Why do we Dream?

 

Quick! Go grab your pillows. We’ve got a challenge for you.

Wait no, it does not involve us boring you to sleep. But this might just be your ‘Dream’ come true.

Try to go a couple of days without sleep, not even a brief shut eye. It is said that humans can live about 3 days without water and about 3 weeks without food. But what about sleep?

What do you think will happen?

Well, the answer is, all hell breaks loose. You get sick, your heart suffers badly, you can’t think of or remember anything, your sexual desires drop phenomenally, you start to hallucinate, your behaviour changes for the worse, and… the point is, it is not a good thing to do☹. So, our challenge is simple folks, GET SOME SLEEP; but maybe wait until you finish reading the whole article!

That’s because we won’t be focussing on your sleep, but what happens when you sleep. Those instances when you are being chased, or when you keep falling and you don’t know why, or when you’re naked in public and don’t know what to do, or when you’re having a romantic moment with a celebrity; yes, we’re talking about your DREAMS. Those terrifying or sometimes beautiful stories your mind writes for you.

‘DREAM’ BIG

There are 4 stages to our sleep; 3 stages of ‘NREM’ sleep and 1 ‘REM’ stage, and dreams, occur in the REM stage. Now, what’s this ‘NREM’ and ‘REM’? It’s ‘Non-Rapid Eye Movement’ and ‘Rapid Eye Movement’, and obviously the name comes from the rapid movement of our eyes while we sleep. Not exactly rocket science, is it?

No, it’s way worse. We’ve built rockets, been to the moon, sent our probes to many planets and even outside the Solar system, and in a few years, we will have taken the first humans to Mars; and people who have done this much, cannot figure out why you had that dream last night! Strange, isn’t it?

The scientific study of dreams is called ‘Oneirology’, but you might think that such a field is useless because they don’t have a lot to offer. But how are we supposed to analyse other people’s dreams? In fact, it’s estimated that we forget 95% of our dreams within 10 minutes of having them, so studying them is NOT EASY.

Now sometimes, something bizarre happens while we dream. Usually, hormones from the brain like Norepinephrine, Serotonin and Histamine are blocked to keep your body from moving around while you dream (This is called REM Atonia); but there are cases when people experience disorders and don’t achieve REM Atonia, leading them to literally act out their dreams while in sleep, due to which they may do things like Jackie Chan fights, or sleep walking and banging their heads.

The exact opposite might also happen. Imagine waking up and not being able to move at all; this can happen if you’re still in REM Atonia and your muscles are not getting any signals from your brain, making your body useless. You might be as strong as the hulk, but REM Atonia is Thanos.

Time for the most interesting hack! What if we told you that you could control your dreams? No, we’re not lying; this little brain hack is called ‘Lucid Dreaming’. You could be inside a dream and know that you’re dreaming. You could go to places you love, do the things you adore, fall in love with anyone, all in your sleep. INCEPTION?! Well, sort of. But it’s not that easy to pull off. We will put a few tips and tricks that might help you to explore lucid dreams at the end of the article, but remember, these tips only help to improve your odds, not ensure them. With patience and biology on your side, you might just be able to get into the director’s chair for your own dreams!

But wait, again, why do we dream? Assume that you learned a new skill today or solved a really tough math problem. While you sleep, the unconscious portion of your brain replays the same electronic impulses created while you performed the activity. So, the popular theory suggests that while we sleep, our unconscious brain is working really hard to organize our memories and is throwing out the bits that we don’t need, more like taking out the trash. At the same time, our conscious brain detects all these impulses and goes crazy because it does not understand any of this. And so, it tries to make a script of all these super fancy signals, resulting in a dream.

Never thought of all this while you were dreaming about saving the world, huh?

Thus, dreams are believed to be an ‘Epiphenomenon’, or something that happens by accident serving no specific purpose. But some scientists disagree. They believe that dreams happen to prepare us for future threats. This might be the reason that most dreams are negative, causing fear, anger and anxiety, preparing us for facing similar threats in the real world.

But as usual, none of these theories are proven. Which one do you think is right?

Dreams are mysteries yet to be cracked. They’re amazing phenomena that we know so little about, and that’s probably what makes it so interesting. So, as I said in the beginning, get your pillows, fall asleep, ‘Dream Big’; but always remember, dreams outside your sleep are the ones to get addicted to!

TIPS TO LUCID DREAM!

1. Get more REM sleep: Practice a healthy sleep hygiene. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time, preferably in a dark room with comfortable temperature.
2. Keep a Dream Journal: Record your experiences of previous dreams in a book. Just write down what you remember and analyse what those dreams meant.
3. Wake up to dream: Set an alarm to go off about 5 hours after you sleep. Stay awake for 10-20 minutes and go off to sleep again, and chances are you might fall directly into REM sleep.
4. MILD: Mnemonic Induction to Lucid Dreaming (MILD) is when you think of a common thing or a dream signal that happens often in your dreams, right before you go to sleep. This tells the brain to look out for that dream signal to let you know that you’re in a dream. (Sort of like DiCaprio’s spinning top in Inception)Try these tips and tricks and hopefully, all your ‘Dreams’ will come true.

Sciendrome at your service!

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