Beyond what's in a particular dream, there is the question of why we dream at all. Below, we detail the most prominent theories on the purpose of dreaming and how these explanations can be applied to specific dreams.
Traditionally, dream content is measured by the subjective recollections of the dreamer upon waking. However, observation is also accomplished through objective evaluation in a lab.
In one study, researchers even created a rudimentary dream content map that was able to track what people dreamed about in real time using magnetic resonance imaging MRI patterns. The map was then backed up by the dreamers' reports upon waking. Some of the more prominent dream theories contend that the function of dreaming is to:. Many experts believe that we dream due to a combination of these reasons rather than any one particular theory.
Additionally, while many researchers believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional, and physical well-being, some scientists suggest that dreams serve no real purpose at all. The bottom line is, while many theories have been proposed, no single consensus has emerged on why we dream.
Dreaming during different phases of sleep may also serve unique purposes. The most vivid dreams happen during rapid eye movement REM sleep , and these are the dreams that we're most likely to recall. We also dream during non-rapid eye movement non-REM sleep, but those dreams are known to be remembered less often and have more mundane content. According to Freud, people are driven by repressed and unconscious longings, such as aggressive and sexual instincts. While many of Freud's assertions have been debunked, research suggests there is a dream rebound effect, also known as dream rebound theory, in which suppression of a thought tends to result in dreaming about it.
In " The Interpretation of Dreams ," Freud wrote that dreams are "disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes. While research has failed to demonstrate that the manifest content disguises the psychological significance of a dream, some experts believe that dreams play an important role in processing emotions and stressful experiences.
According to the activation-synthesis model of dreaming , which was first proposed by J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley, circuits in the brain become activated during REM sleep, which triggers the amygdala and hippocampus to create an array of electrical impulses.
This results in a compilation of random thoughts, images, and memories that appear while dreaming. When we wake, our active minds pull together the various images and memory fragments of the dream to create a cohesive narrative. In the activation-synthesis hypothesis, dreams are a compilation of randomness that appear to the sleeping mind and are brought together in a meaningful way when we wake. In this sense, dreams may provoke the dreamer to make new connections, inspire useful ideas, or have creative epiphanies in their waking lives.
According to the information-processing theory, sleep allows us to consolidate and process all of the information and memories that we have collected during the previous day. Some dream experts suggest that dreaming is a byproduct, or even an active part, of this experience processing.
This model, known as the self-organization theory of dreaming , explains that dreaming is a side effect of brain neural activity as memories are consolidated during sleep. During this process of unconscious information redistribution, it is suggested that memories are either strengthened or weakened.
According to the self-organization theory of dreaming, while we dream, helpful memories are made stronger, while less useful ones fade away. Research supports this theory, finding improvement in complex tasks when a person dreams about doing them. Studies also show that during REM sleep, low-frequency theta waves were more active in the frontal lobe, just like they are when people are learning, storing, and remembering information when awake.
Another theory about dreams says that their purpose is to help us solve problems. In this creativity theory of dreaming, the unconstrained, unconscious mind is free to wander its limitless potential while unburdened by the often stifling realities of the conscious world.
In fact, research has shown dreaming to be an effective promoter of creative thinking. Scientific research and anecdotal evidence back up the fact that many people do successfully mine their dreams for inspiration and credit their dreams for their big "aha" moments. The ability to make unexpected connections between memories and ideas that appear in your dreams often proves to be an especially fertile ground for creativity.
Under the continuity hypothesis, dreams function as a reflection of a person's real life, incorporating conscious experiences into their dreams. Rather than a straightforward replay of waking life, dreams show up as a patchwork of memory fragments. Still, studies show that non-REM sleep may be more involved with declarative memory the more routine stuff , while REM dreams include more emotional and instructive memories. Under the continuity hypothesis, memories may be fragmented purposefully in our dreams as part of incorporating new learning and experiences into long-term memory.
