After all, why do we dream?

According to the recommended average sleep time, 8 hours daily, one third of a person's life is spent sleeping. Thus, dreams have a recurring presence in everyone's routine and one calculation stipulates that six years of an individual's life is spent dreaming.

However, many people still do not know why dreams happen. They are unconscious manifestations of desires and reflect directly on our emotions, so that the brain tries to elucidate complications that we cannot visualize during the day.

Therefore, dreams are representations of the external reality and explain how it affects each one internally. Below, more details about dreams will be explained. Read on to know more about them.

Understanding more about dreams

Dreams manifest fears, desires and secrets in a playful way. Therefore, during sleep the brain takes stock of all the things that happened during the day and does something like a cleaning of the memories, selecting the ones that have some meaning in practical life.

Thus, dreams are ways found by the brain to solve incomplete challenges, whether they are problems or not. Therefore, a good night's sleep is important for the development of people as a whole.

More details about what dreams are will be explored below. To know more, continue reading the article.

What are dreams?

According to psychoanalysis, especially Freud, dreams are linked in a subtle way to rational perception. Therefore, the answer to their meanings lies in the very elements provided by the unconscious, but in a way that is open to interpretation.

Therefore, they serve for an observation of life and can be considered the moments in which rationality does not interfere in the actions thoughts of people. In addition, dreams are forms of satisfaction of hidden desires, but without the presence of guilt.

Sleep Functioning

Sleep is initiated when a person closes his eyes and the brain starts to go through a process of slowing down its activities, a period called latency which lasts up to 30 minutes. In cases in which it goes beyond this, the individual might be suffering from insomnia.

Besides, sleep is an active process, in which it is possible to observe brain activity every 120 minutes. It is developed in two parts that alternate during the night: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM.

In what stages of sleep do dreams happen?

Dreams happen during the 5th sleep phase, REM. The brain activity becomes more intense, so that the image formation process is triggered. Therefore, the brain begins to perform memory cleaning, fixing the information that is important and discarding the rest.

When a person is awakened during REM sleep, he/she can recover fragments of his/her dreams and remember them later. This stage lasts about 10 minutes and then sleep becomes calm.

Functioning of dreams in the brain

Scientific explanations for dreams are still in progress. However, some scholars believe in the theory that sleep is a time of brain organization. Therefore, the memories that emerge are important things that need to be stored.

However, more in-depth studies on how dreams work in the brain are still in progress today. Scientists who delve into the area still need to detect how the process is altered throughout the sleep phases and what factors are involved in this.

Types of dreams

There are 6 types of dreams: lucid, semi-reality, psychic, premonitory, telepathic and with death. Each one of them has scientific particularities, being the premonitory the only field explored more by esotericism and the spiritualist universe than science. They are responsible for indicating the capacity of interweaving the unconscious of more than one individual.

It is worth noting that lucid dreams have become a category of interest to psychology in recent years, since the dreamer's consciousness is awake and aware of what is happening.

Why do we have nightmares?

Nightmares can be considered normal, despite their association with negative feelings and sleep disruption. In general, they are associated with anxiety and stressful situations experienced throughout the day. In addition, they can also reveal traumas.

However, it is worth pointing out that when they become too frequent and reach the point of causing anguish and harming the quality of sleep, they can be considered as a disorder. Thus, medical follow-up is necessary.

What are dreams for?

The purpose of dreams depends on who is trying to answer the question. From the point of view of Analytical Psychology, symbolism depends on an association previously made by the dreamer and is not associated with a single meaning, but rather with multiple meanings that have a connection with the dreamer's experiences and memories.

Therefore, it is necessary to deepen each sense present in order to achieve an in-depth interpretation, associating the dream with the senses of the dreamer's life, whether they be events or feelings.

The next section of the article will be devoted to commenting a little more on the types of dreams as a way of talking about their function. Read on to learn more.

We dream to fulfill our desires

It is possible to affirm that all the memories of a person manifest themselves in dreams. Therefore, the most primitive thoughts and desires, even if unconscious, can appear on these occasions. Since the mind, while conscious, cannot have contact with these aspects, this happens during sleep.

Therefore, dreams would be a form of personal fulfillment. Everyone knows their individual desires in a profound way and takes concrete steps to fulfill them during sleep, something that is not so common during everyday life.

We dream to remember

According to a study conducted in 2010, the chances of success in solving a mystery are higher when someone sleeps and dreams about it. Therefore, people who try to find the solution after dreaming have a higher success rate.

Therefore, some memory processes happen during sleep and, therefore, dreams are also ways to rescue memories, pointing to the possibility that some processes of this nature only happen while the individual is sleeping.

We dream to forget

Forgetfulness is also something that is part of the brain's purpose during dreaming. Due to the more than 10 trillion neuronal connections, created whenever we need to perform a new activity, we need to eliminate some things occasionally.

Therefore, a 1983 study regarding the brain highlighted that during the REM phase of sleep, the neocortex reviews all these connections. It then selects the ones that are not necessary to discard them and as a result dreams happen.

We dream to keep our brains working

Dreaming favors the functioning of the brain. The organ is always seeking to consolidate the memories of a particular person and, therefore, there is no type of activity more stimulating than sleep for it.

Thus, during this time the brain enters into an automatic process of evaluating memories, resulting in the dream images. In general, it does this to keep itself functioning and busy. Therefore, the manifestations of the unconscious also function as ways to keep the brain from being idle.

We dream to train our instincts

There is a theory that the existence of dreams is a way of training human instincts. It is associated mainly with nightmares, which reveal dangerous situations and therefore function as things we do not want to remember.

