Why do we dream? 10 theories to explain this phenomenon

The dreamlike has always been surrounded by mystery, but that does not imply that it cannot be studied.

Everyone dreams. The human being spends a third of his or her life sleeping and, of that third part, spends at least another third part dreaming, so for a large part of our lives we live in an authentic dream world.

Both the question of why we dream and the interpretation of dreams have been a fascinating topic for mankind since ancient times, and have always been surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery, as it has not yet reached a definitive theory about this creative process of our subconscious.

The first interpretations of dreams in history.

In Mesopotamia, the Babylonians believed that dreams considered "good" were sent by the gods and "bad" dreams were sent by demons. They had a goddess of dreams named Mamu to whom the priests prayed and tried to please in order to prevent bad dreams from coming true.

The Assyrians also interpreted dreams as signs. They believed that bad dreams were a warning and required action to correct the problem that had appeared in the dream. They thought that the person having a bad dream should follow whatever advice they interpreted from the dream.

On the other hand, the ancient Egyptians believed that the gods revealed themselves in their dreams. They thought that these visions caused real things that could not be controlled or interpreted by the conscious or interpreted by the conscious. They wrote down their dreams on papyrus and differentiated between three types of dream experience: those in which the gods demand an act on the part of the dreamer, those containing warnings or revelations, and dreams arrived at through a ritual. The three types of dreams served as a way to know the messages of the gods, as oracles.

Since the best way to receive divine revelation was through dreams, the Egyptians induced sleep in people who asked for answers from the gods. asked for answers from the gods. They traveled to shrines or sacred places to lie down, sleep and dream in the hope of receiving advice, healing or consolation from the gods.

Why we dream: approaches from psychology.

Psychology is no stranger to this interest and has approached the world of dreams from various disciplines (anthropology, neuroscience, psychology, literature ...), although the reasons why we dream remain mysterious. there are a number of interesting and relevant hypotheses and theories relevant hypotheses and theories that attempt to explain why we dream.

1. Wish fulfillment

One of the first and foremost scholars of dreaming was Sigmund Freudwho analyzed several patients and even used his own dreams as examples to prove his theory. He proposed that dreams represent the fulfillment of a wish by the dreamer either in real or symbolic form, including nightmares.

According to Freud, dreams are considered to be a collection of images from our conscious lives that possess symbolic meanings related to our subconscious desires.

For Sigmund Freud all dreams are interpretable and the dreamed thing does not have to be a totally real desire, but a symbol of something we want to happen, so he proposed that all dreams are interpretable.

2. Secondary effect

J. Allan Hobson and Robert McClarley in 1977 elaborated the activation-synthesis theory. According to this theory, during the REM sleep phase, the brain circuits are activated, causing the areas of the limbic system (including the amygdala and hippocampus) involved in emotions, sensations and memories to become active.

The brain tries to interpret these signals and dreams are the subjective interpretation of the signal. the subjective interpretation of the signal generated by the brain while we sleep. while we sleep. However, the theory does not imply that dreams are meaningless but suggests that they are our most creative state of consciousness.

3. Keeping the brain active

Psychiatrist Jie Zhang proposed the continuous activation theory of dreams, dreams being the result of our brain's constant need to create and consolidate long-term memories for proper functioning..

When we are asleep, our brain automatically triggers the generation of data from memory stores and these data do not show up in the form of feelings or thoughts but we experience them in our dreams. According to this theory, our dreams would be like a kind of random "screen saver" that our brain initiates in order not to shut down completely.

4. Forgetting: mental cleansing

The neuroscientist Francis Cricktogether with mathematician Graeme Mitchiso in 1983 elaborated the theory of inverse learning.

The theory indicates that we dream to get rid of the connections and associations accumulated in our brain that we do not need to store. Therefore, we dream to forget as a kind of mental escape route, as if dreaming were a method of garbage collection or mental cleansing.

5. Consolidation of learning

At the end of the 19th century, the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, after several experiments and observations, indicated that dreams serve to consolidate what we have learned during the day. However, this theory was discarded by the scientific community since they considered that the brain is not active while we sleep.

In the 1950s, Aserinsky and Nathaniel Klietman proved in several experiments that the brain continues to work while we sleep and is engaged in processing all that it has acquired during the day. to process everything it has acquired during the day.. It reviews the recently formed memories, analyzes them and discards the irrelevant ones, enhancing and qualifying those that can be useful. However, how the brain performs this task remains a mystery.

6. Defense mechanism

Sleep may be related to a defense mechanism. When we dream, the brain behaves in the same way as when we are awake, although the dopamine system associated with movement is not active. the dopamine system associated with movement is not active.. Therefore, this tonic immobility or playing dead could be considered as a defense mechanism.

7. Rehearse

Dreams commonly include threatening and dangerous situations. The Finnish philosopher and pseudoscientist Antti Revonusuo suggested the theory of the primitive instinct of rehearsal whereby the function of dreams would be to simulate threatening events or situations and rehearse the perception of such threats in order to avoid them.

This theory maintains that the content of the dream has much meaning for its purpose. In addition, not all dreams are threatening or unpleasant and can also serve as practice or rehearsal for other situations.

8. Problem solving

Deirdre Barret, suggests that dreams are an avenue for problem solving. Author John Steinbeck called this the "Dream Committee". As if it were a theater, lacking the rules of conventional logic and the restrictions of reality, the mind can create in dreams all kinds of problems, the mind can create in dreams all kinds of scenarios scenarios in dreams, solving problems more efficiently than when we are awake. This is why we tend to think that the best solution to a problem is achieved after we have slept.

9. Dream Darwinism

The psychologist Mark Blechner affirms that dreams work as a natural selection of ideas that would serve to generate new ideas. Some research suggests that in the various situations we dream about, we try to select the most useful reaction to successfully deal with those situations.

Dreams introduce useful variations to the psychic life and to the internal narratives.They would produce variations to generate new types of thinking, imagination, self-awareness and other psychic functions.

10. Processing of painful emotions

Finally, dreams could be considered as a kind of evolutionary as a kind of evolutionary therapy in which in dreams we do not select the best emotion or behavior but serve as an outlet through the association of some emotions with symbols that appear in dreams.

As a conclusion

These are just some of the most prominent explanations, as technology and research advances our ability to understand the brain will increase and we may one day discover the definitive reason why we dream. At present, despite all we know about the physiology of sleep, dream thoughts remain an enigmatic and controversial field.