Dreams and Mindscapes: Part One

[Fatmanonice]

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Why do we dream? It’s one of the wonders of nature and one of the great mysteries that has alluded mankind since the beginning of civilization. What particular function could be served by me dreaming about me being the guy in Eric Prydz’s Call on Me music video or my cat actually being a pokemon? Many famous people have credited dreams for deeply inspiring them and it has been claimed by some that dreams are a gateway to the inner mind and even contribute to hidden psychic abilities. Overall, few topics have as much universal appeal over the centuries as dreams have. Over the years, I have heard many theories concerning the nature of dreams and I wanted to share them here. Because these topics are so rich when it comes to discussion potential, I have decided to make this series multiple parts with a different set of theories presented in each one.

I wanted to start out with one of the lesser known theories by Sigmund Freud. He theorized that dreams served a very important function when it came to mental stability. His theory was that dreams were like the wastebasket on your desktop, they are used clear your mind of unimportant memories and information, in short, a vast majority of what normally would get registered in your short term memory. He believed that some of this information would actually show up in dreams and even mix with each other to create some of the scenarios we sometimes see in our dreams including things like seeing people we don’t recongise or just general weirdness. Although it wasn’t part of his theory, it is believed by some people that this is why you sometimes can’t remember your dreams because, in reality, your brain has somehow erased them.

This unto itself lends two very deep and fascinating topics: how does the brain store info and what exactly happens to the info that our brain “erases?” I was once told that the folds of the brain are created by stored information. According to this account, the more folds your brain has, the more info that is stored. The folds of the brain greatly increase the surface area without increasing the mass. With this being said, how do these fold store info exactly? Is it possible that there is some yet undiscovered equation that could calculate how much info is a stored in a certain amount of space? That raises even further questions about what “data” actually is and what is the limit that people can store in their brains from person to person? This in turn complicates how we can explain how the brain “erases” it and where it goes when it decides to pitch it. Fun stuff, eh?

As always, feel free to express your opinions and share your own theories.

 

[Heartz♥]

I just noticed you think too much. lol

Very few dreams are meant to be a message to the dreamer. For instance, in the Bible, when Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. He was able to interpret the pharoah's dreams, and saved the kingdom, and was made second-in-command of it. Dreams may appear ambiguous and irrelevant, but each and everyone of them can tell us something.

If a family member dies in your dream, it doesn't necessarily mean they will die in a short time. Dreams are not to be interpreted so easily. They are meant to be misleading and easily forgotten, to keep us from dwelling on them too long, since reality is what we are to focus on.

Being able to interpret dreams is actually a gift, and a specific gift is one that not many people have or know they have.

 

[OutlawStar]

I don't think we will ever know exactly what dreams are for. It could be something completely different, or just some form of entertainment when you are asleep lol. And If it were to erase memories, like right after you have the dream, mine isn't working, I have had dreams that I could remember the next day every night for at least 2 or 3 years. When I was little, I would forget half of them, and when I thought about what I dreamt that night, it would just be blank.

 

[PhoenixoKaZe]

haha, we think alike, I tend to think alot too, I`m one of the few "dreamers", I feel like I`m living a dream when I`m awake as when I`m asleep, sounds weird huh?

 

[Jim Morrison]

We should take some dead babies and dead mid 50'ers and compare their brains to each other. Let's see if your fold theory works. Don't use 65+ because they forget ****, thus unfolding their brain O_o.

 

[Fatmanonice]

We should take some dead babies and dead mid 50'ers and compare their brains to each other. Let's see if your fold theory works. Don't use 65+ because they forget ****, thus unfolding their brain O_o.

Fact of life #27: Dead baby jokes are always funny.

 

[El Nino]

Ever seen the movie "Nightmare Detective"? Apparently, Tsukamoto thinks that dreams can be gateways that link different people in one big communal cesspool of fear and abomination.

Sorta like the Internet.

