To be perfectly honest, after devoting nearly 12 years of my life to watching Grey's Anatomy, I'm pretty sure I can perform a tracheostomy using a pen or a straw. If you have ever watched even a single episode, you feel prepared to ask for a scalpel to start a huge surgery (maybe even while having the other hand on a bomb inside your patient). Every "neuro" page, every "psych" page, and every PET or CT scan that is requested, makes me more and more fascinated about the most important, and least understood, organ in the human body: the brain. Even today, with all the technology present and active research, people are unaware of everything the brain can do and how it functions. Subsequently, even the known facts of the brain are generally theories rather than definite. Since many diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's have become present in a larger population of people, the government has just recently began to raise its spending on brain
research. To me, one of the most fascinating functions of the brain occurs when we are not cognizant of our surrounds: when we are sleeping. While your body is asleep, your blood pressure drops, your muscles are relaxed, your breathing and heart rate slow down, and energy for the day to come is restored. So why is it that while your body is theoretically "off", your brain still has the capability to dream?
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Dreams allow you to explore the world
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To clarify, there is no definitive answer to why people and other organisms dream. Rather, many theories and hypothesis have been given. One explanation to why people dream is based upon a
defense mechanism dating back to the early foundations of biology. During sleep, the brain may stimulate a threatening event to prepare the mind for how to act if this event were to actually occur. With this theory, it can be implied that people who are surrounded by a great deal of threatening occurrences will have more dreams that "exercise the mind" for real-life preparation.
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| Highlighted is the Amygdala: the part of the brain that initiates the instinctive "flight or fight" action |
Another explanation to why we dream can be explained through the
activation-synthesis model which states that during the REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the brain's cortex inhibits signals from the sensory system from reaching the cortex. Instead, the structures that bring sensory signals from the sensory system to the cortex create PGO waves that lead to the activation of the cornea. This action keeps the brain functioning. With the increase in brain activity, dreams occur due to the cortex interpreting these waves and disruptions.
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| A CT scan of brain activation in REM as opposed to NREM 1 (the beginning of relaxation where arousal is easy) |
A third theory of why we dream is to absorb all of the information we gathered throughout the previous day. During sleep, the brain processes everything that was learned within the day and attempts to understand it. With the help of images and mental emotions, the brain can make cognizant decisions on how to react in the event of seeing what was learned in the day at another time.
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| A touch of humor to activate your medial prefrontal cortex |
The reason behind dreams is not the only night time process that scientists cannot come to a conclusion about. The purpose of sleep in general has been disputed since the beginning of time. Some believe that people and animals sleep for the sole purpose of memory consolidation, others think it occurs to empty the brain of
toxic metabolic byproducts, and some note it as a period to de-stress and be at peace. This scientific indecisiveness only further shows that if scientists do not understand the reason behind why we sleep, it is just that much more difficult for them to discover why we dream.
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| A sleeping nugget engrossed in discover dreams to chase |
As previously mentioned, psychologists, neuroscientists, and researchers of the brain have yet to come to a full consensus on the true reason behind dreams. In spite of that, besides the occasional nightmare, dreams are where the mind can wonder, where you can get lost in fantasy, where you can be whomever and whatever you want to be, where you can see pigs fly. So regardless of the science, "dream on. Dream on.
Dream until your dreams come true."
I love your post, Dean! I found the first theory the most interesting; I've never thought of dreams as being a defense mechanism!
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ReplyDeleteAlso, I read this article from BBC about how humans sleep way less than other primates because "the sleep that we have is of high quality so we do not need as much." It's basically saying that we sleep more deeply than other primates. The article also ties this in with evolution, which I thought was really cool! It says that roughly two million years ago, hominids slept on the ground, not on trees, so that may have gifted them with a more restful sleep. Also, humans sleep the least compared to other primates BUT we spend the most proportion of our sleep in an REM state (~25%). So, according to the second theory, humans have more brain activity during sleep than other primates! Maybe I strayed off from the topic of dreams and why we have them, but I think it's really interesting. There are many theories on why we sleep, but there's no one definitive answer. Maybe if we know why we sleep, we can figure out why we dream?
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated with dreams and the science behind them. I have dreams very frequently, so this is a great blog post which has answered all of my questions! Looking back on the reasons why we dream...I can relate back and it makes so much more sense now! Also liked your personal analogy in the beginning, Dean :)
ReplyDeleteLoved reading this :) I found the theory about having dreams as a way to process new information to be especially interesting, because I never really thought about dreams having that type of purpose. That section made me think about how the brain forms all these different hypothetical situations of things going on in real life while dreaming, because this could be the brain's way of analyzing new information.
ReplyDeletePS, I agree with Ella, loved the beginning! I'm a Grey's fan myself ;)
I, like Ella, dream very frequently, and sometimes they get super bizzarre. I have always wondered what they mean and why they occur. This really answered a lot of those questions! Thanks so much Dean.
ReplyDeleteDean, I loved your post! I admire your bravery in writing about a topic that has so many unanswered questions. Whenever I have a dream, I always ask myself, "What does this mean?". As if my dreams hold some clues into significant parts of my life. I found the third theory to be especially interesting, but, the first theory seems the most realistic.
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic and similar to a topic I learned in philosophy. I love to sleep and I love dreaming because it's always interesting stories to remember. It'd be interesting if you could find out why the brain can't always recall the dreams once you wake up.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article, because it fascinates me how complex our subconscious minds are. The activation-synthesis model reminded me of a few articles I read about sleep paralysis, which happens when people's minds are still asleep, but their eyes are open, resulting in nightmarish hallucinations. I would love to continue to learn more about why and how we dream.
ReplyDeleteI lived this post honestly I have never even thought about why we dream. It just seemed like such a normal part of our lives this post really blew my mind and the theories especially the one that the brain is preparing is in our sleep was so cool.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea sleep and dreams are still so mysterious to scientists! The theory about dreams preparing us for future events is really interesting and it definitely would explain stress dreams. I'd like to think sleep is just to destress and detox, it seems like a relaxing explanation, but that conflicts with the concept of stress dreams. I honestly wouldn't have thought about sleep without this post, so thanks for sharing!
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