The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

Natasha Hymans , (she/her), LVI, explores the varying theories of why we dream and the beneficial nature of them.

Another evolutionary explanation for dreaming is that dreams

Theories about dreams and their meaning have been around for centuries. Early civilizations believed dreams to be a means of communication between our world and the gods; the Ancient Greeks and Romans were convinced that dreams were prophetic. So, how have theories of dreams changed over time and what more do we know about dreams today? It is clear why we sleep: there are numerous evolutionary advantages such as recharging our bodies and avoiding nocturnal predators, but purpose, because of the multiple realistic aspects of human dreaming, as well as the experimental evidence that other mammals, such as cats, also dream. However, a clear reason for dreaming has yet to be found. Despite this, technological advancements have given us a deeper understanding of the memory of dreams, and how they help us process emotions and solve problems. Researcher Cristina Marzano and her colleagues at the University of Rome have successfully explained how humans remember dreams.They invited 65 students to spend the night at the university during which they studied their brainwaves over the five sleep stages. it is still unclear why we dream. Evolutionary psychologists have theorised that dreaming serves a

The study showed that the same brain functions occur when we attempt to remember dreams as when we are encoding and retrieving memories when awake.This study highlights the link between our sleep state and our awake state. Dreaming also helps us to process emotions.This theory was originally proposed by Georg Müller and Alfons Pilzecker in 1900. Research has found that REM sleep, when dreams are most prolific and vivid, plays an important role in the processing of waking life emotional experiences and the consolidation of memories, transforming them into long-term memories.The REM stage of sleep is named because of the rapid movement of our eyes underneath our eyelids and is when our sleeping brain is most active. During REM sleep, our bodies operate in very similar ways to waking life except our eyes are closed and we lose muscle tone. Dreams are not real, but the emotions attached to them are, therefore dreaming in REM sleep is used to build memory and strengthen informational recall: dreams are used to ‘tidy up’ our memories, to remove any unnecessary or partial information, and to make memories more accessible and understandable to our subconscious brain. Scientists believe that this is significant for the smooth running of our brains, whether we realise it or not.

give humans a creative canvas for solving real-world problems.An

experiment at Stanford University by psychologistWilliam Dement supports this theory. Dement gave hundreds of undergraduate students challenging brain teasers to work on before bed. For example,“The letters O,T,T, F, F … form the beginnings of an infinite sequence. Find a simple rule for determining any or all successive letters.” (The answer is the first letter of each number, so the next one would be “S” for “six.”). Participants solved these teasers within their dreams. One participant spoke about how they dreamt of a hall of artwork where they counted the paintings but, upon reaching the sixth painting, saw that it had been ripped out of its frame.They said they felt a strange feeling that some mystery was about to be solved.They suddenly realised that the sixth space was the solution to the teaser. Experiments like these have highlighted the possibility of dreams as an evolutionary factor for problem-solving. Despite the lack of answers regarding what dreams are and what their purpose might be, research into them will ultimately be beneficial in the research of memories and will help us understand ourselves better.

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Artwork: Ceren Ulas, S8

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