Why do we dream?

Recent mention in New Scientist filled in some more detail on dreams.

Our broad understanding is that dreams are a way of processing the day's events, cataloguing and storing them away.  And that dreaming happens only in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) phase of sleep.  This accounts for about a fifth to a quarter of sleep time, in about four bursts.  I remember hearing of an experiment that found a stimulus of a ringing bell (that woke someone up) was incorporated into the final part of a dream that was quite lengthy.  The report suggested this meant dreams were actually quite rapid.

In fact, dreams have been found in both REM and non-REM states - but they each seem to have different content and purpose.

A key idea reported by New Scientist is that REM dreams are a way of dealing with experiences: good or bad, the experiences are relived (and filed away) without the accompanying stress, thus dampening down the emotional impact of those experiences, helping us to achieve an equilibrium over time.  REM dreams are more narrational, emotional, and aggressive.  The suggestion is that the dreams with aggression help us cope with real aggression.  Many such dreams involve unknown males in aggressive interaction with the dreamer.  REM dreams also improve our memory and problem-solving ability - presumably through background storage, retrieval and calculation functions.

Non-REM dreams, by contrast, often involve friendly interactions, suggesting they foster co-operative behaviour.

New Scientist report, with references, here.

Woke up laughing

From the New Scientist, 14 Mar 09: "On four or five occasions over the past 20-odd years I have woken myself up [by] laughing. In a brief moment of dual consciousness, it appeared that my dreaming self continued to laugh whike the more conscious self tried to locate the source of the noise" (Chloe Barber).

Flying dreams, yes. Recurring dreams, yes (mine seem to have a strong theme related to my house/home, although different houses each time). Even lucid dreams. But waking yourself by laughing? As the writer herself says, "If there are people for whom this is a common occurrence, they might make interesting subjects for study".

Lucid dreams

Last night I experienced a series of dreams in which I became aware each time that I was dreaming.

In the first dream, I noticed that the detail in a patterned surface was elusive. It was not that the detail was hard to discern; rather, when I looked at it closely, it kept changing.

Thereafter, I had a succession of mini-dreams: in each one, I would find myself in a given environment, realise it was a dream, then I would try to do something specific - that is, influence my surroundings rather than simply experience them. The dream would then ebb away as I was trying to achieve my goal, and I would wake.

In successive dreams I was able to get further towards a given goal - that is, explore in a given direction. In one dream, my home was in the top floor of a small building. I realised I was dreaming and tried to get outside. I left the room, went downstairs and out onto the street; but it faded (I awoke) before I could try interacting with anyone. I was back in the same room in the following dream. This time, when I left to go downstairs, I noticed the bannister railing was missing. I got outside again, and was able to briefly interact with someone before I felt it all slip away from me.

Despite the frustration of having the experience melt away when I try to do something, I enjoy lucid dreams. I find them special, as are dreams in which I am flying. Only, in this case it's the extra sense of wonder that comes with the awareness that I am in a world that is not real, where normal rules don't apply.Such dreams don't happen often, and maybe only under special conditions, such as when I test the dream detail.

It has been said that lucid dreams can be invoked in that way. An example given is to practice counting people's fingers during the day, then see if you can do that in the dream to induce awareness.

As I found, prolonging a lucid dream can be quite a challenge. A couple of odd methods have been found to be rather effective: one is to spin around (in the dream), and the other is to rub one's hands together. My experience was that to exert conscious will in the dream was to shorten it, but if one could slip back into that state quickly enough, the dreams could be extended. Certainly, I've never before experienced such an extended sequence of lucid dreams.