Why do we dream?
Two different schools of thought exist as to why we dream: the
physiological school, and the psychological school.
Both, however, agree that we dream during the REM, or rapid eye
movement, phase of sleep. During this phase of sleep, our closed eyes
dart rapidly about, our brain activity peaks, and our muscles suffer
temporary paralysis.
The physiological theory centers upon how our body, specifically our
brains, function during the REM phase of sleep. Proponents of this
theory believe that we dream to exercise the synapses, or pathways,
between brain cells, and that dreaming takes over where the active and
awake brain leaves off. When awake, our brains constantly transmit and
receive messages, which course through our billions of brain cells to
their appropriate destinations, and keep our bodies in perpetual
motion. Dreams replace this function.
Two underpinning physiological facts go towards supporting this theory
of dreams. The first lies in the fact that the first two or so years
of ones life, the most formative ones for learning, are also the ones
in which the most REM sleep occurs. It follows that during this time
of the greatest REM sleep, we experience the greatest number of
dreams. The second physiological fact that lends credence to this
theory is that our brain waves during REM sleep, as recorded by
machines measuring the brain's electrical activity, are almost
identical in nature to the brain waves during the hours we spend
awake. This is not the case during the other phases of sleep.
Psychological theorists of dreams focus upon our thoughts and
emotions, and speculate that dreams deal with immediate concerns in
our lives, such as unfinished business from the day, or concerns we
are incapable of handling during the course of the day. Dreams can, in
fact, teach us things about ourselves that we are unaware of.
Connections between dreams that the human psyche have been made by
many people over thousands of years. The famous Greek philosopher,
Aristotle wrote in his "Parva Naturalia," over 2,200 years ago, of a
connection between dreams, waking experiences, and emotional needs.
Others have delved into more complicated explanations for dreams, such
as the prophetic nature of dreams written of in the Bible, which was
and is a belief held by many cultures. Sigmund Freud, one of the
fathers of modern psychology, believed dreams to be symbolic of any
number of things buried deep within our minds and our memories.
Until someone proves or disproves one of these theories, or poses an
alternate one, we are left at square one. Our knowledge as to what
causes us to dream is limited to the fact that we do dream, and that
dreams occur during the REM phase of sleep. Sweet dreams!
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