There's a lot that experts don't know about why people dream and where dreams come from. However, the prevailing theory is that dreaming helps you consolidate and analyze memories (like skills and habits) and likely serves as a “rehearsal” for various situations and challenges that one faces during the daytime.
“Research published in 1985 suggests the purpose of dreams is to organize knowledge and to form brain connections, which helps with memory recall,” says Dr. Butler. “This theory suggests dreaming is an opportunity for the brain to problem-solve, make decisions and prioritize.”
Do dreams mean anything? Alan Eiser, a psychologist and a clinical lecturer at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, says dreams can be “highly meaningful,” because they “deal with the sort of personal conflicts and emotional struggles that people are experiencing in their daily lives.”
One of the biggest influences on dreams is how much or how little you're sleeping. Being sleep-deprived for a night or two (or more) can make parts of your brain much more active when you finally do slip into REM sleep. You're likely to have more vivid dreams if you've had some restless nights.
Dreams feel real because we use the same brain to process them! Parts of the brain that process “real” sensory information in wakefulness are active in REM sleep. The more rational parts of our brain only switch on in wakefulness. This is why dreams play out like any “real” experience!
“Since dreams are thought to primarily occur during REM sleep, the sleep stage when the MCH cells turn on, activation of these cells may prevent the content of a dream from being stored in the hippocampus – consequently, the dream is quickly forgotten.”
Problems with friends, family, school, or work can trigger intense dreams as can big events like getting married or buying a house. Stressed caused by traumatic events, such as a death of a loved one, sexual abuse, or a car accident can also cause vivid dreams.
Although their visual dream content is reduced, other senses are enhanced in dreams of the blind. A dreaming blind person experiences more sensations of sound, touch, taste, and smell than sighted people do. Blind people are also more likely to have certain types of dreams than sighted people.
It's unlikely that you never, ever dream, though you could be in a dry spell because you're not sleeping well. Or it could be that you simply can't recall your dreams. Let's look at why you may be missing out on dreams, how it impacts health, and tips for remembering dreams.
Dreaming is a normal part of healthy sleep. Good sleep has been connected to better cognitive function and emotional health, and studies have also linked dreams to effective thinking, memory, and emotional processing.
Scientists and psychologists, old and new, tell us that dreams reveal critical aspects about ourselves. Dreams are a reflection of your recent state of mind, future possibilities, and changes that you have experienced.
Dreams are thoughts.
When you are dreaming, you are thinking, but on a much deeper and focused level than when you're awake. Think about it: when you go to sleep the lights are off, your eyes are closed and the world around you is shut out. There are no distractions. The mind doesn't stop working at this point.
Lucid dreaming happens when you're aware that you're dreaming. Often, you can control the dream's storyline and environment. It occurs during REM sleep. When used in therapy, lucid dreaming can help treat conditions like recurring nightmares and PTSD.
Although some theorists have suggested that pain sensations cannot be part of the dreaming world, research has shown that pain sensations occur in about 1% of the dreams in healthy persons and in about 30% of patients with acute, severe pain.
Sleep disruptions: Vivid dreams that linger with you or feel indistinguishable from real life may be the result of fragmented sleep. Waking during a period of REM sleep rather than at the end of a sleep cycle can cause you to remember your dreams more vividly.
Hypnagogia is the transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep. It's the opposite of hypnopompia, which is the transitional state that occurs before you wake up. During hypnagogia, it's common to experience involuntary and imagined experiences. These are referred to as hypnagogic hallucinations.
"When we dream about people we've never met, they could be a placeholder for someone we do not want to see, for whatever reason," Jeffrey notes. But these strangers could also be a manifestation of a part of ourselves that's not yet known or familiar.
Deaf / hard of hearing people and their dreams
In a study titled Waking and Sleeping, researchers investigated people's dreams with hearing loss. After their research, they concluded that people with hearing impairments hear sounds in their dreams.
Seeing the different sources of light, called light perception, is another form of blindness, alongside tunnel vision and many more. Though, one point to consider is the fact that individuals who were born blind cannot tell whether they see total black or not because, simply, they can't really tell.
The length of a dream can vary; they may last for a few seconds, or approximately 20–30 minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase.
Nightmares can be triggered by many factors, including: Stress or anxiety. Sometimes the ordinary stresses of daily life, such as a problem at home or school, trigger nightmares. A major change, such as a move or the death of a loved one, can have the same effect.
A possible cause for dreaming about an ex may be recalling past trauma in your relationship. Research shows that stressful emotions and trauma during waking hours can impact your dreams. Trauma can also come from the death of a partner or loved one.
Our brain is not fully developed when we are born—it continues to grow and change during this important period of our lives. And, as our brain develops, so does our memory.