Science of Dreaming

When you think about it, dreaming is one of the strangest things that we do. We think of sleep as a time when our body shuts down, but in actuality, our brains are extremely active as we essentially hallucinate throughout the night. And our dreams incorporate completely random people, memories, and scenarios, leaving us surprised every night. So what actually happens when we dream?

First of all, we don’t dream for the entire night. The National Sleep Foundation estimates that most people experience several dreams per night, which last a total of around 2 hours.

And the longer that we sleep, the more time we spend dreaming. Most dreams take place during the REM stage of sleep. We cycle through five different phases of sleep throughout the night, with the length of REM slowly extending each time it is reached. Younger children also spend more time in REM sleep, with babies spending 50% of the time in REM. Therefore, the more rest you get, the more likely you are to have vivid, memorable dreams.

The REM stage is named based on the rapid eye movement that occurs during it. The body also acts almost like you’re awake. Your breathing and heart rate increase, your blood pressure rises, your face and limbs may twitch, and brain activity is similar to when you are awake. This state of almost-wakefulness is potentially a giant problem. If our body truly was this active, we might be running around every night acting exactly as we do in our dreams, which would be very dangerous. Thankfully, our brain puts us into a state of paralysis every night to avoid this.

Most scientists agree that dreaming happens during REM sleep, but there are many different theories about why it happens. One of the most famous theories comes from Sigmund Freud. He claimed that dreams were a result of repressed longing which came from the subconscious. One of Freud’s students, Carl Jung, believed that they might allow us to reflect on our lives or work through issues.

I consider these theories to be the more philosophical or romanticized approach. They assume that there is some sort of deeper meaning within our subconscious which is revealed to us through dreams. Those who claim to be able to interpret dreams or give some meaning to them believe in this school of thought. Personally, I lean towards this set of beliefs. I’ve had many dreams which were extremely relevant to my life, and to me it seems that there must be some deeper force behind them. However, there are plenty of scientists who would disagree with me.

Another popular dream theory is the activation-synthesis theory, coined by Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley. They theorized that while asleep, random electrical activity inside of the brain causes certain memory centers to be stimulated. Our brains then try to make sense of these scattered images. This could explain why dreams can be extremely strange and fragmented. Believers in this theory do not see any deeper meaning within dreams.

Scientists still are not 100% certain on how or why dreams are formed. However, it is doubtlessly one of the most mysterious and intriguing phenomenons in psychology.