I often have vivid dreams. They are often story style dreams but sometimes with impossible shifts and events in the stories. I occasionally have dreams which appear very realistic in my waking memory of them. Some were so vivid and realistic that my brain stores them as memories as if they were real events. An example is a dream or series of dreams where I stole cars. I had these dreams in my 20's. I know as fact that I never stole any cars. Yet the memories are there like half forgotten events.
I can definitely see how people can think that dreams as spiritually or dimensionally significance. I recall reading a book by a guy who even claimed that he traveled to other dimensions when he slept. My interpretations of dreams used to lean toward giving high significance to dreams. But, as I did with other matters in my life, I decided to take a more physical approach to dreams. My personal analysis and reading supplied the idea that there are multiple neurological causes for dreams.
The brain is complex. But it can generally be understood that we have cognitive functions and autonomic functions in the brain. A lot of the brain activity during sleep is autonomic. However, cognitive functions during sleep are suppressed rather than completely shut down. This is important to understand relating to the types of dreams. One of the autonomic functions of the brain during sleep is the processing of memories, which include activities, conversions and even thoughts which occur during waking times. I've read that the brain doesn't just transfer memories from short term memory to long term memory. The brain sort of replays the memories in order to associate them with related long term memories. This relates to dreams because the suppressed cognitive functions perceives some of the memory activity and tries to make sense of it. But we cannot usually think in a conscious way during sleep so the suppressed cognitive functions have difficulties making sense of what is going on. So sort of an unconscious imagination comes into play to interpret the memory replay. People who can remember their dreams can see how the dreams usually change based on changing conscious attitudes and experiences. For example, I tend to have more science fiction oriented dreams when I watch or read science fiction. Horror style dreams sometimes occur after watching a horror movie. When I was younger, I tended to have supernatural type dreams when I had religious and supernatural beliefs. A lot of my current dreams relate to travel because I think a lot and have planning related to the cross-country trip which I will do in less than 3 years from now. I also have work related dreams both relating to my current work and what I might do after the trip.
A second aspect of dreams relates to physical conditions during sleep. If I have the need to get up and use the bathroom, the dream which I have at the time will incorporate bathroom use in the dream. If I don't wake up when the urge initially comes, bathroom events will become repetitive in the dream until I wake up. Sounds which occur while sleeping can get incorporated in the dreams, sometimes as sounds and sometimes as shifts in the dream. Getting tangled in my bed sheets can result in some kind of entanglement in my dreams.
So 2 primary causes of dreams are memory (processing of memories which the suppressed cognition tries to interpret) and conditional (what is happening physically). A 3rd aspect of dreams can relate to the suppressed consciousness continuing thoughts which might have occurred during the day. I can sometimes generate specific styles of dreams based on what I am thinking about as I go to sleep. Sort of a 4th aspect to dreaming, which I think accounts for some of the more bizarre or chaotic dreams, is the merging of the other aspects of dreaming. Since cognition is suppressed, the sometimes conflicting dream elements generated by the different functions of the brain can result in odd twists, turns, shifts and even overlapping dream elements.
Another factor in dreams is neurochemistry. Different activities release different chemicals and nerve impulses. Sleep requires specific neurochemistry. However, certain dream activity can confuse the nervous system and cause a release of some neurochemical activity which normally occurs with wakeful activity. Since the body has limited mobility during sleep, the neurochemistry affected by dream activity can further affect the states of the dreams.
I find dreams entertaining and sometimes interesting. But I feel that the specifics of dreams have limited importance since a primary factor in dreams is suppressed cognition. But there is one thing which I find useful about dreams. Since an aspect of dreams relates to memories which come from occurrences and mental states during conscious times, some patterns in dreams can be useful to understanding our conscious states. But this can have a lot of misinterpretations so I mainly use dreams as a reference tool rather than a diagnostic tool.
Further reading:
Human Brain Still Awake, Even During Deep Sleep
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081008101740.htm
What Happens in the Brain During Sleep?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happens-in-the-brain-during-sleep1/
Why Do We Dream? Recent Developments In Neuroscience May Have The Answer.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/10/04/why-do-we-dream-recent-developments-in-neuroscience-may-have-the-answer/#212156055451
Cognitive neuroscience of dreams
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_neuroscience_of_dreams
How Sleep Works - Neurological Mechanisms of Sleep
https://www.howsleepworks.com/how_neurological.html
Dreams - Introduction
https://www.howsleepworks.com/dreams.html
No comments:
Post a Comment