Recently I was reading a self-help book about improving relationships. The author suggested that exploring dreams was a way of gaining insight into our experiences and how they’ve shaped us as humans. The rationalization was that in dreams, we are our “real” selves and that the way we solve problems in our dreams is probably very similar to the way we solve our problems when we are awake.
I was immediately skeptical. The whole concept of dreams is a little freaky to me. Sure, we all have imaginations. And we use them on a daily basis. We wonder what it would be like to win Power Ball. We can imagine a best case scenario and also sometimes imagine the worst case scenario. But our imaginations are usually based in reality. The things we imagine may not be likely, but they are usually possible.
But the sheer randomness of dreams is a difficult thought for me. I know I’ve had nightmares before, which is one of the things that makes me nervous about dreams. On any given night, I can emerge in a nightmare and be stuck there until I wake up. And not only can they be super terrifying, but also, we have NO control over our dreams. In my sleep, my mind can go anywhere. I don’t like that possibility.
Fortunately, I can rarely recall my dreams. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of a dream and I remember it, but within minutes, it’s forgotten. Scientists agree that this is a common experience, which makes dreams hard to study. I tried, recently, to jot down any dreams I could remember immediately upon waking, to see if I could spot recurring themes. I even placed a pad and paper on my end table. Often, by the time I remembered that I was supposed to be remembering my dreams, it was already forgotten.
So while I knew it was a nebulous topic–out of control and quickly forgotten–I decided to do a little digging to find out: Do We Know Anything For Sure About Dreams?
I wasn’t surprised to verify that we know very little about dreams, and how our mind works in our sleep to create them. But not for lack of trying. There is no cognitive state that has been as extensively studied, and perhaps frequently misunderstood, as dreams. In reading articles on the topic of dreams I discovered a recurring theme in the types of words that were used, including: “Why”, “Mystery”, “Possible Explanations”, “Speculation”, “Hypothesis”, “Theories”,” Most Likely”. These unsure terms clearly demonstrate largely unknown answers to why we dream, and what our dreams might mean.
Most scientists will agree on the most basic definition: Dreams are stories and images that our minds create while we sleep.
I’ve heard people say that they don’t dream, so my first question was, does everyone dream? There seems to be uniform agreement on this one. Yes, everyone dreams. Most people over the age of 10 dream between 4 and 6 times a night and it is thought that each dream lasts between 5 and 20 minutes. If you think you don’t dream, it’s probably because, like me, you’re forgetting your dreams. Studies have shown that around 95% of all of our dreams are forgotten by the time we get out of bed.
There is actually a term for the study of dreams: Oneirology. The scientific study of dreams began in 1953 with the discovery of REM sleep. But theories began as far back as Plato and Aristotle somewhere around 300-400 bce (before common era). These days we study both dream content, and dream mechanics. Scientists study dreams by monitoring individuals in a sleep lab. Studying dream mechanics helps us learn how our brains and bodies work when we’re dreaming, in the hopes of answering the why? of dreams. By studying dream content, we hope to learn more about what our dreams mean.
Studying brain waves of sleeping individuals has led us to be able to identify the 5 stages of sleep:
Stage 1: Light sleep, slow eye movement, reduced muscle activity
Stage 2: Transition stage; eye movements are not possible and muscles relax even more
Stage 3: Deep sleep begins; slow brain waves begin to appear, interspersed with faster waves
Stage 4: Continued deep sleep; no eye movement or muscle activity; if you wake up during this phase you may feel disoriented
Stage 5: REM; rapid eye movement; breathing becomes rapid, irregular, and shallow; eyes jerk rapidly and limb muscles become temporarily paralyzed; heart rate increases, blood pressure rises; dreams occur
Stage 5 is the area of most interest when considering the topic of dreams. We monitor brain activity during sleep by using an EEG. The EEG can measure brain waves and can see what areas of the brain are activated during sleep. Brain waves tend to decrease as we enter deeper sleep, and then increase when entering REM (dream stage) sleep. As a result of monitoring brain activity, we know that the amygdala, which is the area of the brain that is responsible for emotions regulation, is very active during REM sleep. This has led scientists to theorize that dreams may assist in the processing, and storing, of feelings we’ve experienced during the day. The thalamus, which receives sensory information, and the cerebral cortex, which converts memories from short to long term, are also active during REM sleep, leading scientists to believe that during our dreams, our brains are processing and storing memories. In addition to studying brain waves, sleep studies also monitor heartbeat, blood pressure, body temperature, and muscle tension, to see how these body functions alter during the different stages of sleep, and in particular, during REM sleep, when we are dreaming.
Most of what we know about dream content comes from self-reported accounts of the study subjects. Dream contents are most often studied by watching individuals in a controlled, sleep laboratory, and waking them at certain intervals to gather self-reported information about dreams. This is a topic that will always consist of theory but common themes are present. Some of the most common themes include falling, being chased, flying, and being unprepared for an exam. When a sleep subject reports a dream about falling, for example, scientists suspect that the dream signifies a loss of control or insecurity in their life and they sometimes have been able to link this theme to a person’s waking life and to stress, trauma or fear.
None of this has been reassuring to me. My son will occasionally share a dream he’s had with me, and he is often able to recount it in significant detail. The dreams he remembers, and shares, are almost exclusively terrifying. Personally, I’m not disappointed in my lack of recall. I can live without the fear and horror of living in a dream and I certainly don’t need to remember it when I’m fully awake. And I’m willing to take my chances in therapy rather than use my dreams as a way of analyzing my life and neuroses. Aside from these evident drawbacks, I still think dreams are random, and full of guesswork. And I’m not alone. In an article in Psychology Today, Michael J Breus, PhD said, “For all the scientific attention paid to dreaming, many of the most fundamental and important questions about dreaming remain unanswered.”
I guess if you enjoy dreaming, remembering your dreams, and theorizing about how they relate to your psyche, I wish you the best of luck. As for me, when it comes to dreams, I’m happy living my life in forgetfulness and blissful ignorance.
F Words that are not 4 Letters 