For those of you that are keen followers of my blog, you will know that the last time I posted, I was 50 days away from my first exam. Well, the exam period is now over, and I am well in to my summer holidays. Although is it summer? Looking out the window at the rain driving across the garden, I can't quite tell... but lets save the British tradition of complaining about the weather for another time.
I'm a very active sleeper. I have dreams at least three times a week that I can remember, and I sleepwalk virtually every night. These night time habits have led me to think, what and why are dreams? I have come across multiple theories as to what dreams actually are, such as your repressed feelings and emotions, or a prediction of the future, but I still haven't entirely found an explanation that makes sense.
Those psychologists reading will probably inform me that each dream has a deeper meaning coming from your id or ego or another part of the human conscience, which I do believe is a perfectly plausible explanation, but I once had a dream where is was at a party at the Teletubb house, and got stuck at the bottom of their garden... I'm not entirely sure what that could say about me but I'm open to interpretations.
Therefore, to solve the mystery of what causes dreams, I'm going to run through the internet's finest theories, and decide which one makes the most sense:
1) Bodily repair
According to howstuffworks.com, "experts believe we dream to assist the body with rest, repair and rejuvenation". An interesting theory for sure, yet I'm not sure how dreaming about falling, or sleepwalking around the house is going to help with rest. In some cases, I come out of a dream more stressed than relaxed. However I would not discredit it for now.
2) Waking at the right time
Do not discredit this theory when I tell you it came from an article written by the Daily Mail. Trust me, this information is 100% accurate because it can from many professors and doctors. I have been told before that we, as humans, have more dreams than we think we do, we just don't remember the majority of them, and therefore we think we have less than we actually do. According to the article, we only remember dreams if we wake up in the middle of them. If the dream reaches it's end, we don't remember it. That sort of makes sense - have you ever reached the end of a dream? Probably not. Notice how you always wake up before you die... what if you died in your dream? Would your dream continue for eternity never to wake up? Would you die in real life? SO MANY QUESTIONS!!
I feel I've gone slightly off topic... on to theory number 3...
3) Solving problems
Research has suggested that dreams help us to solve problems that have haunted our waking hours. The illogical aspects of the dreams help us to think out of the box - perfect for difficult problems that we have previously been unable to solve. That makes sense... dreams very rarely resemble real life accurately. However I do wish I had learnt that theory before I sat my exams...
So there you have it - some explanations as to why we have dreams and why we remember them. I hope this has helped you to solve all your questions about our nocturnal mind wandering... probably not.
Until next time then folks. I will be posting more frequently (lucky you) as I have plenty of spare time on my hands.
Happy dreaming!
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