Why We Dream, Theories-A-Plenty

 Choose your thinker

    Jumping right in, dreaming as a whole is probably the most interesting characteristic of sleep, especially considering the several universal dreams that we can all bond over- such as the "falling" sensation dream.

Most dreams occur during Rapid Eye Movement sleep, which is the last stage of sleep as a whole. In this stage, you're temporarily paralyzed which prevents physically acting out dreams, and your amygdala (in charge of fight or flight) is activated. Taking these characteristics into mind, let's dive into the theories that have shaped current knowledge on why we dream.  

Wish Fulfillment 

Several theories have risen concerning WHY we dream, Sigmund Freud is one theorist that takes a jab.

Sigmund Freud | photograph by Max Halberstadt

 If you haven't heard of good 'ol Freud, well...prepare for some very icky information. Freud is known as the father of psychoanalysis, and one idea he proposed that is especially controversial is what we know as the Oedipus complex. This concept states that romantic involvement is between family; sons will rival their fathers for their mother's romantic love and vice versa. Regardless of those issues clearly present, Freud also derived the three states of consciousness as well as the idea that analyzing the mind requires looking at the unconscious conscious. The idea that our unconscious governs us, feeds into Freud's idea of why we dream: wish fulfillment. According to this great thinker, we dream so that the desires we have deep in ourselves can be in the limelight, unlike in waking states. Such desires, relating to the meaning of dreams are known as the latent content, which is within manifest content (the superficiality of our dreams). 

Information Processing 

Moving away from psychoanalysis and into the cognitive perspective, we'll learn about the information processing theory, credited by George Armitage Miller- the father of the Cognitive Revolution. 

Information Processing System | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

This theory states that our dreams are projected as a means to sort out our activities from the previous day. The model above supports this theory as memory is consolidated into short term to long term storage. So, our dreams our combinations of previous experiences, which have been supported by experiments like that of REM sleep being able to improve memory after a learned experience compared to no REM.  

Activation Synthesis 

Amygdala Activation |
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

  

    Psychiatrists John Allan Hobson and Robert                McCarley take on the physiological explanation for    dreaming, in which activation of internal processes     form our dream content. 

    Examples, like the amygdala and hippocampus,         explain how learned experiences and emotions can     be synthesized into our dreams. 

    As shown in the photo to the left, brain scans are        able to illuminate regions of the brain that become     active during sleeping/dreaming. 

Also with the physiological function of dreaming is the preservation of neural pathways. The brain is very active during sleep, as it works to restore, regenerate, and re-energize; so it makes sense that we dream for the sake of development.  

Which theory, or thinker, do you most agree with? 

That's a wrap for the three main theories on why we dream. Comment your thoughts down below!

Stay safe, and sleep well.