Cailin Hoban Hoban 1

Prof. Leonard

Eng 1201.513

29 March 2020

Why Do Humans Dream?

There are so many things that a normal person will dream about in their lifetime. There's

good dreams and bad dreams, but there's no stopping them. We wake up from a dream and

sometimes wonder why we forgot them, or if we remember them, what they mean. This is

something humans have been doing for thousands of years, yet there is still no answer as to why

we do it and what function they have in our daily lives.

Dreams are very complicated, so complicated that doctors and scientists cannot give the

public a definitive answer as to why humans have them and how the human brain forms them.

The one thing they do know is what they are. A simple definition would be, a dream is a

conscious state during sleep where a human experiences something. During these experiences, a

human can have all five senses engaged and have an emotional response. Although these

experiences are often made up within the mind of the human, there is little to no control over

what a person dreams about. Depending on what type of scientist or researcher is studying

dreams will tell you different things about them.

There are so many reasons and theories as to why we dream. With this comes the

different approaches that people take when studying dreams. Not only are there four main

theories as to why, but there are five approaches to the psychology behind it. The four main

theories are that they represent a person's wants and wishes unconsciously, it's just the body

interpreting random signals, it's a way of interpreting material from the day, or it could possibly
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be a form of psychotherapy (Nichols, Hannah). The five approaches are “psychodynamic,

humanistic, behavioral, cognitive, and the newest approach neuroscience” (Christina).

When looking at the four theories and the five approaches, the theory about wishes and

wants can be correlated with the approach of psychodynamics. A phycologist by the name

Sigmund Freudis given a lot of credit to what people know about dreams. This theory was

formed by him. His approach to coming up with this theory came from a psychodynamic

approach. Psychodynamic means studying the behavior of something when there is not much

control by the person exhibiting the behavior (Christina). In close relation to the psychodynamic

approach, is the humanistic approach. “According to both approaches, dreaming is about the self

and always has to do with the individual having them”(Christina). The main difference between

the two is that psychodynamic has more to do with the unconscious brain while humanistic deals

with the external stimulants in a person's life.

When a person studies dreams and comes to conclude that dreams are a way of

interpreting random signals, they have a behavioral approach. This essentially means the scientist

and/or researcher is looking at the behaviors that can actually be seen in a person's everyday life.

They are looking at every piece of the person. These people think that when you change

something in the environment of the person in their everyday life, then it will subconsciously

change a person's dream. This approach uses the person while they are awake as well as asleep.

The cognitive approach helps support the theory that dreams are a way of processing

information from the day. When taking this approach a person believes that the function of

dreams is “a response of the brain while it is resting”(Christina). This response is taking

everything from the day, the good and bad, and turning it into memories. While a person sleeps
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there brain does not rest. When a person is deprived of sleep, their memory is not as good as it

would be. People believe this is a way of learning and remembering things you studied for a test

the next day.

The theory about dreams being a form of psychotherapy uses a little bit of all the

approaches. Psychotherapy uses phycological methods to help a person overcome certain

behaviors. This requires all types of psychology. The last approach does not have a specific

theory with it yet. Neuroscience has to do with the biological functions of the body. When people

study this approach they believe that a process called REM sleep makes you remember

something. It acts as a trigger. As far as the neurological explanation of dreams, this is the closest

explanation to that. (Christina)

With dreaming comes fear, happiness, and every single other emotion humanly possible.

Some people might call a bad dream a nightmare and a good dream a fairy tale. What about the

other types of dreams? Are there specific themes that dreams correspond to? How do I know if

my dreams are normal or abnormal? Along with nightmares and good dreams, there are also

lucid dreams. There are fifty-five themes identified to dreaming that can possibly help a person

figure out what their dreams might mean. There are not many dreams that are characterized as

abnormal. Scientists and researchers have looked into normal and abnormal dreams and some

have concluded that there are dream disorders causing abnormal dreams but can be fixed through

therapy.

Nightmares can be pretty scary, but do not worry everyone has them sometime in their

life. Twenty-five times a year someone will experience a nightmare (Christina). They can cause

panic or uneasiness but they are not linked to mental disorders or any other psychological
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disorders. A lot of the time a nightmare has to do with what you did during the day. If it was a

stressful day you are more likely to have a nightmare. If you had a relaxing day at home you are

less likely to have a nightmare. Stress is a bifactor of why humans experience nightmares. There

are so many things people can dream about that create panic or disturbance. Falling is one of the

main ones, but there are so many others. Teeth falling out, being chased, drowning, not being

able to move or scream, and natural disasters are just some of the many common nightmares.

