Everyone dreams, but dreams and dreaming while capturing man’s imagination are still mysterious. For centuries there have been debates as to the reason behind dreams. They are those who believe dreams carry a message. This belief in dreams being a message has led to dream interpretation dictionaries. There are many instances in the Bible where messages were reportedly revealed in dreams.
So, what are dreams and why do we dream? There is still no one accepted definition of what dreams are and why they happen. What has been agreed on however is that dreaming occurs during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep.
Dream Theories
There are many theories on dreams, three popular ones are:
Psychological theory
With this belief, dreaming is seen as a way in which our thoughts are handled when we sleep. That is why many dreams seem to focus on happenings that had an emotional or other impact on the dreamer’s life. This theory also contends that dreams are also a manifestation of events that the dreamer is unable to deal with during any given day.
Dreams, even if they are still not fully understood are believed to be essential to the physical, emotional and mental well-being of people. Some scientists who adhere to the psychological theory see dreaming as a means of helping people cope with stress in their lives.
Physiological theory
Persons who support this theory see dreaming as a way for the body to exercise the brain cells. It is believed that during waking moments the brain is constantly working and when asleep dreaming ensures this activity continues.
The Contemporary Theory of Dreaming
This theory is in some ways similar to the Psychological theory in the belief that dreams are connected in some way with the dreamer’s emotions. The contemporary theory states that when someone’s emotional state is conflicted or complicated, their dreams are likewise complicated. On the other hand, when a situation is simple the resultant dream also tends to be simple.
Some people believe that all the theories of dreams cover some aspect of why we dream. There is also a school of thought that does not believe there is any real reason people dream. However, the debate will no doubt continue between the different beliefs. Basically, there are still no clear-cut answers to the question of why we dream.
Ernest Hartmann`s Theory
Some researchers argue (claim) that perhaps the dream is irrelevant. They consider that sleep and REM period have biological functions (though they have not been determined exactly) and that dreaming is an epiphenomenon representing the brain activity of the REM period during sleep.
Ernest Hartmann believes that this is not the explanation. “Would we be pleased to believe that thinking is an epiphenomenon – the brain’s activity during the time we are awake?”
Together with his colleagues he tried to explain the phenomenon of dreaming and its possible functions in the work entitled “Contemporary Theory of Dreaming.” The basic idea is the following: the activation pathways and the neural connections constantly occur or not in our brains, forming the physical side (part) of our mind. There is continuity in the connections that later we encounter (experience) as mental functions. First, we focus on the state of wakefulness, and on the other hand, we focus on the connection linearity and strength. When we shift from concentrating on dreaming, dreaming with eyes open and finally the proper dream the concentration gradually decreases.
Dreaming is somewhere at the end of the link, the state in which the connections are very weak. Some believe that this process of the connections weakening is random, case in which the dream would have no role. In the Ernest Hartmann`s theory the process is not considered random, but it refers to the feelings of the person who dreams.
When there is a clear and short feeling, dreams are usually simple. Instead, people who have suffered trauma, have dreams like “I was on a beach and I was swept away by a huge wave.” This is just one example. The dreamer does not live the trauma, but the fear feeling is illustrated in another situation. When the emotional state is less clear, or when there are more mixed feelings, dreams become more complicated.
Statistics show that such dreams are more frequent and more intense after trauma. In fact, the dream intensity is a measure of the emotional load of the dreamer. Moreover, the theory says that dreams are a bridge between the nerve connections and feelings. However, are they accidental or are they having a well-established role? The role is very difficult to define; the theory is based on the study of many individuals who have experienced traumatic events.
Someone who had escaped a fire may dream about that fire for a few minutes, then dream about a big wave that sweeps him away. After several weeks, more and more dreams will match fire with wave or other traumatic and difficult experiences lived by the individuals, then the dream will increasingly turn to the state of normality.
Dreams seem to be physical connections or flows from the mind, which would suggest a possible role for them. On short-term these connections diminish the emotional load. On the long-term, trauma is correlated with other neural systems; if similar events occur in the future, the connections are already made and the event will be less traumatic. These types of functions may be more important to our ancestors who probably went through the trauma more often and more consistently than we did, because (as) we live in an industrialized world. (Modern world)
We take into account the possible role of dreams in reducing the emotional load and the adaptive role to cope more easily on the future traumas or stressful events.
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