Why We Dream

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Since the beginning of the age of man, people have been studying the different functions of the human being, how we move, how we talk, how we act, and for the most part these physiological behaviors have been explained, or at least understood on some level. However, when it comes to topics pertaining to the mind, or psychological matters, scholars and researchers have been confused about certain areas for a long time. Many things go on inside of the mind which do not make sense and do not have any tangible explanation. One of the most intriguing and inexplicable sections of psychology is that of dreaming, both why and how we do it. Everybody has dreams at one point or another, and in fact, though they are hard to remember, most people have at least one dream every night. There are many theories on why people dream, such as utilizing sleep as a time to reorganize one’s daily thoughts. The sleep cycle has been studied and while the brain’s waves travel through many different stages, when exactly do dreams occur during a good night’s sleep? Also, why do people have certain types of dreams, such as nightmares and night terrors? Finally what does the content of dreams mean and the psychology behind them? This paper will address all of the topics mentioned here in detail and give an educated hypothesis as to why and when people dream, and then why people have the certain types of dreams that they have.

Before dreams begin the body starts the sleep cycle. There are 4 stages in the sleep cycle. Before the cycle starts the alpha stage is in progress. In the beta stage the brain waves are rapid and fast. After the beta stage the first stage of the sleep cycle is

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called the alpha stage. In this stage the brain starts to slowly drift into a relaxed state which turns your rapid brain waves into relaxed brain waves. This stage lasts about ten minutes and sets up the first REM period of sleep (McMahon and Romano, 2000, p.166).

REM stands for rapid eye movement. This is the part of sleep in which dreams occur. In this period, the eyes are moving in all sorts of directions within the eye sockets. The REM period is the period where the deepest sleep also occurs. Also during the REM period the body is paralyzed and if someone were to yell at a person in the REM period they would likely not respond. In REM sleep the brain waves alternate with periods of deep, quiet sleep marked by large, slow brain waves. This puts the brain into a trance which would make it hard to hear anyone yelling or such. REM sleep also increases in length as you sleep and is essential for an adequate nights sleep (Mayes, 1983, p.26).

The next stage is Stage 2; nothing much happens in Stage 2. The brain is just exiting the first REM period and preparing for a new period of REM. Stage 2 is also known as a NREM period of dreaming. NREM stands for non rapid eye movement. This stage of sleep is not essential to an adequate nights sleep. NREM decreases in length as the night’s sleep progresses. In NREM sleep dreaming does not occur, but what does occur are vague, partial images and stories the brain creates. Night terrors (not nightmares) also occur. Sleep walking also occurs in NREM. It is a common

misconception that people dream while they sleepwalk but this is not true, because the body can not move during REM (McMahon and Romano, 2000, p.167).

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After Stage 2 another period of REM will occur this is longer than the first period of REM. After the REM period; Stage 3 starts. In Stage 3 the brain drift deeper into sleep; this brings on the delta waves. Delta waves are slow, lazy, deep sleep brain waves. After Stage 3 another REM period begins. After this period Stage 4, starts. At this time the sleeper is are about 1 hour into sleep. After Stage 4 the cycle reverses and the sleep cycle starts at Stage 1, the relaxed stage and goes through the whole cycle again and again until waking in the morning (McMahon and Romano, 2000, p.166).

Dreaming is a mind boggling event that occurs every time REM sleep occurs. Everyone dreams, but some people dream more than others. But, some people can not remember their dreams. This is due to many factors. One reason people cannot remember their dreams is, not waking up after your dream. A person dreams many times in the night during REM sleep. If he does not wake up right after a REM period it will be hard to remember the dream. The mind will drift into another state and slowly forget the dream. A way to fix this is to set an alarm every 1 hour at the end of the sleep cycle to wake up and see if dreams are remembered. People that remember dreams right when they wake up after a dream tend to lose track of the dream very fast. The dream is remembered because the person woke up soon after they dreamt. But, if the person goes back to sleep they will probably forget the dream because their brain will be switching states and the dream will not channel. A good way not to let this happen is as soon as one wakes from a dream leave a note pad by the bed and write about the dream as soon as one wakes (“How to Remember your Dreams,” n.d.).

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The purpose of dreaming has been debated for centuries. Overall, dreams seem to be mandatory for our well being. There are three major hypotheses on the purpose of dreaming. The first hypothesis is to process information. Brain chemicals are used up during the day. When a person goes to sleep, her brain chemicals are replenished during sleep while dreams process the day or week. This needs to happen, because, the restoring of chemicals has to be done while the brain is cut off from the world in order to keep new problems. However, the brain can not become inactive. Dreams keep the brain active with old material while the chemicals are being regenerated. The second hypothesis is that dreams are intended to work out unsolved problems. Evidence for this hypothesis is easy: a person goes to bed with a problem and in the morning when the person wakes up, their problem is solved. When one is under stress or is depressed, one sleeps a lot longer. The amount of time in the REM periods increases. This strongly suggests that the brain is working on things that worry people while they dream. The third hypothesis originated from the recent popularity of computers. While sleeping occurs, the brain gets rid of the information the brain does not need. This would prove that dreams result from electrical realignments, revising, and updating going on in the brain. This happens when different memory circuits are being triggered. The brain is trying to make sense of small