Why Do We Dream?

Everyone has wondered, at some point, about the origin and purpose of dreams. This is a
vast topic, but read on to know more about the most prominent factors in it...
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Dreams have always fascinated mankind. These mysterious phenomena, seemingly verging
on the supernatural, have elicited numerous theories and explanations regarding their origin.
Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, was the first one to point out the
importance of dreams. He propounded many a theory to explain the meaning, need, and
interpretation of dreams.
Psychoanalytic Theory
The psychoanalytic theory of dreams was propounded by Sigmund Freud. The Austrian
psychologist propounded that dreams are repressed versions of unconscious desires. The
unconscious mind holds all those aspects of memory and desires that the person has
repressed and pushed deeper away from the conscious to the sub-conscious mind. The
desires and memories in this mind cannot be retrieved simply by recalling them. As such, on
occurrence of relevant stimuli, these desires may surface during REM sleep, in the form of
dreams. However, Freud has also stated that most of these desires are sexual in nature.
Even if the dreams are not sexual, their interpretation would have psychosexual implications.
For this reason, the psychoanalytic theory has faced criticism.
Activation - Synthesis Model
The activation-synthesis model of dreaming, as propounded by J. Allan Hobson and Robert
McCarley in 1977, explains the reasoning behind dreams. In accordance to this theory, REM
sleep activates the dormant circuits in the brain. This causes areas of the limbic system
involved in emotions, sensations, and memories, including the amygdala and hippocampus,
to become active. Now, the brain tries to analyze this activity and find a meaning in the
signals produced as a result of that. According to this theory, this phenomenon of the brain
trying to match memories and knowledge with basal signals, results in dreaming. Hobson,
when discussing the meaning of dreams, states that "[dreaming is] our most creative
conscious state, one in which the chaotic, spontaneous recombination of cognitive elements
produces novel configurations of information: new ideas. While many or even most of these
ideas may be nonsensical, if even a few of its fanciful products are truly useful, our dream
time will not have been wasted."
While this theory gives a lot of justifiable explanation about dreams, it fails to give specific
information about its interpretation.
Other Theories
There are many more theories that have been inspired by mainly the two theories stated
above. These theories have their own inferences about the reasoning behind dreams.
According to one group of theorists, dreams are a response to the external stimuli present at
the time. For instance, if one has the radio on while sleeping, the music may be incorporated
into the dream as well.
Another school of thought considers the brain as a computer. According to this theory, the
brain needs to clear up junk information and restructure existing knowledge according to
new stimuli, the way a computer's hard drive needs to be formatted and segmented. As
such, the dreams are simply stray visuals created during this fragmentation procedure of the
thoughts in the person's mind.
Another theory about the psychology of dreams, suggests the dreams are like a laboratory,
i.e., a dreamer connects his thoughts and emotions during his sleep in the safe environment
of his own dreams.
Another contemporary theory states that the activation of brain that occurs during the REM

