There are many things in our universe that we do not understand. Confusing mysteries that just don't seem to make sense. Where does the universe come from? Was it a big bang as many believe or was it something else. Does God really exist, or is he just a fantasy made up to make humans responsible for everything bad? Extraterrestrial life forms, is there a chance they exist, or are they once again a figment of our overactive imaginations. One of the most intriguing mysteries, however, lies a little closer to home. We all have dreams, but no one really understands them. This essay is about dreams, what exactly dreams are, and why they happen. Dreams are sensations, images, emotions, or thoughts that occur while we sleep, but as to why they occur, there are many theories. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay People have been fascinated by dreams and their meanings for thousands of years. Many believe that ancient people were not intelligent enough to be able to differentiate between reality and the dream world. However, as you learn more, you will discover that for as long as they lived, they were very resourceful. The ancient Egyptians strongly believed in the power and influence of dreams. The Egyptians also believed that their gods would show themselves in visions and dreams. The Egyptians divided their dreams into three categories. These included: demands from the gods, warnings, and ritual-induced dreams. They believed that all dreams were answers from the gods. The Greeks also believed in dreams. They followed a special ritual before entering one of their temples to purify themselves. This ritual consisted of not eating meat, abstaining from sex for two days, and sacrificing an animal to the god they wished to see in their dreams. After entering one of their temples, they would lie down on the skin of the animal they were sacrificing, hoping for useful dreams. The Babylonians believed that God sent good dreams and demons sent bad dreams. They also believed in a distinction between the dreams of their rulers and those of ordinary people and, like many ancient cultures, believed in a powerful connection between dreams and religion. The Hebrews, like the Babylonians, believed that bad dreams came from evil spirits and good dreams came from God. Like other ancient cultures, they tried to receive dreams in their temples. Samuel, who was a Hebrew prophet, was known to have slept in the temple to receive a dream from God before the Ark. The Bible tells of prophetic dreams such as Jacob's ladder. Dreams, which are often wrongly thought of as momentary flashes, are instead prophetic dreams. It is thought to extend throughout REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, usually around two hours, but this decreases with age. Sleep scientists believe that certain REM and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep patterns somehow increase our mental and physical recovery. Protein synthesis peaks during REM sleep, allowing the body to function properly. REM sleep also appears to be important for mood regulation and memory unification. “Every time we experience REM sleep, we literally go crazy. By definition, psychosis isa state characterized by hallucinations and delusions. Dreaming, some sleep scientists say, is a psychotic state: we fully believe that we are seeing what is not there, and we accept that time, place, and people themselves can shift and disappear without warning. circuits, which results in the different stages of sleep. As an adult moves into deeper stages of sleep, their brain waves slow down and become larger. During the night, a person goes through these stages several times with only small periods of REM sleep. "Researchers have found that each night, during the first hour or so of sleep, the brain progresses through a series of stages during which brain waves slow down. This period of slow-wave sleep becomes accompanied by relaxation of the muscles and eyes Heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature all fall During the night, the cycle continues to alternate, each time slow-wave sleep becomes less deep and paradoxical periods. lie down until we wake up As mentioned earlier, there are many theories about why we dream. One of these theories is the activation-synthesis theory. This theory is a neurobiological explanation. of why we might dream. This theory suggests that dreams are caused by physiological processes in the brain. According to J. Allan Hobson, the psychiatrists behind this theory and other researchers, brain circuits are activated. during paradoxical sleep. Once these circuits are activated, the amygdala, hippocampus, and other parts of the limbic system involved in memories, emotions, and sensations are activated. The brain then synthesizes and interprets the activity of these circuits and parts of the limbic system and attempts to create meaning from these signals, resulting in dreaming. Another theory is the continuous activation theory. This theory hypothesizes that the unconscious and conscious subsidiary systems of working memory must be continually activated for the brain to continue functioning properly. When the level of activation of conscious or subconscious subsidiary systems decreases beyond a certain point, the continuous activation part of the brain will be triggered to create a stream of data from memory stores and flow through the system to maintain continuous activation. Richard Coutts' theory of emotional selection states that dreaming is a way of changing one's mental pattern. Emotional selection theory concerns a process of executing a set of dreams during non-REM sleep. A second set of dreams is performed during the following REM sleep as test scenarios. He defines accommodation as the process of reframing one's mental representation of the external world to adapt it to new experiences. If accommodations made in previous non-REM dreams reduce negative emotions, they are selected for retention, otherwise they are discarded. So, emotional selection says that dream psychology is generally about improving mental patterns and increasing social abilities. Another theory is the Threat Simulation Theory (TST) of dreaming. This theory states that dream consciousness is a biological defense mechanism that was selected during evolution for its ability to continually invent frightening situations. Simulating threats during dreaming tests the cognitive tools needed to effectively discern and avoid threats, leading to an increased likelihood of success over the course of evolutionhuman. Sigmund Freud had another theory. His theory suggested that dreams symbolize our unconscious desires, thoughts, and motivations. Freud's psychoanalytic view of personality was that people are inspired by aggressive and sexual instincts that are inhibited by human consciousness. Since these thoughts cannot be revealed consciously, Freud suggested that they enter our knowledge through dreams. There are other pretty important theories about why we dream, which suggest other reasons. One of them states that dreams are the result of our unconscious interpreting external stimuli during sleep. An example would be the sound of a radio which could somehow be incorporated into the content of a dream. Another theory uses the metaphor of a computer to account for dreams. This theory suggests that dreams are meant to purge extra information from our minds, much like cleaning a computer. It refreshes the mind for the next day. This next theory proposes that dreams work as a type of therapy. In this theory, the dreamer makes connections between their thoughts and emotions in a safe place, much like you would do with a therapist. A modern model of dreaming fuses elements of many theories. Activation of the mind creates a release between ideas and thoughts, which are guided by the emotions of people in their dreams. Some psychologists say we have emotional dreams to let our emotions calm down. Without expressing our emotions in dreams, we would overheat. Dreams can express very strong emotions that we would not allow to manifest in our daily lives. They can act as a sort of emotional safety valve to help us release some emotional tension that we have built up by suppressing these emotions. "Jung emphasized that emotions arise from the 'Shadow,' which corresponds to the undeveloped 'lower' functions of the psyche." Many of us refuse to recognize these emotions as our own and project them onto someone else. People don't remember many of their dreams, but of those who do, most focus on the things that happened in the dream and the dream. emotions they felt while dreaming. They don't pay attention to whether they dreamed in color or black and white. It's hard to believe that today everyone can dream in black and white. Due to the nature of dreams and how little we know about them, it has been difficult for researchers to guess how dreams work and whether people dream in colors or not. In a study published in 2008, it was found that people over the age of 55 seemed to dream in black and white about a quarter of the time. Meanwhile, those under 25 said they rarely had black-and-white dreams. In the 1940s, several studies reported that participants rarely, if ever, dreamed in color. So you can see that changing times and advancements in technology obviously have something to do with the way we dream. Lucid dreaming is when the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. When the dreamer is in a lucid dream, they may also have some sort of control over their dreams. Lucid dreaming is what you get when you combine aspects of dreams and the rationality of waking into a hybrid type of consciousness. For a dreamer, a lucid dream would be incredibly vivid and extremely immersive. About half of people have had a lucid dream at least once. Children are more likely to have lucid dreams, and lucid dreams become less.