Dreams can be interesting, scary, or just plain weird. We all dream, even if we don’t remember them the next day. Why do we dream, though? And what exactly do they mean?
Our minds make up stories and pictures while we sleep, and these are what we call dreams. They can be quite clear. You can feel happy, sad, or scared because of them. And they may be hard to understand or make perfect sense.
During sleep, dreams can happen at any time. But during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when your brain is most active, you have the most vivid dreams. Some experts say that we dream at least four to six times a night.
What Do Scientists Find Out About Dreams?
Philosophers and scientists have been interested in why we dream for a very long time. In the past, dream content was measured by what the dreamer remembered after waking up. Observation can also be done through objective testing in a lab, though.
In one study, researchers even made a basic dream content map that showed what people dreamed about in real-time by looking at the patterns of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Then, when the dreamers woke up, they told what they saw on the map.
Why Do We Dream?
No one knows for sure why we dream, but there are many ideas. Some researchers say that dreams don’t mean anything or serve any purpose. Others say that our mental, emotional, and physical health depends on our dreams.
Researchers have looked into how dreams affect our health and happiness. In one study, people were woken up right before they went into REM sleep. They found that the people who couldn’t dream had:
- More tension
- Anxiety \ Depression
- Have a hard time focusing
- Lack of coordination
- Gaining weight
- Having a tendency to see things
Experts agree that dreams exist to:
- Help solve problems in our lives
- Incorporate memories
- Process emotions
If you go to sleep thinking about a problem, you might wake up with a solution or at least feel better about it.
Some dreams may help our brains process our thoughts and the events of the day. Some may just be normal brain activity and don’t mean much if anything at all. Still, scientists are trying to figure out why we dream.
Why is It Hard to Remember Dreams?
Researchers aren’t sure why it’s so easy to forget dreams. If we remembered all of our dreams, we might not be able to tell the difference between real memories and dreams.
Also, it might be harder to remember dreams because, during REM sleep, our bodies may shut down parts of the brain that make memories. We might only remember the dreams that happen right before we wake up when some brain activities start up again.
Some people say that we don’t forget our dreams, we just don’t know how to get to them. Dreams might be stored in our memories until we want to remember them. This could be why you suddenly remember a dream later in the day: something may have happened to make the memory come back to you.
Functions of Dreaming
We still don’t know why we dream or what their main purpose is, but the fact that most of them happen during REM sleep (but not all) could be important. REM sleep is thought to be important for a healthy body’s physiology because lack of REM sleep or not getting enough of it is linked to a drop in both physical and mental quality of life.
So, dreaming could be a way for the body to repair key neurotransmitters and body functions that can’t happen when the body is awake. It may also help you remember things and keep your knowledge and skills fresh.
Even though it’s hard to figure out what dreams are for and there aren’t many of them, there is a lot of research and proof about what happens if you don’t dream (by purposefully waking people as soon as people were about to into REM sleep). Some of the effects are not being able to focus, being tense, anxious, having mood swings, and gaining weight.
The phrase “sleep on it” may also apply to dreams if you have a problem or dilemma that needs to be thought through. This is because it helps you focus and organise your thoughts, which is better than making decisions when you are anxious or stressed.
Sleep deprivation is also linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. During sleep, beta-amyloid is efficiently removed from the brain through the glymphatic pathway. However, even one bad night of sleep, especially in midlife, can lead to less amyloid removal and a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
It’s still not clear if this has anything to do with REM sleep, dreams, or other parts of sleep, but based on what we know so far, it’s likely that these effects happen during sleep. In conclusion, most dreams happen during REM sleep, when the brain is most like being awake even though the body is still.
The brainstem is where REM sleep comes from, while the forebrain is where dreams come from. There is some disagreement about what dreams are for, and we don’t know everything about them. However, studies have shown that not getting enough sleep and dreams can cause problems with thinking, anxiety, mood swings, and weight gain.
Sleep may also help you remember things and learn or get better at new things. As technology and science improve, it will be easier to figure out how dreams work and what they are for in the future.
READ MORE:- 15 Best Tips & Tricks to Protect Your Skin From Harmful Holi Colours in 2023!
