THE NUCLEUS Issue 2 Spring 2024

DREAMS by Sophie Tyler

Whatare Dreams ? Dreams are a series of

episodes that happen when you are sleeping that seem real. Dreams are the recall of mental activity that happens while we sleep and tend to consist of random sequences, thoughts, and experiences that have come from when you are awake. They don’t tend to stick in our mind for very long and unless actively thought about, they are genuinely forgotten in minutes. They tend to occur in the REM stage of your sleep, excluding night terrors. Dreams are some of the least understood activities of the brain, even though the majority of people dream. .

Psychologists and philosophers have researched them for a long time, and with recent innovation in technology, the current hypothesis is that dreams represent the recollection of events that have happened when people are awake to help form memories.

Other theories include that they are random brain activity; contrary to popular belief, your brain is still very active whilst you are asleep. In a typical sleep pattern, a person has four to five cycles of 90- minute sleep consisting of NREM and REM periods that occupy approximately 20% of the night

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