Why do we dream?

By Maya Murfin Year 9 We have found evidence of Ancient Mesopotamians recording their dreams as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, and the practice of trying to interpret and understand our dreams has continued to the present day. We do not know for sure why we dream, but there are several theories that scientists have used to explain the phenomena of dreams. ● The first theory is that we dream as a method of storing long term memories. A study done in 2010 asked participants to try and solve a maze. After their first attempt, some participants were asked to think about the maze whilst awake and the rest were asked to nap. The participants who dreamt about the maze before their second attempt did almost 10 times better than those who did not dream of the maze and those who did not nap at all. This has led researchers to theorise that some memory processes can happen only when we are asleep, this would make our dreams signals that tell us that these processes are taking place whilst we sleep. ● The second theory is called the Continual Activation Theory and it suggests that dreams occur because your brain needs to constantly create long term memories to function normally. This theory states that when your brain activity drops below a certain level, for example when you are sleeping, your brain creates a sort of random mental screensaver made of memories that it has stored. These memories are the reason for the thoughts and feelings that we experience when we dream. In other words, we dream so that our brains never completely shut down. ● The third theory is called the Primitive Instinctive Rehearsal theory and it argues that we dream to prepare us for possible dangerous situations. Around 3 out of 4 dreams that an average adult will have contain threatening situations, with the most common themes being accidents and failures. Most of these threats were directed at the dreamer, suggesting that they are fuelled by a sense of self preservation. These dreams allow you to practice your flight or fight instinct and can help sharpen your reaction time in case you need to use them in real life situations. ● The fourth theory is that we dream to heal psychological wounds. Whilst we sleep, we emit significantly less stress hormones than when we are awake, even when we are dreaming about stressful situations. This has led some researchers to believe that the purpose of dreaming is to help lower the trauma felt in a difficult experience. The theory suggests that viewing traumatic events in your dreams, with lower levels of stress can allow you to process the events better and aid physiological healing. While there is no clear answer to why we dream, new advancements in technology and a better understanding of our brain functions may allow us to answer this question with a more definitive

answer in the future. If you are interested in learning more about these theories, please use the links in the bibliography as they have more detailed information.

Sources

● ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-we-dream-amy-adkins healthline.com/health/why-do-we-dream#the-role-of-dreams ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3079906/ goertzel.org/dynapsyc/2005/ZhangDreams.htm psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/morbid-minds/202201/morbid-curiosity-in-your-d reams#:~:text=According%20to%20some%20studies%2C%20nearly,threats%20occur%20to% 20the%20dreamer. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2890316/

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