Dream Essay: Why Do We Dream?

“What is a dream?” Or “Why do we dream?” Still two of the greatest unanswered questions today. The most popular definition of dreaming is “A series of images, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dream The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition copy right 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company) We all know we have dreams, but no one really knows why, or what causes us to dream. We have often found ourselves trying to relate the crazy dream we had the night before to our everyday lives, or what the dream was trying to tell us. The human brain is a small ball full of huge amounts of information that we don’t even think we know. There is a theory that states we dream because our “brain is sorting through everything that has been collected during the waking hours.” (http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/why-do-we-dream.htm , Why Do We Dream, Charles W. Bryant) When you think about all the things that you see, hear, and store in your mind throughout that day, this theory is makes total sense. Sleep is a very important part of human life, which we spend most of that time dreaming. In order to dream we have to be in the When breaking down the dreaming process, you find that there is eleven types of dreaming. Daydreams, you’re still awake, but you let your imagination carry you away. Most of us find ourselves doing this at work, or in school. False Awakening, when you think you have woken up and done your normal daily things only to actually wake up and realize it was all a dream. Lucid dreaming, when you realize that you’re dreaming and get to a point of controlling the outcome of that dream. “Nightmares, is a disturbing dream ...

... middle of paper ...

...bout it, but say you go into it with a co-worker that made you mad, and you weren’t able to express that emotion you’re most likely to dream about it. “Depressed people dream much more than non-depressed people because typically, they do much more ruminating, or thinking.” ( http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/why_do_we_dream.html, Mark Tyrrell) It has also been said that physical factors can play a part, whether it be heartburn, the smells in or around your room, or the animal that’s hogging the covers next to you. Sexual desires plays a major part in our dream world for many of us, depending on how important it is in our awake life. Though sexual dreams are usually most common during puberty. In everyday life, sex is ruled by society judgment and personal preference, but in our dreams, even the most timid of us can have explicit sexy dreams once we fall asleep.