How Our Dreams Work Our dreams combine verbal, visual and emot ional st imuli int o a somet imes broken, nonsensical but of t en ent ert aining st ory line. We can somet imes even solve problems in our sleep. Can we? Many expert s disagree on exact ly what t he purpose of our dreams might be. Are t hey st rict ly random brain impulses, or are our brains act ually working t hrough issues f rom our daily lif e while we sleep — as a sort of coping mechanism? Should we even bot her t o int erpret our dreams? Many say yes, t hat we have a great deal t o learn f rom our dreams. For cent uries, we’ve t ried t o f igure out just why our brains play t hese night ly shows f or us. Early civilizat ions t hought dream worlds were real, physical worlds t hat t hey could ent er only f rom t heir dream st at e. Researchers cont inue t o t oss around many t heories about dreaming. T hose t heories essent ially f all int o t wo cat egories: T he idea t hat dreams are only physiological stimulations T he idea t hat dreams are psychologically necessary Let ’s t ake a closer look at t hese t heories. Physiological t heories are based on t he idea t hat we dream in order t o exercise various neural connect ions t hat some researchers believe af f ect cert ain t ypes of learning. Psychological t heories are based on t he idea t hat dreaming allows us t o sort t hrough problems, event s of t he day or t hings t hat are requiring a lot of our at t ent ion. Some of t hese t heorist s t hink dreams might be prophet ic. Many researchers and scient ist s also believe t hat perhaps it is a combinat ion of t he t wo t heories.
Dream Theories First and f oremost in dream t heory is Sigmund Freud. Falling int o t he psychological camp, Dr. Freud’s t heories are based on t he idea of repressed longing — t he desires t hat we aren’t able t o express in a social set t ing. Dreams allow t he unconscious mind t o act out t hose unaccept able t hought s and desires. For t his reason, his t heory about dreams f ocuses primarily on sexual desires and symbolism. For example, any cylindrical object in a dream represent s a man, while a cave or an enclosed object wit h an opening represent s a woman. T heref ore, t o dream of a t rain ent ering a t unnel would represent sexual int ercourse. According t o Freud, t his dream indicat es a suppressed longing f or sex. Freud lived during t he sexually repressed Vict orian era, which in some way explains his f ocus. St ill, he did once comment t hat , “Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar.“
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