sleep causes certain loose ends to be created between thoughts and ideas. These thoughts
and ideas are then guided by the emotions and personal experiences of the dreamerthis is
what causes dreams.
Neither of these theories is widely accepted, due to the lack of empirical explanation and
information.
Just Like That
There are many psychologists and researchers who would disagree with theories
propounding meanings and inferences of dreams. These theorists suggest that dreams have
no meaning. Since the brain is very much active even during the REM stage of sleep, random
'firing' of neurons may seem like dreams. These random firings create a film-like presence
and order. This causes the person to want to find a "deeper meaning" behind the
meaningless process. This theory can be really helpful when trying to figure out why we have
nightmares and what causes bad dreams, in a positive and "non-scary" manner!
While I am a thorough follower of Sigmund Freud, I leave the answer to you. Each person
can decide which theory to follow and what to believe. Despite being one of the most
common occurrences in the world, dreams still succeed at amazing everyone!
This is where I sign off! Dream on!
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/why-do-we-dream.html
What Causes Dreams?
If you want to know what causes dreams, read this article which describes the various
theories that have been propounded by various experts.
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The world of subconscious has always intrigued us. According to theories subconscious and
unconscious comprise those things that we cannot handle in our conscious state. Then why
are we so interested in dreams and knowing all about it. The interpretation of dreams is
relative and differs from person to person but the causes are more or less the same. They
are something which our mind knows, however which we cannot handle, is disturbing or
something that we keep reiterating to ourselves.
Major Causes of Dreams
Sigmund Freud's Theory on Dreams - Freud's opinion was that dreams were an outlet of our
hidden desires and in spite of the fact that there were numerous theories regarding this topic
but none could actually gain as much ground as Freud's theory. Freud said that our dreams
were based on the activities that we do all day long which are combined with our wishes. He
was of the opinion that nothing can be made up during the dream; whatever happens in a
dream is the result of instincts and experiences in life. Another interesting aspect of his
theory regarding the causes of dreams arises from his theory of "id", "ego" and "super ego"
which are supposedly the three elements of personality. He said that Id follows the pleasure
principle and does not understand any kind of norms and inhibitions. He said that a newborn
child is a "bundle of ids" since it wants what it desires and would fail to understand reasons.
Id stands in opposition to "super ego" which develops in people from the age of five, which is
a compilation of what parents teach. "Super-ego" is the conscience and is in opposition to
the desires of the "Id". Now ego stands between Id and Super-ego and it is "repressed Id", it
controls the uncontrollable "Id" and also tones down Super-ego's tough inhibitions. It
mediates between Id and Super-ego. Now Freud said that when the "ego" collapses which
occurs when there is an extreme pressure from Id and super-ego and it fails to balance both,
that is when the mind comes up with a defense mechanism called dreams.
Carl Jung's Theory on Dreams- Jung said that dreams were a result of not only one's
personal experience but one part of it is also associated with the collective conscious which is
a part of the mind. It consists of the impressions of the processes occurring in the world. He
was the one who said that the dreamer could interpret the dreams by forming combined

image of all the dreams and finding the common element among them. Once the common
element is found, it can be related to a real incident that might have happened and that
would give the cue to the interpretation of the dream.
Perception- It is also believed that dreams also determined by the way we perceive and how
our imagination guides them. There are some people who would think of the lovely scent of
the flower when they look at a rose and few who would think of the thorn and the pain it
inflicts when they look at the same flower. These perceptions are also shaped by an
individual's personal experience.
So these are some of the causes of dreams and I hope this gives you an idea of how the
mind works and why we dream.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-causes-dreams.html
Interesting Facts about Dreams
Whether they are lucid or nightmarish, dreams happen for a variety of reasons. And there
are some hidden or unknown facts that you'd like to know about. And if that's the case, read
the following article on interesting facts about dreams and their physical and psychological
effects on us...
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What are dreams? As a little girl, I used to think that my mind was playing a movie every
time I fell asleep. In actuality, when we fall asleep, our bodies encounter a series of physical
changes, the heart rate also increases a bit, we tend to breathe faster and our brainwaves
adapt to different states of awareness. Smaller muscles around our mouth, fingers and eyes
may twitch while sleeping, larger muscles can't move as freely as they would while awake.
Thus, we can't act out our dreams. Dreaming is an experience, which occurs while we sleep
and often includes pictures, voices or sounds, thoughts, and other kinds of sensations. As we
all know that dreams are beyond our control and seem unrealistic many times, some people
are conscious about their dreams and can alter different panoramas of it as well. These
aspects make dreams so interesting, captivating and bewitching. The following article
provides you with many more interesting facts about dreams.
15 Facts You Didn't Know Existed
Not everybody can dream in color. Approximately 12% of people dream only in black-andwhite and the rest can dream in full color. That's a fascinating fact. And, this can be linked to
technology and invention of color media/television. So is there something called dream colors
meaning? I'm pretty sure, there is.
We forget at least 90% of the dreams. Hasn't it happened to you that as soon as you wake
up, you can't seem to remember what you were dreaming about? This is true that within 5
minutes of us waking up from a dream, half the dream is already forgotten. And within 10
minutes, 90% of the dream is lost. This is why we have such a hard time remembering
dreams.
Emotions experienced in our dreams are real. People tend to experience anxiety the most
in their dreams. Such negative emotions appear more in our dreams than positive ones.
The number of dreams experienced in 1 night - 4 to 7. On an average, a person can
literally dream at least 1 or 2 hours each night.
Dreams can be very symbolic. What do dreams mean? If a dream is on a particular
subject, it doesn't always mean that the dream is about that subject. There may be some
deep symbolic meaning behind it and the symbol(s) picked up in your dreams can be hinting
towards something else.
Our bodies are paralyzed while we sleep. During REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, our

