Dreams

[Laozi]

I was wondering what people "think' happens when we dream. Feel free to get a scientific or philosophical as you want.

[Darth Launch]

The common theory is that dreams serve as a means for the prefrontal cortex to play out certain situations in our lives...

 

Personally, I'm unconvinced by that theory, but it does have the most scientific evidence supporting it

 

DL

[Laozi]

So in theory you've been dreaming about Nicky Katts or the Hoff?

 

Oh looks like its time for a little GoD's patented predictability

[Guest GroinOfDespair]

Take a schtizo who has delusional fantasies about the world they live in. Confront them and show them definitive proof they are insane, and their brain snaps even more. Few things in this world are truly as arduos an ordeal such as brutal disillusionment.

 

I feel all of humanity is a breath away from that very moment. We are constantly faced with conondrums that we can't solve, or don't want to deal with. How easy is it to forget or pretend that homeless man on the corner doesn't exist?

 

It's just as easy to forget or overlook that 1 in 4 women are raped in their lifetime, and yet we tell ourselves that society has order and reason.

 

We tell ourselves that humanity is not doomed to rip itself asunder and gorge itself on its own life blood. Yet we are brutal, warped delusional bastards.

 

When repercussions and societal authority disappears, look how quickly we deevolve to monsters. That is our true nature we hide. Predators themselves are not nearly as dangerous as the society of predators. We are all wolves in sheep's clothing, preying on fellow wolves and telling each other than one of us know the difference.

 

And when your brain tries to process these compresses fabrications, our insanity must invent random minutia to distract us. Look, pretty lights!

 

The same thing occurs with sleep deprivation or sensory deprivation, when our brains slow down and simply inhale what is around us. When we are left to truly ponder the nature of our lives our world, the Mouth of Madness swallows us into the Bowels of Despair and ****s us out the Ass of Insanity.

 

That is why we dream. It's a coping mechanism.

[EnderAndrew]

I think somebody needs a hug.

[Draken]

Haha, Ender that was perfect timing.

 

As for me? Dreams are just...dreams. They don't mean anything. The don't forsee the future. They don't do anything. Sometimes I dream about stuff that happened that day. More then half the time, my dreams are either what I was thinking about before I fell asleep, or something related to what I was thinking about. Personally, I think dreams are simply are mind at work, even during rest.

[Reveilled]

I reckon it's a mechanism to stop us going nuts while we're asleep. Like how if you're in a sensory deprivation tank your brain makes up sights and sounds because it can't really deal with having no input. And in dreams, you have a similar situation only for your higher brain functions as well as your senses. I have no evidence to support this whatsoever.

 

Recently, my dreams always seem to involve unusual situations in abandoned buildings or ruins. Parties in empty factories, trying to find a way out of dark and ancient jungle cities. I'm often disappointed when I wake up.

[Darth Launch]

I think somebody needs a hug.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try this instead

 

 

DL

[EnderAndrew]

Down the block, and not across the street!

 

Honestly, 99% of the time the second I wake up I have no recollection of my dreams. I don't know why, but I had a crazy theory when I was younger.

[Kaftan Barlast]

(Youre so wicked Launch!)

 

 

 

I dream of blue women

[Reveilled]

I'm not sure about this "play out certain situations in our lives" theory. Why would my brain need to know what I would do if a dwarf with down syndrome attacked me in a Mental Hospital's Chip Shop?

[EnderAndrew]

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp08312004.shtml

[SteveThaiBinh]

Dreams are supposed to be connected to the learning process. If you've been learning how to play the violin, for example, when you sleep your brain replays every moment of that again and again so that you absorb it and your skill level increases. This is why teachers encourage their students to sleep well and discourage all-night study sessions - unless you sleep after learning, you won't get the full benefit. You only remember a tiny fraction of the dreams you experience.

 

Recently, I hardly remember any of my dreams. It's a shame, because I used to have some very vivid ones. What do you think is the reason for this?

[Guest GroinOfDespair]

I'm dying to know. I starve for entertainment in the sterile environment censors keep us in. Please do tell.

[EnderAndrew]

Recently, I hardly remember any of my dreams.  It's a shame, because I used to have some very vivid ones.  What do you think is the reason for this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

For me I believe it may have been a traumatic experience.

[Reveilled]

Dreams are supposed to be connected to the learning process.  If you've been learning how to play the violin, for example, when you sleep your brain replays every moment of that again and again so that you absorb it and your skill level increases.  This is why teachers encourage their students to sleep well and discourage all-night study sessions - unless you sleep after learning, you won't get the full benefit.  You only remember a tiny fraction of the dreams you experience.

