A Reason Behind Crazy Dreams

Are dreams important? Or are they just funny, and sometimes not so funny, connections that our brain creates without any reason?

Express yourself

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory on why we dream, dreams are the expression of the unconscious mind, of strong, aggressive and sexual wishes that we do not express when we are awake and that our brain needs to liberate before they cause any kind of stress and illness.

Maybe Freud’s theory was a bit extreme, but he was not completely wrong.

These structures are closely related to the perception of emotions and feelings, and logic, attention and self-awareness, respectively. During REM cycles, the limbic system is also active, while the frontal cortex is not. What is the result? The formation of strange images that provoke emotional reactions, while we are asleep. But, is this a way of releasing stress or hidden desires? It could be, although research has shown that not dreams specifically, but sleep, is what helps people deal with stress.

Lucid dreaming

Lucid dreams are a distinctive form of dreaming where individuals become consciously aware that they are in a dream while still immersed in it. This self-awareness distinguishes lucid dreams from regular dreams, where people typically accept the dream's reality without question. Lucid dreams are characterized by self-awareness, the ability to exert some degree of control over the dream, vivid sensory experiences, and enhanced dream recall.

These dreams primarily occur during the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep, a phase associated with intense dreaming. While the exact mechanisms behind lucid dreaming are not fully understood, it is believed that brain regions responsible for self-awareness become active during these dreams.

Individuals may induce lucid dreams through techniques such as reality checks, visualization, or the Wake-Induced Lucid Dream (WILD) method. Lucid dreaming has practical applications, including enhancing creativity, problem-solving, and overcoming nightmares. However, ethical considerations arise, as some may exploit the dream state for personal gain or inappropriate activities within the dream, raising moral concerns in the field.

Dreams and memory 

How do we remember our dreams, if we are supposed to be asleep? Are they recorded just as a normal memory? In a study performed in the University of Rome, researches found that the recall of dreams follows the same mechanism that our brain uses to recall memories when we are awake. This means that, even when we are asleep, our brain can use these recalling mechanisms to bring back images of people or situations that we knew or that we experienced in the past, which explains why we usually dream about previous experiences.

Both, the amygdala and the hippocampus, are part of the brain’s limbic system that is involved in learning and memory processes. In this study these two regions were found to be active in people that later reported that they were dreaming at the time of the study.

See Also: What Your Dreams Tell You About Your Health

All these findings make us wonder whether our awake and asleep states are different or not. They certainly are, but as you can see, the line that divides them is very subtle, and that both of them are part of a continuous state of mind that share common processes, but that also depend on the activation of different brain regions in order for them to occur.