Why do people have dreams? Dreams are studied from ancient times, but not everything has been revealed yet. When we are awake, our brain has a function of surface recognition which we can be aware of.
When we are asleep, brain is working as subconscious which we don’t recognize. Our dreams are sometimes fragmented, doesn’t make sense, or strange.
That is because brain is organizing information acquired in a day, and we have dreams while brain is maintaining itself.
Let me introduce some mysterious relation between meanings of dreams and sleep.

Meanings of dream – 9 mysteries of sleep

-Wonder of why sleeping didn’t degenerate

Not only humans, all mammals need to sleep. Without sleep, some changes occur to their health and eventually die.
While animals are sleeping, they are undefended and facing danger, but why didn’t sleeping degenerate in a process of evolution?
This is because sleeping is indispensable to live.
It is not yet revealed why sleeping is necessary and its mechanisms, but sleeping is said to have close relation with memory, dream and emotion.

-Wonder of brain maintenance 

The ability of brain to handle information is limited. We sleep while our brain organizes information, as it can go beyond its capacity without handling necessary information.
While we are asleep, our brain determines important memories and unnecessary information, and maintaining to be ready to recall memories when needed.
It is interesting that this maintenance process appears as a dream.
Pieces of information under processing have relation with dreams, and that’s why dreams don’t make sense or strange.

-Wonder of time we have dreams 

There is a certain time we likely to have dreams. It is during “REM sleep”. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is when your body is asleep but the brain is still actively working, and sleep is light. We repeat “REM sleep” and “non-REM sleep” several times a night. Non-REM sleep is sound sleep and brain is also asleep. Generally we are said to have dreams during “REM sleep”.

-Wonder of dream and emotion

Dream is often accompanied by emotion, and we often experience sadness, happiness and fear in a dream.
Sleeping not only has a function to organize memories but also emotions, and amount of brain chemical related to stress greatly decreases during “REM sleep”.
It is said that dreams have effect to heal painful memories and heart, like therapy.

-Wonder of handling reality 

Another role dream is believed to have is a simulation to handle reality.
Dream with fragmented memories is messed up. We maybe are trained to be ready to deal with many situations by such dream with mixed up memories.
Also it is said that we are developing our creativity in dreams by shuffling around memories to make up future. Interesting, isn’t it?

-Wonder of forgetting a dream 

Why do we forget dreams so easily? If we experience 4 “REM sleep” a night, we have 4 dreams. But strangely, we often remember a dream we have just before waking up, but most dreams are forgotten every time we experience “non-REM sleep”. Also we sometimes have clear memory of impactful dreams.

-Common contents of dreams

There are dreams that many people have in common. They are, for example, dream of being chased, dream of dying, dream of falling and dream of school.
No matter where you are in the world, there is no big difference in these common dreams.
What is stranger is that not only where you live but also time doesn’t affect it.
This might mean that emotions we humans have are same throughout countries and ages.

-Cause of a nightmare 

Why do we have nightmares? Because dream is closely related to emotions, we often have nightmare with stress.
Be careful if you keep having nightmares. Eating too much before sleeping, or hot foods and alcohol also cause nightmares.
Side effects of medicines and illness can cause nightmares too. Nightmare possibly is a signs of some disorders.

-Wonder of sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis happens during REM sleep.
We likely to have dream during REM sleep, and you feel as though you are awake while dreaming if you are paralyzed during a dream. In such situation, you can possibly see some hallucination and might take it as something ghostly and fearful.
However, not all sleep paralysis is explained with REM sleep. Interesting.

Did you like it?

Why do we have dreams? Existence of dream itself is mysterious. However, I think dream has relation with our subconscious and doing something important. Please relax, sleep well, and have sweet dreams.

Summary 

Meanings of dream – 9 mysteries of sleep

-Wonder of why sleeping didn’t degenerate
-Wonder of brain maintenance
-Wonder of time we have dreams
-Wonder of dream and emotion
-Wonder of handling reality
-Wonder of forgetting a dream
-Common contents of dreams
-Cause of a nightmare
-Wonder of sleep paralysis