William Dement, a pioneer in sleep research says, “We experience a dream as real because it is real…the miracle is how, without any help from the sense organs, the brain replicates in the dream all the sensory information that creates the world we live in when we are awake.”
It is so amazing to learn how the brain processes dreams while you are asleep.
There is actually a scientific field know as modern dream science that studies the link between the brain and dreams. It teaches us not only how our brain creates dreams, but how it affects consciousness and health.
Neural imaging such as PET, CAT scans and MRI’s provide insight and understanding dreams and the brain. From this we learn that when we enter REM, or dream sleep, the brain is re-activated.
When we first go to sleep, the brain is less active, but it is slightly re-activated in a way that it is able to acknowledge internal sensations, rather to external sensations like when we are awake.
This means that just a portion of the brain is awakened, but this part is more active than it is when we are awake.
Also, while these portions are being re-activated, other parts of our brain are de-activated.
Scientifically speaking, the dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex is de-activated when we are in a dream state. This portion of the brain plays a role in decision making. This is also one of the parts of the brain that deals with rationality, although there are other parts of the brain still have rational thinking while we are dreaming.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is used to research dreams and the brain. This is a computerized imaging resource that taught us that Rapid Eye Movement (REM) dreaming starts in the limbic region of the brain. The limbic region is the emotional center of the brain.
This explains why our dreams can be so highly emotional. Emotions are often invoked in our dreams when memories of that emotion from past experiences get worked in.
Why we Struggle to Recall Dreams
We find it hard to remember dreams because of brain chemistry and the re-activation and de-activation of brain regions during dreams. There are neurotransmitters that are responsible for short-term memory when we are awake. When we dream, these neurotransmitters are functioning to help record this memory.
For some reason, our brain chemistry is not designed in a way to remember dreams.
Why Don’t Dreams Make Sense?
Dreams and dream images often seem bizarre because the part of the brain responsible for rational thinking is de-activated. We are only working with certain parts of the brain to interpret the images we dream. When we are awake, we are able to look around and recognize where we are and what we see. In a sense, we can do a reality check. There is no reality check during a dream; just the dream itself.
We can’t control how our dream unfolds, it just happens as the changes in our brain take place. Pretty much anything can happen in our dreams and the brain is hyper-associative. This allows us to be able to think out of the box more in our dreams than when we are awake.
The pattern can be broken.
Dreams allow us to do different things in different ways than what we allow our rational selves when we are awake.
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