Why Do We Dream?

Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology was the first one to point out the importance of dreams. He propounded several a theory to explain the meaning and need of dreams and dream interpretations. Everyone dreams, however not everyone remember their dreams. For those of you who cannot help remembering dreams, I can understand your curiosity, only too well. So, without taking you on a long detour about my dreams, let's begin with analyzing dreams, why they occur and their meanings.

Psychoanalytic Theory
The psychoanalytic theory of dreams was propounded by Sigmund Freud. The French psychologist propounded that dreams are repressed versions of unconscious desires. The unconscious mind holds all those aspects of memory and desires that the specific person has repressed and pushed deeper away from the conscious to the sub-conscious mind. The desires and memories in this mind cannot be retrieved simply by recalling. As such, on occurrence of relevant stimuli, these desires may surface during REM sleep, in the form of dreams. However, Freud has also stated that most of these desires are sexual in nature. Even if the dreams are not sexual, their interpretation would have psychosexual implications. For this reason, the psychoanalytic theory has faced criticism.

Activation - Synthesis Model
The activation-synthesis model of dreaming, as propounded by J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1977, explains the reasoning behind dreams. In accordance to this theory, REM sleep activates the circuits in the brain. This causes areas of the limbic system involved in emotions, sensations, and memories, including the amygdala and hippocampus, to become active. Now, the brain tries to synthesize this activity and find a meaning in the signals, hence produced. This results in dreaming. Hobson, when discussing the meaning of dreams, states that " (dreaming is)...our most creative conscious state, one in which the chaotic, spontaneous recombination of cognitive elements produces novel configurations of information: new ideas. While many or even most of these ideas may be nonsensical, if even a few of its fanciful products are truly useful, our dream time will not have been wasted." While this theory gives a lot of justifiable explanation about dreams, it fails to give specific information about its interpretation.

Other Theories
There are many more theories that have been inspired by the two theories stated above. These theories have their own inferences about the reasoning behind dreams.

• According to one group of theorists, dreams are a response of the brain, to the external stimuli present at the time. Like, if one has the radio on when sleeping, the music may be incorporated in the dream as well.
• Another school of thought metaphorizes the brain as a computer. The way a computer hard drive needs to be formatted and segmented, the brain has to as well. As such, the dreams are simply visuals created during this fragmentation procedure of the thoughts in the person's mind.
• Another theory about the psychology of dreams, suggests the dreams are like a laboratory. As in, a dreamer connects his thoughts and emotions during his sleep, in a safe environment, of his dreams.
• Another contemporary theory states that the activation of brain that occurs during the REM sleep, causes certain loose ends to be created between thoughts and ideas. These thoughts and ideas are then guided by the emotions of the dreamer, this is what causes dreams.

All of these theories are not widely accepted due to the lack of empirical explanation and information.

Just Like That
There are many psychologists and researchers who would disagree with theories propounding meanings and inferences of dreams. These theorists suggest that dreams have no meaning. Since, the brain is functional even during the REM stage of sleep, the random "firings" of the brain, may seem like dreams. These random firings occur, creating a "film-like" presence and order. This causes the person to want to find a "deeper meaning" in why do people dream and its process. This theory can work wonders when trying to figure out why we have nightmares and what causes bad dreams, in a positive and "non-scary" manner!

While I am a thorough follower of Sigmund Freud, I leave the answer to you. Each person can decide which theory to follow and what to believe. Dreams still succeed at amazing everyone and work like a charm! This is where I sign off! Dream on!