Exploratory Essay: The Dreaming Brain

Throughout history, numerous people have studied the human body and its many functions. One area of the body that causes much confusion and controversy is the mind. Many parts of the brain baffle scientists, but a specific aspect of the mind that is fascinating and puzzling is dreams and their functions. It is surprising that an average person dreams for at least six years of their life, but scientists still do not know the role of dreaming (Shaw). Several theories have been presented to provide a reason for dreaming, and attempt to explain what most do not understand. Although dream research has been prominent lately, no agreement has been reached on which theory is correct on the purpose of dreams. Some believe that dreams are only

The humankind throughout history has tried to learn and figure out the meaning of dreaming. The interpretations and true meanings of dreams has expanded and has varied over centuries and cultures. Many of the earlier studies were based on culture’s and the interpretation of dreams, but also used as a form of prophecy, inspiration, and guidance. Many people still believe this such, people today beliefs and theories have opened up to a more vast interpretation, they are made up of; dreams are rare brain activity, dreams allow people to reflect on themselves, or that dreams are too massive to be correctly interpret. Although, not a single theory has been proven to this day, science as of why dreams occur is still a mystery.

They tend to trigger a forgotten memory that makes it seem like it is telling the future but it is actually just connecting the dots that the dreamer did not completely remember. Scientists have not been able to find a real reason as to why we lose so much of our memory regarding our dreams within five minutes. Five minutes after one dream around fifty percent of the memory of the dream is gone and ten minutes after the dream a little under one hundred percent is gone (Nichols 1). Belief about dreams are not only a current generational conception, there has also been traces found in the Bible. God uses many different strategies to reveal direction or signs to His children, dreaming is just another avenue He can use to show something. In the Bible there were several stories explaining how God gave prophets or disciples dreams to advise them to do or not to do something that may be approaching them in their future. The prophets that were open to God and His knowledge were those who most often had dreams to lead them, so much of history was provided and threaded through dreams to prophecy. Dreams can relate quite a bit to what and how Christians are meant to listen and hear from God. The dream "realm" or life can be a way of learning from God and His plan for us. Interpreting or explaining dreams are very similar to not being able to explain or express our ideas or feelings. It is and always

Personally, I have always found dreams to be fascinating and the article, “Dream on, Freud” by Sue Goetinck discusses the advances made in neuroscience regarding dreams. Dr. Edward Nersessian is a psychoanalyst who discusses what the scientific community has learned about dreams since Freud’s time. Freud assumed that people dream simply because their thoughts would keep them awake at night. Dr. Edward Nersessian agrees with some of Freud’s theories but quickly argues that how we interpret dreams is different then Freud had originally thought. During the time of Freud he was the only one who would interpret the dreams while today not only are the doctors and psychoanalyst interpreting but the patients as well. Today, the scientific community

There are several theories as to why we dream. One theory is that dreams work with sleep to help the brain sort through everything it collects during the waking hours. Everyone dreams during sleep, but not everyone can recall the mental escapade the next day, scientist aren’t sure why some people remember more than others. “in every sleep stage, there’s some kind of subjective experience,” said Michael schredl, a researcher in the sleep laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, and an expert on dream recall. The origin of dreams is something that can be defined in 3 ways, physiologically, scientifically or theoretically.

Neurologically, dreaming is the proto conscious state that occurs during Slow Wave Sleep and REM sleep. Dreams are related to reorganizing and recoding memories in connection to emotional drives as well as transferring memories between brain regions. Episodic memories are stored in the hippocampus which is specialized for long-term memory that learns quickly. At night, memories from the hippocampus are transferred into the cerebral cortex, the region of the brain specialized for information processing, cognition, and knowledge. There are numerous studies done on why we dream and different theories conducted by psychologists.

Dreaming can be defined as a component and form of memory processing, aiding in the consolidation of learning and short-term memory to long-term memory storage. I believe we dream to de-clutter our brains just like cleaning up operations in a computer which helps in refreshing the mind to prepare for the next day. Every day we are bombarded with new information, both consciously (eg. learning) and unconsciously (eg. advertising). This modern dream theory suggests dreaming is a way to file away key information and discard meaningless data. It helps keep our brains organized and optimizes our learning. This theory hasn’t been proven by dream

Most every night as you shut your eyes to let your mind and body recover from the days labors, you find that your thoughts may wander to unfamiliar places. Places, objects, people, and all sorts of things extremely out of the ordinary, yet somehow they can feel as real as the ground you walk on when you wake. From a young age I was completely fascinated with the phenomenon that is dreaming. I remember having a really difficult time wrapping my mind around the fact that if dreams can feel as real as real life, what’s to say that real life isnt the dream? However, I always found that my dreams were complete nonsense and that they couldn’t possibly be anything more than my mind just filling in the blanks since my eyes have blacked out the world

Ever wonder what you dream about or what happens when you dream? I find it damaging that you can control your dreams using memories and your past to create dreams. Using this method can help you be make you more alert and smarter. Working your mind and body to be so relaxed that you fall into a deep sleep.

Dreams are emotions and images that happen in the mind during sleep. Dreams usually occupy 2 hours of sleep. Most dreams occur during REM sleep which is the part of the sleep wake cycle, however they can occur during any stage of the sleep cycle. The dreams that occur late in the sleep cycle are usually the easiest to remember and these dreams are normally more detailed. The whole brain is used during dreams, including the limbic system that is found in the mid brain. The limbic system plays a big part in emotions in dreaming, and the amygdala, which controls fear is very active during dreams as well. During dreams the cortex of the brain, specifically the visual cortex is very active and determines what a person dreams about. Dopamine is very

To begin, information about dreams includes the science behind it. It takes a while for dreams to happen: ¨ There are five stages of sleep¨ (Van der Linden 1). Dreams occur during the fifth stage of sleep called

Whilst dreaming a person encounters all styles of scenes and scenarios, they may have up to seven dreams in one night tough will rarely remember any of them. The interpretation of the dream theory is in the dream state where the mind is working hard to clear out all the negativity from the subconscious from the previous day, doing this involves revealing scenes through the dream state to help the dreamer function past stress or day to day life. The first section of this essay defines the interpretations of the dream state. The second part of the essay focuses on lucid dreaming in which a person can control their dream state. The third section of the essay concentrates on nightmares and why they happen. The fourth section of the essay looks at the meaning behind dream catchers. The fifth

Overall, the articles supported the idea that people use dreams, whether during or after dreaming, to relate how they feel or think about other people. How they act in real situations can be mirrored in how they act in dreams (Domino, 1976). Some societies place a

To start this paper, we first must understand what a dream is. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a dream is "a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep". Dreams take the things we see during our waking hours and translate them into unique, sometimes horrifying, and possibly meaningful ways. Dreams could also be representations of subconscious feelings and desires, bubbling up from deep within our psyche. However, the actual purpose of dreams remains a mystery, even to today's foremost experts on this subject. Sigmund Freud attempted to understand what dreams meant; he thought that dreams were safeguards attempt deeper and darker desires from the human mind's id.

Have you ever wondered why you dreamed? In spite of the fact that the exact meaning of dreams has yet to be proven, there has been innovative advances to both scientific and psychological understanding dreams. What is known is that dreams are a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person 's mind during sleep. There has been several different theories developed to explain why we dream but there has yet to be one to be proven to be true.