Dreams

      We probably all have them although many people are unable to recall them the next day.  Yet there are a lot of people, like myself, who do recall their dreams very vividly.  In fact, in a discussion with my brother a few weeks ago, I discovered that both he and I dream in color and can recall the details of those dreams.

     Now a real question that many people have, and I think it is a very valid question, is “WHY do we dream?”

 

     There are many theories about why we dream, but no one knows for sure.  So, it would truly depend upon who you talked to and THEIR view of dreaming as to what type of answer you would get about dreaming.  Some researchers say dreams have no purpose or meaning.  While others say we need to dream for our mental, emotional, and physical health.

 

     Interestingly, reports on studies done concerning the importance of our need to dream were highlighted on webmd.com in their article https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/dreaming-overview .

 

     “In one study, researchers woke people just as they were going into REM sleep. They found that those who weren’t allowed to dream had:

• More tension
• Anxiety
• Depression
• A hard time concentrating
• Lack of coordination
• Weight gain
• A tendency to hallucinate

Many experts say dreams exist to:

• Help solve problems in our lives
• Incorporate memories
• Process emotions

If you go to bed with a troubling thought, you may wake with a solution or at least feel better about the situation.

Some dreams may help our brains process our thoughts and the events of the day. Others may just be the result of normal brain activity and mean very little, if anything. Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly why we dream.”

     A question that I have often wondered is “Can we control our dreams?”  Scientific American conducted an interview with Deirdre Barrett, author of the book “The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists and Athletes Use Dreams for Creative Problem-Solving – and How You Can, Too.”  Within that interview they asked the following https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-control-dreams/ :

     “Given that there's higher-level thinking going on in our dreams, to what extent can we control them?

      That we can control our own dreams is quite true and really much more so than people seem to know or realize. The details of how to do it are very different depending on whether you're trying to induce lucid dreams, whether you're trying to dream about particular content or whether you're trying to dream a solution to a particular personal or objective problem. Another really common application has been influencing nightmares, especially recurring post-traumatic nightmares—either to stop them or turn them into some sort of mastery dream.”

     Within the scope of this blog article, I am not going to try and dazzle you with any technobabble about what our dreams mean.  But we all know there are times when our dreams become nightmares and we often are suddenly awakened from our sleep because of the fear and deep anxiety of the subject matter of our dreams.  And I am not trying to belittle any who may have serious issues because of problems with dreams.  I am merely seeking to have us all reflect on the fact that the majority of us dream.  The truth of the matter is that we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"It's not wrong to dream,

but nothing gets done if you stay asleep."