It's been a long time since I last sat in a neuroscience class. From what I remember, information in the brain takes the form of pathways, which are nerves that are in contact with each other. So, the formation of pathways results in the folding of the brain. When you think of something or remember something, an action potential fires in one direction or another, following a pathway from one nerve to the next. Conditions like Alzheimer's are detrimental to memory because they interfere with the work of neurotransmitters, which are needed to allow nerve cells to "communicate" with each other.

That's all I know because I'm too lazy to look it up. Don't quote me on that. Better yet, Google it yourselves.

Freud was like an armchair philosopher sometimes, a good one, but thinking about a topic without looking at the physical evidence can only take you so far. Psychoanalysis as a field kinda got steamrolled by pharmacology when people figured out the biochemical basis for conditions like schizophrenia and clinical depression. But then, I'm no expert in psychology, so there may still be a use for psychoanalysis. I took a class on it, but it was a course in the Philosophy department, which seems to suggest that even if it's a scholarly topic, it's not a science. I think people study it for historical perspective.

Neurologists don't know why humans and other animals need sleep, much less why they dream. But if you go without sleep for enough days, you'll start seeing waking dreams. Even if you do sleep, if your REM sleep (usually after the fourth hour of sleep) is constantly interrupted, you'll also see waking dreams and/or suffer other symptoms of sleep deprivation.

Edit: You dreamt that your cat was a Pokemon? Lol.

Edit2:

His theory was that dreams were like the wastebasket on your desktop, they are used clear your mind of unimportant memories and information, in short, a vast majority of what normally would get registered in your short term memory.

Considering that trauma survivors often have recurring nightmares, Freud may have been half right. The content of dreams are not always "unimportant" memories though; they could be "unwanted" memories.

However, if he was right, then people who don't sleep, and who therefore don't dream, would be unable to lose unwanted memory and, by his theory, also be mentally unstable because of it. This, as far as I know, doesn't seem to be the case. It sort of suggests that you would remember more things if you slept less. I know that's not true. Though, yes, sleep deprivation tends to result in mental instability and even death. But there have been a few rare cases of people who suddenly stopped sleeping for unknown reasons. In one case I remember hearing about years ago, the man was, at the time of the report, fully functional and mentally stable. He suffered no symptom of sleep deprivation. He just couldn't sleep. No one knew why.

it is believed by some people that this is why you sometimes can’t remember your dreams because, in reality, your brain has somehow erased them.

My best guess, as a non-neurologist, is that it seems more likely that the memory portion of the brain, or at least the mechanism responsible for making new memories, is inactive during sleep. Most people seem to remember dreams they have just before waking up. So, maybe your brain doesn't generate memory patterns unless it is awake, or close to it.

 

[Halaster]

Ever seen the movie "Nightmare Detective"? Apparently, Tsukamoto thinks that dreams can be gateways that link different people in one big communal cesspool of fear and abomination.

Sorta like the Internet.

LOL.

Anyways, with regards to the topic at hand, I tend to think of dreams in the light mentioned, like a valve that lets off the excess steam and whatever you don't need.

On a side note (I'd prefer not to go into them too far since it risks flirting with religious/supernatural debates, which rarely go well), in my time I've heard a few "out there" stories regarding people's dreams and aftermaths, but then it becomes difficult because I don't believe the person is a liar or crazy, but the story is just too weird. So it becomes a toss up where neither answer is satisfactory.

Hope that wasn't off topic, but whenever I think of dreams, I think of that.

 

[Fatmanonice]

I'm glad that at least some people responded to this. I've recently seen the movie the Up and I wanted to do a blog on the nature of love. Still, I'm trying to find a topic that is both deep and yet somewhat universal and fairly easy to understand/talk about.

 

[squirtleuser007]

lucid dreaming= win. one time, i lucid dreamed about bein a garchomp(HUGE pokemon fan here) it was amazin. dreams are very interesting