Dreams: What Are They?

[Tra_kad]

Salutation all, Tra_kad here.
Today, I was thinking a little bit on something that I don't think people talk enough about: Dreams. More importantly, what the heck are they? Of course any scientist who knows about this type of thing will probably give you a complicated message about how it's basically the brain doing random shenanigans with neurons and stuff. However, what I wonder is what made it so that us humans have these random images in our brains when we go to bed? Why did evolution and whatever formulated life, God or Aliens, whatever you believe in, decide that it would be a great idea to give you a whole series of thoughts and crazy-what-not that most of the time, make 0 sense, and most people forget about them about 10 minutes after they wake up, seeing as it's pretty much useless?
The only idea/theory that I've come up with that makes even 0.0001% sense is that dreams are views into different dimensions.
Before I start explaining, take into account that humans only use about 25% (I think, could be wrong) of their brain power at any given time when awake. What if when dreaming, it makes the brain usage go significantly up? Plus, we really have no clue about what happens when someones brain actually does go to higher percentage uses, like 50% or 75%, even 100%. Who's to say that one of the things that the brain can't do at 100% functionality put into something, can look into different dimensions? And with this theory, there's really no actual way to prove it, and probably a 100 and 1 ways to disprove it. But it could explain why there are some dreams that seem to reflect ones everyday life, and even dreams that supposedly tell the future. I myself actually had a dream that reflected a real life encounter which I posted in a different forum here.
Anyways, feel free to post your commentary and speak your mind. Feel free to share random dreams also, because hey, we ARE talking about dreams.​

 

[Billy_Rage]

Dreams in my opinion are simple thoughts, but in bound from the limitations of rational thought. With out restrain from consciousness thought a dream can flow similar to a river. Moving and changing as it sees fit, using your memories and ideas to weave a story of ever changing features.

A dream can not be truly defined, to describe it is hard, to explain it impossible. A dream is just what it is, thoughts that change becuase of their own design.

 

[HereticTakao]

Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.[1] The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and religious interest, throughout recorded history. The scientific study of dreams is called oneirology.[2]
-Qutote from the Wikipedia.

 

[Sven_Tu]

Neurons and stuff. Scientific mumbo-jumbo. Dreamtime and magic powers and such.

No, but seriously, I believe sleeping basically allows your brain to reboot and refresh itself. Things that happened throughout the day, memories and thoughts and feelings and such, conscious and subconscious, are sorted out and reflected upon. But of course this is all in the subconscious where logic and rationality are not as strong, letting your imagination do what it wants more freely.

...a whole series of thoughts and crazy-what-not that most of the time, make 0 sense, and most people forget about them about 10 minutes after they wake up...

Click to shrink...

This would lead me to believe dreams are simply a byproduct of the process stated above. Your brain sorts some stuff out. Incidentally you experience them as well.

Before I start explaining, take into account that humans only use about 25% (I think, could be wrong) of their brain power at any given time when awake. What if when dreaming, it makes the brain usage go significantly up? Plus, we really have no clue about what happens when someones brain actually does go to higher percentage uses, like 50% or 75%, even 100%. Who's to say that one of the things that the brain can't do at 100% functionality put into something, can look into different dimensions? And with this theory, there's really no actual way to prove it, and probably a 100 and 1 ways to disprove it. But it could explain why there are some dreams that seem to reflect ones everyday life, and even dreams that supposedly tell the future. I myself actually had a dream that reflected a real life encounter which I posted in a different forum here.​

Click to shrink...

I think it was closer 10% of our brains at any given time. I don't know how true this is but I heard that there are indeed times when your brain power increases. It's when you have seizures and such where your brain is being overloaded with information. 'course that doesn't necessarily discount the possibility that it's a look into another dimension or an out of body experience or something.​

 

[Blazara]

@Tra_kad

It depends who you ask:

I've read papers that claim that dreams may be the brains attempt to "test drive" risk scenarios, preparing you for similar encounters when awake. Obviously this isn't overly believable given the content of some dreams, but it's a theory.

Equally, some neurologists would explain it away as a strange quirk of the mind as it rests; when you're asleep the brain isn't inactive or dormant, it's still processing sights from the day and, subconsciously, events around you; the latter is made apparent in the case of getting hurt, banging your head for example, while asleep translating in to an event within the dream that causes said pain. Another example could be children having dreams about jumping in to pools / getting caught in the rain and simultaneously wetting themselves. I haven't read enough on the subject to say whether it's the dream that causes the urination or vice versa. This would attribute dreams to being the warped perceptions of the brain when sight is limited and the imagination is allowed free roam.