 

Recently, I hardly remember any of my dreams.  It's a shame, because I used to have some very vivid ones.  What do you think is the reason for this?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

From what I understand, it's mostly related to when you wake up. You're far more likely to remember a dream if you wake up right after you've had it that if you wake up long after. That's why you can always always remember a nightmare if it causes you to wake up.

 

It's nice to know, though, that my dreams helped me learn how to fight the disabled in fast food outlets.

[Darth Launch]

I'm not sure about this "play out certain situations in our lives" theory.  Why would my brain need to know what I would do if a dwarf with down syndrome attacked me in a Mental Hospital's Chip Shop?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not defendind that view, as I'm not particularly convinced either... it's just that they did brain imaging tests on sleeping volunteers and found that the areas that are most active during sleep are the prefrontal cortex and the primary visual cortex... the prefrontal cortex is where most of our planning behaviour is meant to occur whilst we're awake... thus the psychologists put two and two together...

 

DL

[Laozi]

When I started smoking alot of pot I found that I almost never remembered my dreams, now that my pot use is pretty sporadic, I find most nights I remember atleast a piece of my dreams

[SteveThaiBinh]

It's nice to know, though, that my dreams helped me learn how to fight the disabled in fast food outlets.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's a dying art, oft neglected in school curricula.

 

I have a friend who's a keen interpreter of dreams, and has done courses in it. I'm doubtful that anyone but me can interpret my dreams, and as I say, I can't actually remember any.

[Darth Flatus]

I dream of blue women

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I KNEW IT!!!!

 

 

 

Arent dreams just dumping grounds for your mind? Then somehow your brain reorganises it into recognisable stuff. This would mean that most dreams are just gibberish but i dont dispute the claim that some dreams are related to specific events and can be an indication of mood or whatever.

 

I usually have crazy/vivid dreams when something is on my mind or i've eaten right before i went to sleep. :D

 

From what i have seen dream intrepretation tends to be bollox as it has no universal reference and relies on the dreamer having broad social and cultural knowledge.

[Musopticon?]

I've always thought dreams are there to brain to vent off excess steam. So, I agree with Flatty.

[Laozi]

I wonder: 1)For those who write have you ever had dreams about the characters you write about?

 

2) If you 've shared a room with someone have you ever seemed to share a dream?

[Kor Qel Droma]

Dreams are cool if you can remember them. My personal favorite is one where I have the ability to fly but I have no control over it. Kinda like when I skate, I go forward really fast but have problems with the turns.

 

And the theory Laozi had about pot is true...

[E_Motion]

More recent theories of dreams (makes sense to me) go like this.

 

During the REM portion of sleep, a large electrical shock goes along the spinal cord. This is believed to coincide with the time we dream. It is also believed to coincide with the time when we cleanse our daily short term memories (some of the day's memories are moved to long term storage, the rest are basicly wiped clean). We remember our dreams only if we wake up during this critical period.

 

What can be postulated is that if we awake during this time of massive, multi-thread processing of the previous day's information, the conscious brain is confronted with a number of feelings, visions, thoughts, etc., which make no sense whatsoever. But part of the "duty" of the conscious brain is to make sense of things we experience. Under the "wake up during information processing scenario", our conscious brain tries to make a story to connect all of the strange info inot some semi-coherent story. And we now have a dream.

 

The true parts of the dream is that most of the various bits and pieces of the dream do represent something we saw, experienced, worried about, or otherwise mentally engaged with, during the previous day.

[metadigital]

...

Honestly, 99% of the time the second I wake up I have no recollection of my dreams.  I don't know why, but I had a crazy theory when I was younger.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's because the neurochemical that switches off your muscles (so that when you dream of running, your legs don't move) isn't conducive to long-term memory.

 

The way to remember dreams is to:

• Have writing implement and pad next to your bed. Within arm's reach.
  
• Don't move when you wake up; sloshing your head around mixes up the endocrimological soup that is your brain.
  
• Write down your recollections immediately; what you do remember is in short-term memory, and won't last more than a few minutes at best, no matter how clearly it seems at the time.
  

Dreams are a way for the mind to play out scenarios in your head, under full control. If you record your dreams, the images will mean something to you (you can use a book to lookup what a particular thing means, like water is emotion, but it will always relate back to something in your frame of reference).

 

It is also possible that dreams are a physical necessity for the normal functioning of the mind; a sort of garbage-collection routine, where all the recent experiences are either transliterated into "lessons" and usable memories, or discarded. A sort of filing/defrag system of mental hygiene.