as there is no conceivable connection between our personality and random projections by our brain.
Just like this theory, there are many other theories that give different reasonings for the occurrence of the dream phenomenon. Although, even now no one knows why we dream or what even is the point of dreaming.
Even though scientists around the around world still haven't come to a conclusion as to why we dream, they've uncovered a lot of interesting facts in the process.
With the help of MRI scans, studies revealed that during a part of our sleep cycle (REM), the brain activity is identical to that of when we were awake. But there was a difference in the chemical production inside the brain, chemicals like norepinephrine, serotonin and histamine production was blocked which causes your muscle to not move. Therefore, when you're dreaming about flying and running you don't actually do those things and your body remains stable. Whereas some people who suffer from a disorder, which only partially blocks the production of brain chemicals, act out in their sleep and even sleep walk. Studies have also showed that if a person was woken up during this part of their sleep cycle (REM) they would almost always report that they were dreaming. Therefore, coming to the conclusion that people generally dream during this part of the sleep cycle.
According to many different studies, it has been proven that we dream more often than we assume we do. A person has about 4-6 dreams every night but sadly 95% of the time we forget them - further increasing the mystery behind the concept of dreams.
Another interesting phenomenon related to dreaming is Lucid Dreaming.
A lucid dream is when you're fully conscious and aware of yourself whilst dreaming. Meaning you have full control over your actions. Although the twist is you may or may not realise that you're dreaming, which depends on how convincing your dream is. Interestingly, people have managed to train themselves into Lucid dreaming and actually creating a world of their dreams. There are a lot of tips and tricks available on the internet to help you achieve if you're curious enough to try.
If you've seen Christopher Nolan's Inception, you would realise that the plot for the movie is heavily influenced by this phenomenon, with of course a great amount of fiction. Regardless, it's an extremely fantastic movie you should totally watch it if you haven't!
While Lucid dreaming allows you to gain full control over your actions in a dream, this other phenomenon is quite the opposite and it's called Sleep Paralysis.
Sleep paralysis occurs when you wake up but aren't able to move any part of your body. You're fully aware of your surrounding, but it's almost like you're tied down. Not only that many people have reported that they feel a heavy weight on their chest and sometimes even experience choking. During this time, which can last from few seconds to minutes, people experience a lot of anxiety and have also reported hallucinating supernatural beings.This has invariably led to fantastical tales and myths about demons and other supernatural creatures of the night who lounge on people's chest while they sleep.
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But of course, there is nothing to worry, as doctors have reported no correlation between sleep paralysis and mental illness. Although, like many other mysteries of the human mind, no one has truly understood why one experiences sleep paralysis.
Even now after years of research, scientists are unable to really understand dreams. It's not just that, there are many other theories revolving around concepts such as 'Why do we sleep?' or how there is a very thin line between 'Being Awake and Asleep' and some that even state the two things might not be so different and part of a continuum. We are living in a world of constant discovery and I don't know about you, but to me it's hella exciting!
