Dare to Dream By Emily Walker and Joel Newman
The history, the science and the meaning behind the question why do I dream?
T
o some a dream is a manifestation of their greatest fear, to another a dream means their unlikeliest wishes for the future but to science they are an array of images, emotions and sensations conjured by the brain as you enter certain levels of sleep. The process of a dream is allowing the brain to digest the past and prepare for the future while you yourself are not in a conscious state to decide and lead your mind’s path. It could be that a dream is allowing you to contemplate the day’s events, finalising and retaining the memory as your mind refreshes for the following day. Alternatively, it could be that your dream is fuelled by a future threat, exploring possibilities and outcomes as your instincts result in a fight or flight response. In order to attain the level of sleep required to summon dreams you must enter the REM stage of sleep. This is the
156
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
deepest stage of sleep known to humans, the body remains still as the eyes can dart around behind the protection of their lids conjuring and sourcing images that we then refer to as dreams. These sometimes bizarre and often illogical circumstances that our mind concocts account for 20-25% of our night sleep. The random and sometimes irrelevant circumstances we dream often leave the dreamer with many questions. What does it mean? Why did I dream that? Did that really happen? This is a time when a magnitude of deep sleepers turn to the internet, to research the meaning behind their night’s experiences. Scientists have concluded that dreams fall into one of 55 categories, these include flying, falling, being chased and having super powers to name just a few and despite struggling to make sense of your dreams it is in fact proven that they are linked to personal experience. An example of this is that between the year 1950 and 2000 there was a large increase in the number of people that dreamt www.lancmag.com
