Why do we dream? Let's enter the world of dreams!

Why do we dream?

There are various theories as to why we dream and drift off into other worlds at night. A widespread assumption is that we need dreaming for a kind of mental hygiene. Through our dreams, the brain clears out, so to speak; it sorts out the newly acquired information of the day and evaluates it. As chaotic as our nocturnal fantasies may sometimes seem, they actually ensure order in our mind. During sleep, we form an inner order out of muddled scraps of thoughts, which helps us to evaluate experiences, store memories and sort our emotional world. Both the nice dreams and the not-so-nice dreams, better known as nightmares, help us to process experiences and prepare us for new things that come our way. Another theory goes even further and sees dreaming as preparation for everyday situations. Every nerve-racking situation we experience during the day and the emotions that go with it accompany us into our sleep. For example, the nervousness before an important meeting or the worries before a job interview can become the subject of our dreams. Through the dream, we are prepared for the worst scenarios and better equipped to face the situation in everyday life or to avoid it altogether. Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, sees dreams as a level of communication between the conscious and the unconscious. Dream interpretation is therefore about exploring the meanings of our dreams. The underlying conviction is that our dreams say something about our personality and our current life situation.

Do we dream all night long?

Even if you cannot remember your dreams every morning, we do dream several times every night - but not all the time. This has to do with our sleep cycle. During the night, we go through several sleep phases that last for different lengths of time and repeat themselves several times. One of these is the phase of falling asleep, in which we slowly drift off to sleep. The light sleep phase is the transition between deep sleep and waking state and accounts for about half of our sleep. In the deep sleep phase, also called the non-REM phase, the body functions shut down and the eyeballs are completely still. After the deep sleep phase, the REM phase begins, during which we dream intensively. During the REM phase, the brain works at full speed. REM stands for rapid eye movement. In this phase, there is a lot of activity in the brain areas that are linked to long-term memory. During REM sleep, we dream particularly much. About every 90 minutes we are in a REM phase. These make up a total of about two hours of our sleep, so we dream for about two hours a night. Towards morning, the REM phases become longer and more intense. As a result, people who like to sleep in are often jolted out of sleep by crazy dreams. The dream then feels particularly real, but they are often far removed from any reality. You often wake up drenched in sweat and need a few minutes to get back to the here and now.

What happens in the brain when we dream?

We have already revealed that our eyes move underneath the eyelids during the dream phase. But what exactly happens in the brain while we dream about exams, flying or monsters? Neurophysiologists have found that in the REM phase the limbic system, which processes emotions, is more active than in the waking state, while the frontal lobe, which is responsible for reason, reduces its activity. Unrealistic things suddenly become real. There is also a lot going on where sensory perceptions and movements are processed, so that one is often even a little exhausted from the excursions in the dream. Reassuringly, however, the part of the brain stem that would tempt us to become active against the monsters and actually carry out the movements from the dream is at rest. By the way, a regular sleep rhythm and sufficient sleep help us to remember our dreams. A comfortable sleeping environment can also ensure that we dream better. The subconscious registers the well-being – or discomfort – of the body.

Daydreaming

But we should not stop dreaming during the day either. Let your mind wander and allow yourself a break from reality. Daydreams activate the same areas of the brain that we use during sleep. In addition, we retain control and can thus choose the destination of our fantasy journey ourselves. Creative people in particular have mastered this art of mental cinema and draw new energy and ideas from it. Daydreams also help us weigh up decisions and build our character. Our recommendation: close your eyes and dream more often!