It's true, we don't usually remember our dreams. OP has made a small mistake here; the information gathered from dreams isn't useless because we forget it, it's forgotten because it's useless. I imagine that most people can remember a particularly vivid / scary dream, even from years ago, due to something within the dream leaving a strong impression, or the content of the dream being otherwise relatable to a recent real life situation.

The important thing to remember about evolution is that it isn't a perfect process. People often make the mistake of saying things like "Well why does this happen? It doesn't help us survive!" Sure, perhaps a specific quirk of the body doesn't help you survive; but chances are it doesn't harm your chances of survival either. Dreams may simply be a bi-product of our somewhat more developed brains. Just because something is present in the body, it doesn't mean it's there for a reason.

 

[Waminer]

Before I start explaining, take into account that humans only use about 25% (I think, could be wrong) of their brain power at any given time when awake. What if when dreaming, it makes the brain usage go significantly up?​

​

Click to shrink...

I think it was closer 10% of our brains at any given time. I don't know how true this is but I heard that there are indeed times when your brain power increases. It's when you have seizures and such where your brain is being overloaded with information. 'course that doesn't necessarily discount the possibility that it's a look into another dimension or an out of body experience or something.

Click to shrink...

Humans use basically every single part of their brain, though I often wonder if this is true because of how often 5% or 10% figures are used. Seriously, why would a creature evolve to have a bigger brain that takes more energy to power if it just wastes nearly all of it for no reason instead of streamlining what you already have. As well, why would having a larger brain allow you to go into other dimensions or any of that stupid Lucy BS. (As well I believe your brains are less active during sleep further disproving this idea.)

As to the real purpose of dreams while it is not certain and logical and generally accepted explanation based in actual scientific fact, and also real life logic (Think studying before you go to sleep), is that your brain is kind of replaying certain events of the day (Explaining why you often dream about things that happen or you think about that day) which then helps you better remember them and use them in life which would give an evolutionary advantage. As well, it could kind of be a "systems check" for your brain as other parts of your body rest, improve and repair and a quicker rate during sleep, why shouldn't your brain also be check out and mentally "Stretched" during this process while and the same time not fully tuning out your conscious brain, allowing your body to try and improve that as well.

​

 

[Sven_Tu]

Humans use basically every single part of their brain, though I often wonder if this is true because of how often 5% or 10% figures are used. Seriously, why would a creature evolve to have a bigger brain that takes more energy to power if it just wastes nearly all of it for no reason instead of streamlining what you already have.​

Click to shrink...

It's 10% at any given moment. That doesn't mean that only 10% of the brain is used, all parts of the brain are used but only 10% at a time. It's like having a large tool kit; with only two hands available you don't use all the tools at once, you may use one or two at a time. But all the tools are eventually used for different purposes.

 

[TheBatman1016]

It's 10% at any given moment. That doesn't mean that only 10% of the brain is used, all parts of the brain are used but only 10% at a time. It's like having a large tool kit; with only two hands available you don't use all the tools at once, you may use one or two at a time. But all the tools are eventually used for different purposes.

Click to shrink...

Yes 100% of the brain is used, just when doing activities, you normally only need to use 10-15% of it actively. But if you were to design some sort of course of activities that required you to use different parts, you could hypothetically get it up much higher that 10-15%. The "10%" thing is a misused statement most of the time.

 

[Waminer]

We use far close to 100% of our brain at all times than 10%. Or probably even 90.

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-babble/201407/we-use-way-more-10-percent-our-brains
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_percent_of_brain_myth

 

[Togal]

Dreams in my opinion are simple thoughts, but in bound from the limitations of rational thought. With out restrain from consciousness thought a dream can flow similar to a river. Moving and changing as it sees fit, using your memories and ideas to weave a story of ever changing features.

A dream can not be truly defined, to describe it is hard, to explain it impossible. A dream is just what it is, thoughts that change becuase of their own design.

Click to shrink...

dreams also is a way that your mind prepares itself to face difficulties in reality, for example you have a nightmare of failing an exam. Therefore you feel more compelled to study or if you had a nightmare on how you were falling, which keeps you away from edges of buildings and cliffs.

 

[Jomdorr]

There is actually a build of up of chemicals as you use the brain, whilst you sleep you body removes these chemicals, the removal of said chemicals activates nurons in your brain connected with memories, when a memory is active it can be seen "behind the eyes" as a dream, sometimes if youve had a stressful day your brain will start by storing the memories of the day choosing which bits to store, whilst it works this out it moves old memories around and juggles them in your mind till its happy and done. one dream can last maybe 2 seconds before the next begins you can have some dreams that last hours, some people believe that training your brain to remember the prominent colours of dreams can predict the future. It's intresting stuff really