However, according to the theory in question, besides bringing disturbing images, nightmares would have a positive and beneficial function. Thus, they work as a way to train the most basic human instincts, such as the ability to fight and flee when the need presents itself.

We dream to heal the mind

According to scientists, the neurotransmitters that generate stress are much less active during sleep. This can be stated even regarding the occasions when traumatic memories surface through the unconscious.

Thus, some researchers believe that dreams are meant to remove the negative charge of painful experiences and allow psychological healing to take place in an individual's life. Therefore, negative memories are revisited without the effects of stress and this can be beneficial in overcoming problems.

What is onirology?

Oncirology is a field of science that is dedicated to the study of what is seen during sleep. Currently, some psychologists believe that dreams reflect directly in people's lives and that they are able to send important messages.

Thus, it is possible to state that onirology finds its foundations in neuroscience and also in psychology. However, it is a field that encounters difficulties, since upon waking about 95% of dreams are lost.

Despite this, dreaming is still beneficial for the brain and psychological aspects. More details regarding onirology will be explored below. Read on to learn more about it.

Dream Study

Onirology is the study of dreams. With foundations in neuroscience and psychology, it aims to analyze the effect and importance of dreams for the human organism. Thus, its researches point to their importance for the good functioning of the brain and the maintenance of balance.

According to science, during sleep people enter into a kind of trance and are able to access the unconscious, a process that is called REM.

Dreams and psychoanalysis

For psychoanalysis, dreams are a way to access the unconscious and the parts of the mind that a person can't reach while awake. The work responsible for first talking about the subject was "The Interpretation of Dreams", by Sigmund Freud.

In the book in question, the psychoanalyst states that dreams represent the materialization of desires. Therefore, they are hidden in the unconscious and many times are not materialized due to social impositions, such as culture, customs and education that the individual receives.

Dream Interpretation

The method used for the interpretation of dreams was coined by Freud in the book "The Interpretation of Dreams". Thus, there are several symbolisms and meanings in the messages sent by the unconscious mind, but they need to be properly interpreted considering the details present in these occasions.

In addition, interpretation is also present in the Bible and the Torah, more specifically in the book of Genesis, which has a passage talking about the dream of Joseph, who later became responsible for interpreting the dreams of a pharaoh.

Most common themes in dreams

There are some dreams that can be considered universal, since they happen to all people, such as being chased by someone, seeing teeth falling out, dreaming that you are naked in a public place, not finding a bathroom and taking an exam without having studied for it.

To dream that you are naked, for example, speaks to the vulnerability of the person, who has felt exposed in a certain situation. On the other hand, to take an exam without having studied for it, addresses questions about their own ability.

Other information about dreams

Dreams are very intriguing for human beings due to their complex nature. Thus, it is natural that there are so many attempts by science to provide concrete explanations for what is portrayed by the unconscious during sleep.

It is also natural that there are so many doubts surrounding dreams, even though several explanations have already been provided for the theme. Therefore, questions such as why we dream every night and about the exclusivity of dreams in the human species, are quite common.

The next section of the article will attempt to answer more about this and other common questions about the nature of dreams. Read on to learn more.

Do people dream every night?

Dreams happen several times during the same night due to the fact that sleep is cyclical. According to some studies carried out with electroencephalogram (EEG), a human being has five or six sleep cycles every night and goes through the REM phase three times. At this moment, at least one dream always happens.

This is important for memory issues and therefore dreaming is a normal component of a night's sleep, as well as being healthy for maintaining brain activity.

Is dreaming exclusive to human beings?

It is possible to state that dreaming is not exclusive to human beings. According to some studies in the area of neuroscience, animals are capable of dreaming. Some electroencephalographic records have also been made that confirm this ability on the part of other species.

As in humans, for animals the dream happens during the REM phase. The main species to demonstrate this capacity, according to the studies carried out, were mammals and birds. Tests with reptiles have not been sufficiently conclusive yet.

What factors can influence dreams?

The unconscious mind interprets some ambient sounds and incorporates them into dreams. Thus, one study found that when people fall asleep listening to sounds, they are incorporated into their dreams. This same study also came to the conclusion that other senses, such as smell, can influence this issue.

Thus, those who sleep in scented environments, for example, tend to have more pleasant dreams than people who sleep in environments with unpleasant smells, who tend to have more agitated dreams.

Is it possible to manipulate a dream?

A study conducted in 2020 highlights that dream manipulation is possible, but it needs to happen at a specific stage. The work in question was developed from a device that recorded the dreams of 49 volunteers.

For manipulation to happen, it needs to be performed during the stage of consciousness called hypnagogia, which comes before deep sleep. During this stage the brain is not yet asleep and is able to respond to external stimuli and produce the first dreams.

Tips for remembering a dream

An interesting tip for remembering a dream is to start a diary and record any fragment. The habit in question serves to help work on the memory, making it sharper and therefore conditions people to remember more easily.

Therefore, when someone wakes up at dawn after having a dream, the best thing to do is to write down everything you can immediately remember. On average, a person has about 4 dreams per night, but when they wake up they only remember the last one.

What can dreams tell us?

According to Freud's theories for dreams, they are able to reveal ideas, clarifications and emotions that are hidden through their symbolism. Thus, the stories told are not always simple or count with concrete elements, so that psychoanalysis considers dreams manifestations of the unconscious very relevant for its analyses.

It is also worth mentioning that due to the varied natures of dreams, in general they have a frightening, magical, adventurous character and can even be sexual. However, they are always beyond the control of the dreamer. Therefore, it is not uncommon for dream analysis to be part of a person's therapeutic process.