Why Do We Dream?
Brian Morris, English 2010
Dreaming is
something that
just about
everybody will
experience
throughout
their life.
Interpreting
dreams has dated back to 2,500 B.C.
Dreams have always been a subject of
curiosity for us. While we have managed
to interpret some dreams, one question
remains that still continues to boggle
scientist, researchers, and psychologists:
Why do we dream? As technology
improves we get closer to an answer but
for now the question stands firm.
We know that dreaming occurs
most during the fifth stage of sleep,
REM sleep. REM being an acronym for
Rapid Eye Movement. REM sleep is our
deepest part of sleep, and is the last
stage of sleep that we enter before
waking up.
While dreams are most common in REM
sleep, and are the most vivid during
REM sleep, they can also occur during
the other four stages of sleep. Vivid
dreams are dreams that are easily
remembered. If you dont remember
having any dreams during the night, it is
likely that you may have been dreaming
in one of the first four stages of sleep.
Most people dream every night but we
dont always remember the dream. You
may not have reached the fifth stage
before waking up.
Researchers havent found
the core reason as to why or how
we dream. Decades worth of studies
have been done but no definite result
has come out of them. The question of
whether dreams have any real function
is also unanswered. While these
questions are unanswered there are
theories. One theory is that the brain
uses dreams to sort through all the
events of the day minor or major,
such as the color of a leaf or the new car
youre considering to buy. This theory
suggest that dreaming is the process that
the brain uses to help sort through
memories that should be kept and
memories that should be forgotten.
Then converting those memories from
short term to long term.
I think this theory is a valid
theory. Research suggests that the brain
uses dreams to sort through all the
events of the day minor or major, such
as the color
of a leaf or
the new car
youre
considering
to buy. This
theory
suggest that
dreaming is the process that the brain
uses to help sort through memories that
should be kept and memories that
should be forgotten. Which then leads to
learning.
We are constantly told in school
that when were studying we should take
a nap immediately after because well
remember what we learned better.
An article written by Charles W. Bryant
(2016), a co-host for How Stuff Works
states, Participants in a dream study
who were taking a language course
showed more dream activity than those
who were not (para. 3). To me this
suggest that dreams are closely
related to learning. In the first study
presented in the article it says that
dreaming helps the brain sort through
memories and decide which to keep and
which to forget. Dreaming in a sense,
could be seen as the brain's way of
dejunking its information
inventory. It is taking all the useless
knowledge that we gained throughout
the day and its forgetting it.
This also explains why we can see
and hear in our dreams. Because the
brain primarily gets information by
seeing and hearing things, it makes
sense for it to use the occipital lobe, the
part of the brain responsible for seeing.
By cycling through the memories it
collects, it would need to use the the
occipital lobe to get the information. By
using the occipital lobe we are able to
see images of our dream.
In my own dreams Ive noticed
that the logic of the dream doesnt
always make sense. For example, I dont
always understand how I managed to get
from point A to point B. Nancy Shute
(2016), at npr.org writes,
The brain edits memories
relentlessly, updating the past
with new information. Scientists
say that this isn't a question of
having a bad memory. Instead,
 they think the brain updates
memories to make them more
relevant and useful now even if
they're not a true representation
of the past. (para. 2)
To me this means that our brain
is constantly rewriting our memories,
which explains why dreams dont always
make sense. If our brain rewrites the
memories, or were remembering the
last time we remembered the memory,
bits and pieces are going to get left out
each time, and new information will fill
the void. So when I say I dont
understand how I got from point A to
point B in my dream it is because the
brain isnt gathering all the information.
Bits and pieces were left out. For
example, in one particular dream I had,
I was going on a hike to a lake, to get to
the trail I walked north on Redwood
Road from my house, for a while and
then turned off onto the trail. In my
waking life I know exactly how to get to
the trail, and it doesnt involve walking
on Redwood road and not only that but I
dont live near Redwood Road.
So when I had the dream my brain
wasnt gathering all the information of
the memory so when it began cycling
through it filled the voids with other
information.
In the waking world I can
consciously dictate the memory and
search for all the pieces that complete it.
During a dream the brain is gathering
information as fast as it can and cycling
through it, trying to forget unnecessary
information. So in this particular
scenario it is likely that the brain didnt
see the car ride to the trail as essential
information for the memory, so it didnt
include it while turning the memory into
a long term memory, and instead it filled
the void with another memory, the
memory I actually have of walking north
on Redwood Road.
I find this very information very
interesting. These theories help me to
link information on why we dream the
way we dream, though still not
answering the actual Why? In my own
experience I feel that this theory is true.
It explains why I am able to remember
some incredibly insignificant events
such as a rock I saw when I was a little
kid. If my brain is going through
memories that were gathered
throughout the course of the day, and
converting short term memories into
long term memories, it explains why I
can remember things now that at the
time I didnt really pay any attention to.
This leads me to another question, how
does our waking life affect our dreams?
 After doing some research on
types of dreams that people experience I
found two dreams in particular to be
interesting: flying and running in slow
motion. There are several types of
dreams that most people experience
during their lives. To analyze a flying
dream you need to look at the content of
the dream. Things to analyze would be
the location of flight, how were you
flying, was your flight controlled, etc. Of
these things, the most important
indicator of your dream is if it was
controlled or not. A controlled flight is
likely to mean that in your waking life
you feel like you have control over what
is happening. Often work related
experiences such as promotion and
success, seem to trigger flying dreams.
While flying dreams are generally
positive dreams they can be negative. A
negative dream is usually the exact
opposite of a positive dream. Meaning
the flight isnt controlled, you dont fly
with ease, and your location isnt ideal.
You may not feel like that you have
control in your waking life. Work may be
very stressful and you may have
uncertainty of the security of your job.
Running in slow motion dreams
are what I found the most interesting. In
a dream like this running is nearly
impossible. It feels like youre running
in chest deep water. You just kind of
bounce, yet make no progress forward.
These dreams seem to be caused by
negative things going on in the waking
life. You may feel that you cannot
progress forward, something is holding
you back. In a dream like this everything
else moves at its regular speed, except
for you. Another cause for these dreams
is that you are running out of time on
something.
Often this is the cause for me. I have
usually procrastinated my homework
and it is due very soon, and I know it
and I have been thinking about it all day.
Upon doing more research on
dreams I found that dreams often
represent our unconscious desires. I
have had a flying dream before, and I
have always wanted to fly. In my dream
I was flying exactly the way I want to be
able to fly in my waking life.
In conclusion, dreams are not
scientifically understood as to how and
why they happen. Decades of research
has yielded new information and has
lead to new theories. Overall the theory
that I have settled on is that dreams are
a result of information gathered in our
waking life, that is being disposed, or
converted into long term memory.
Research has shown that students who
sleep after studying, remember
information easier. I attribute this to the
brain turning short term memory into
long term memory.
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