Still, there are many unanswered questions as to why some aspects of memories are featured more or less prominently in our dreams.
The primitive instinct rehearsal and adaptive strategy theories of dreaming propose that we dream to better prepare ourselves to confront dangers in the real world.
The dream as a social simulation function or threat simulation provides the dreamer a safe environment to practice important survival skills. If you frequently have nightmares that impair your social, occupational, emotional or physical well-being, Dr. Butler recommends seeing your primary care physician or being referred to a sleep physician.
The evidence is weak for whether dreams serve a true higher purpose or if they are just random. I look at dreams as a bridge between sleep and memory consolidation. Learn more about sleep and your health from Living Better experts. This activity in the visual cortex is presumably why dreams are pictorial and filmic. The dream-stoking circuitry also paralyzes your muscles during REM sleep so that your brain can simulate a visual experience without moving the body at the same time. The anatomical precision of these circuits suggests that dream sleep is biologically important—such precise and universal circuitry rarely evolves without an important function behind it.
The defensive activation theory makes some clear predictions about dreaming. For example, because brain flexibility diminishes with age, the fraction of sleep spent in REM should also decrease across the lifespan.
REM sleep appears to become less necessary as the brain becomes less flexible. Of course, this relationship is not sufficient to prove the defensive activation theory. To test it on a deeper level, we broadened our investigation to animals other than humans. How might we measure this? We looked at the time it takes animals of each species to develop. How long do they take to wean from their mothers? How quickly do they learn to walk? How many years until they reach adolescence?
As predicted, we found that species with more flexible brains spend more time in REM sleep each night.
Although these two measures—brain flexibility and REM sleep—would seem at first to be unrelated, they are in fact linked. As a side note, two of the primate species we looked at were nocturnal. But this does not change the hypothesis: whenever an animal sleeps, whether at night or during the day, the visual cortex is at risk of takeover by the other senses.
Nocturnal primates, equipped with strong night vision, employ their vision throughout the night as they seek food and avoid predation. When they subsequently sleep during the day, their closed eyes allow no visual input, and thus, their visual cortex requires defense.
Dream circuitry is so fundamentally important that it is found even in people who are born blind. This is because other senses have taken over their visual cortex. In other words, blind and sighted people alike experience activity in the same region of their brain during dreams; they differ only in the senses that are processed there. Interestingly, people who become blind after the age of seven have more visual content in their dreams than those who become blind at younger ages.
Similarities and differences in dream content at the cross-cultural, gender, and individual levels. Consciousness and Cognition. Do all mammals dream? J Comp Neurol. Lucid dreaming incidence: A quality effects meta-analysis of 50 years of research. The dreams of college men and women in and A comparison of dream contents and sex differences. Information processing during sleep: The effect of olfactory stimuli on dream content and dream emotions. Journal of Sleep Research. Domhoff GW, Schneider A.
Rapid Eye Movements Rems and visual dream recall in both congenitally blind and sighted subjects. SPIE; Farooq M, Anjum F. Sleep paralysis. StatPearls Publishing; Typical dreams: Stability and gender differences.
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Everybody Dreams The brain is active all night long, with particularly intense brain activity in the forebrain and midbrain during rapid eye movement REM sleep, which is when we dream. During a typical lifetime, people spend an average of six years dreaming.
Most Dreams Are Forgotten. Men and Women Dream Differently Researchers have found some differences between men and women when it comes to the content of their dreams.
Animals Probably Dream Many think that when a sleeping dog wags its tail or when a sleeping cat swats its paws, it is dreaming. You Can Control Your Dreams A lucid dream is one in which you are aware that you are dreaming even though you're still asleep.
Blind People May Dream Visually In one study of people who have been blind since birth, researchers found that they still seemed to experience visual imagery in their dreams, and they also had eye movements that correlated to visual dream recall. Some Dreams Are Universal While dreams are often heavily influenced by our personal experiences, researchers have found that certain dream themes are very common across different cultures.
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