Theories for why we dream:

*Dreaming is a way for our brains to keep exercising our synapses (the pathways between our brain cells) while we are sleeping. During sleep, dreaming allows our brains to keep working. Our brain needs to be constantly switched on, so our bodies have produced a way that this is possible while we are recharging the rest of our body in sleep. Research has shown the brain waves measured during REM cycles of sleep are practically identical to those measured when we are awake. So during our sleep, it would seem our brains are still ‘learning’ and still computing all that sensory input we receive during the day. It has been shown during the first few formative years of life, we experience the greatest amount of REM sleep. This would seem to support the theory that are brains are still active and learning while we sleep.

What is the Meaning of Dreams?

*Dreams are a way for our minds to clean up the ‘clutter of the day’ in our brains, much like a computer systematically shutting down. When we go to sleep our brains ‘recharge and refresh’ using dreams, so that our minds are ready to begin anew the next morning.

*Dreams deal with leftover or unfinished business from the day or information we cannot process or handle at the time. They focus on our thoughts and emotions in a ‘safe environment’ where we can make connections to how we feel about situations and events that are happening in real life. In this theory dreams would seem to be able to give us insight into things about ourselves that we may not be aware of.

*Dreams are just the result of our brains trying to interpret external stimuli that is happening around us while we are sleeping. For example, the sound of an ambulance may produce an actual ambulance or even emergency scene in a dream.

*Dreams are a portal through which we can safely deal with unexpressed or repressed emotions we are feeling. Dreams will create scenes or situations using metaphors to allow ourselves the opportunity to ‘work through’ our issues. Thus the proposal that only those emotions which are strong and repressed show up as issues in our dreams, because those are the ones we need to work on in order to feel more whole. In this theory, dreams can be seen as an insight into our true selves, which we often cannot or do not see.

*Dreams allow our brains to recreate the scenarios or situations that were the concerns during the day, in order to process the unrepressed emotions. Since we do not have access to the outside stimuli and environment to create the scenario, it uses memories we already have stored in our brains, to recreate the situations. It uses things from our memories as metaphoric ‘stand-ins’ for people and situations from our 'real life'. Many peope use a dream dictionary and use these rules to help with dream analysis.