Dreams. So strange, yet so powerful. So intricate, yet so simple. What could they possibly mean? Maybe you dream every night; maybe don’t dream at all. There are so many different ideas, connections, and facts behind what dreams are and their meaning. Despite the abundance of neuroscience and psychological studies done on dreams, surprisingly, scientists lack the simple understanding of why we dream in general! Dive in with me as we attempt to figure out what dreams are –or what they could possibly mean– and uncover the mysteries of the night.
So, what’s happening?
According to sleepfoundation.org, dreams are mental, emotional, or sensory experiences that take place during sleep. Whether you remember or not, you dream every single night! The brain has between 4 to 6 dreams a night on average. According to a class survey at Helix, 80% of students sometimes remember their dreams, whereas only about 20% of students always remember them.
Dreaming can occur during any stage of sleep, but it is most common during REM sleep, also known as Rapid Eye Movement. Dreams that take place during REM are usually crazier, vivid and abnormal, whereas dreams that don’t take place during this stage are typically more centered on thoughts and memories. To prevent you from acting out in your dreams, your body becomes temporarily paralyzed during REM sleep.
As you may know, dreams are typically experienced through visual imagery, but they can also include the other senses like taste, touch, smell, and sound! According to the same class survey at Helix, 100% of students experience visuals in their dreams, 93% of students experience the senses of touch and sound, and 27% experience the senses of taste and smell. We experience these senses due to increased brain activity in the areas that process sensory information, meaning these experienced senses correlate with the REM stage of sleep. If you have ever wondered, the visually impaired tend to experience dreams with the other senses, rather than visual imagery. Incredible, right?
Why? What do they mean?
There are various reasons and theories as to why we dream, although the real answer remains unknown. Doctors and scientists are still attempting to discover reasonings as to why we undergo this amazing phenomenon. According to the Cleveland Health Clinic, “dreaming is similar to the memory processing brain activity we experience when we’re awake.” This means that the activity of dreaming is similar to our brain’s way of processing memories. This contributes to the idea that we tend to dream about what we experience in our everyday lives!
Although we may not know exactly why we dream, specific interpretations of what our dreams mean are left up to the dreamer; they are ultimately subjective. You may dream of your upcoming math test, which can correlate with stress, causing possible nightmares, or you may dream about evil firehydrants, purple bananas or fighting seven headed dragons. Unfortunately, there is no specific, particular reasoning behind why your dreams might be so incredibly weird.
Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreaming is another incredible phenomenon that can occur to people, but tends to be particularly rare. According to the Helix class survey, 40% of students responded saying they do not experience lucid dreams, 33% claimed sometimes, and only 27% claiming they commonly do. Lucid dreaming is the state of being aware that you’re dreaming, also most common during REM sleep. Amazingly, lucid dreaming gives the dreamer the possible ability to control the narrative of their dreams. Also according to the Cleveland Health Clinic, you’re more likely to lucid dream if you’re:
- Open to new experiences and the idea of lucid dreaming
- In tune with your emotions
- Able to recall dreams more effectively
- More likely to have positive daytime moods
- Creative and intuitive
A Personal Perspective
As I stated before, everyone dreams every night. Personally, I remember my dreams every single night, no matter what. When I was younger, I was told to write down my dreams due to their intricate story lines. What I discovered is that it helped me remember them better! I started to try to figure out the meaning behind my dreams, but was left without answers. I began to search for my own answers, and from personal experience and inspection, when I noticed things throughout the day but didn’t pay close attention to them, they happened to appear in my dreams in different, intricate ways.
Dreams are truly so fascinating, weird, interesting and overall just incredible. The fact that we as humans experience this amazing occurrence is just unbelievable in general. I truly do wish there were exact reasons and explanations behind why we dream, because I myself, will never quell my curiosity of this occurrence. I have always felt that there is a deeper meaning behind why we dream and what they mean; I truly believe the answer is yet to come.
