The science of dreams: What makes us dream

You are walking through an empty corridor. Nothing to your left, nothing to your right. You take a deep breath, begin to run and suddenly you hear the sounds of your favorite radio station blaring from your clock radio, demanding that you wake up for school. As reality settles in, you realize it was all a dream.

Everyone dreams, just not everyone remembers their dreams. According to “The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams” by Theresa Cheung, scientists have not discovered the definite reason for dreaming, but it is generally considered as a time during which the brain reorganizes itself.

Dreaming itself occurs during the rapid eye movement (REM) period of sleep, which is the period of high emotion during sleep. There are two main theories as to the function and reason for the occurrence of dreams: the psychodynamic theory and the activation synthesis hypothesis.

The psychodynamic theory was created by Sigmund Freud, one of the leading psychologists in dream analysis and interpretation, in the early 19th century. He said that dreams were based on wish fulfillment, meaning that dreams were an expression of hidden, unconscious desires.

Senior Madelaine Stanley did a project on Freud’s dream theories as part of her AP Psychology class.

“Freud’s dram theory is a way for us to access repressed memories,” Stanley said. “Most memories affect how we act, whether we know it or not subconsciously.”

Freud believed that any internal conflicts would play themselves out in dreams, and that dream analysis was the only true way to understand and resolve what was plaguing the dreamer. He argued that not every dream had meaning, but sometimes meaning was disguised in symbols.

The activation synthesis hypothesis was created by Harvard University psychiatrists John Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1977. They believed that dreams were the result of random nerves firing in the brain during sleep. The reason that dreams follow a general storyline is because the brain, which is designed to try to create order out of chaos, is trying to make sense of these nerve firings. As the part of the brain responsible for reasoning is shut down during dreams, dreams can often be bizarre and include strange elements not generally found in real life, though they do often mirror one’s daily life. Like Freud, Hobson and McCarley believed that dreams contained meaning.

How often do we dream?

• People who say that they never dream are mistaken—we dream every night. A dream period, which is when we go into REM sleep, occurs every 90 minutes. Each dream period can last up to 45 minutes on average.

Lucid dreaming

Color vs. black/white dreaming

• According to dream researcher Bob Van de Castle, the majority of dreams are in color. The reason why some people may perceive their dreams to be colorless is related to the quality of dream recall. People who wake directly from REM sleep are more likely to report distinctly colored dreams as opposed to people who wake from deeper stages of sleep.

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In-Depth: The science of dreaming

• The science of dreaming
• Common dreams, how they vary by culture

Written by Miranda Leung, Suzy Estrada

dreams, sleep Features, In-Depth, Issue 6, Main, Print