bodies are paralyzed due to a mechanism in the brain. This prevents the physical body
movements that occur in our dreams. This mechanism can be triggered before, during or
even after normal sleep, while the brain wakes up.
We all have recurring dreams. Although the contents of most dreams occur once, many
people have experienced recurring dreams. The narrative of the dream is same, but only at
different occasions of sleeping.
Blind people can dream too. People who've lost their eye-sight after birth can see some
images while asleep. Now those who are blind since birth don't see any images, however,
they experience vivid dreams that involve their sense of smell, touch, emotions and sound.
All physical situations help make dreams, which in short provides blind people ability to
dream.
Everybody dreams. Each and every human being is capable of having dreams, except for
those who suffer extreme psychological disorder. And if you think that you're not dreaming,
you have just forgotten about it.
Animals dream as well, it's not just a human thing. Do dogs dream? Or how about cats?
Any other animals? Studies have actually proven that many different animals show similar
brain waves during "dream sleep" as we do. If you have a dog or cat, watch when he/she is
sleeping. Any kind of paw movement(s) that indicate that they are running (while making a
yapping sound) will mean that they are chasing someone/something.
We can only dream of what we know. There may be strange faces and/or places in our
dreams, but your mind is not making any of this up. You may not remember the places and
faces during your life, but your mind does. And hence, when you feel you don't know
someone, in fact, you have seen him/her sometime in your life.
External stimuli tend to invade our dreams. Also called "dream incorporation", our mind
starts to interpret the external stimuli that storm our senses while we sleep and they become
a part of our dreams. For example, we hear a sound in reality and then incorporate it in our
dreams in some way or another.
Foreseeing the future in our dreams. People all across the world have had at least 1
precognitive dream and many have experienced dj vu. "Precognition" usually refers to an
individual's perception which involves the acquisition of the future information.
If you snore, you can't dream. Certain studies indicate that if a person is sleeping and
snores, he/she can't dream.
A person can even experience an orgasm in his/her dreams. You can actually experience
the pleasures of having sex in your dreams, but also have an orgasm (sometimes as strong
as the real one). The sensations which you feel while lucid dreaming can be as pleasurable
and strong as you would in reality.
10 Fun Facts About Dreams
An average person has approximately 1,460 dreams in a year, which adds up to 4 dreams
per night.
The Egyptian pharaohs were regarded as the children of Ra, the Egyptian Sun God, and
hence, their dreams were looked upon as divine.
The people of Fu-Kein, in the Chinese province, would call on their ancestors for dream

revelation by sleeping on the graves.

The people of a West African group known as The Ashanti take dreams and their meanings
so seriously, that they would let a husband take legal action against another man if he has
had an erotic dream about his wife.
Appearance of vampires in dreams represent a person's general fears and anxieties. Or it
can represent anxieties about that person's sexuality.
Dreaming about flying has been around since ancient times and that too before man
invented airplanes.
In Northern Mexico, the Raramuri people deliberately make their sleeping positions in such
a way that they can wake up in the middle of the night and discuss their dreams with each
other.
Studies have shown that children tend to have more dreams about animals than adults.
Lions, bears, snakes, dogs, cats, horses and some mythical creatures/monsters were the
most frequent animal figures in those dreams.
Men dream about men, more often than women dream about men. For some odd reasons
this sexual asymmetry is almost universal and is similar with children, adolescents and
adults.
People who have watched black-and-white television when they were young tend to
experience more monochrome (black-and-white) dreams, as compared to those who watch
color television.
Dreams are mystical and wonderful. Many people have tried to find reasons and meanings
behind them. There are hundreds of research conducted and the latest information we
receive is just fascinating. When I read and understood about them, I believed (even more
than before) that dreams can be so fascinating, intriguing, and mystifying, in their own
unexplainable/unimaginable ways.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/interesting-facts-about-dreams.html