One step above nightmares is night terrors. These happen typically when a child has endured

trauma or major stressor in their life. Night terrors have more intense effects on an individual.

For example, a child having a night terror might scream in their sleep and look awake when

really they are asleep. They might wake up sweating and disoriented. This can be helped through

therapy in some individuals. Other individuals grow out of it as they get older and mature.

Fig 1. This bar graph shows the correlation between unpleasant dreams (nightmares) and

pleasant dreams depending on whether the person had to work that day or whether the person

had a relaxing non stressful day (Nagy, Salavecz, Simor, Purebl, Robert, Dockray, and Steptoe)
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Fig 2. This graphic shows the most common nightmares that people have and the

percentages of each (Hyde).

Lucid dreaming has been studied by many researchers and scientists and is a very popular

topic today. This is a very interesting type of dream. The human being experiencing this knows

that they are in a dream and might even be able to have some control over what they are

dreaming about. It is not known how many people are able to lucid dream or lucid dream, but it

is perceived to be common. The right and left hemisphere can play a part in how well a person
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can lucid dream. Researchers say the left side of the brain has more to do with the origin of the

dream, while the right has to do with how vivid a dream is. Given this, a study was done with

people who write with their left hand and people who write with their right hand. The people

who wrote with their left hand had an easier time lucid dreaming. It is something a person can

learn how to do. Some people do it normally without even knowing, but others who want to

experience this train themselves to. Over time they get better at it and are able to do it.whenever

they want. Most people when they realize they are dreaming will just wake up. When lucid

dreaming a person can be fully aware of the dream while still remaining asleep. They might even

be able to change certain things about a dream. Due to this concept, there is now a type of

therapy called lucid dream therapy. It is therapeutic to those who have night terrors or bad

nightmares that reoccur. The people can enter their dream through lucid dreaming and change

the plot and/or the characters. Other people lucid dream for fun. They find that it makes them

happier when waking up and can be described as a form of entertainment to them. Although

normally this is a safe experiment to try, people with certain mental disorders should stay away

from lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming could possibly exasperate the effects of the mental
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disorder on the person. They might have trouble distinguishing between the dream world and the

real world.

Fig 3. This histogram shows the ages of people when they started lucid dreaming. This

graph is spontaneous with the ages and the people (Stumbrys, Erlacher, Johnson, and Schredl).

When studying dreams researchers and scientists have come up with fifty-five main

themes that people have when they dream. There have been many studies done with

questionnaires that have given researchers these themes. These studies were conducted over

many populations and the results were all very similar. A couple of the fifty fives themes are

falling, being chased, flying, being attacked, traveling to another planet, and seeing an angel. The

percentage rates of each dream theme change from year to year. To know what a dream means

you can go to a dream dictionary and look at all different dreams and what they could possibly

mean. Not all these are true though, normally a specific person will have a different correlation

to objects in a dream. Dream dictionaries are just the most common meanings.

What is considered abnormal? It's something that's not normal, but what does that mean?

Abnormal is something out of the ordinary. Something that does not normally occur in

someone's daily life. Given this, how could a dream be abnormal, it's a person's imagination.

Although this is true for what some scientists believe, not all of them think all dreams are

normal. A normal person will dream a hundred fifty thousand times in their lifetime (Christina).

Some might think nightmares are abnormal, but in fact, they are common. On average a person

will have twenty-five nightmares a year (Christina). Given that they are so common they cannot

be considered abnormal. There are some dream disorders that can cause abnormal dreams. As

stated earlier in this essay, night terrors are not common and have some pretty bad symptoms.
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These can sometimes give a hint to a psychological disorder or some type of trauma or major

stressor. This could be considered abnormal. People with certain illnesses can have other dream

disorders too. In Parkinson's disease patients, they might experience “REM behavior

disorder”(Christina). This is abnormal dreaming because it not only can injure the person

sleeping, but also the people sleeping around them. Normal dreams include happy, sad, and scary

dreams. These dream disorders are rare and uncommon.

There is so much interesting and random information about dreams. There are also a lot

of random questions about dreaming that are popular among the public. Why is it that sometimes

we remember dreams and other times we do not? Does everyone dream? Does what we dream

about correlate with our occupation and what's happening in our bodies at the moment? Does a

person dreaming in color differ from a person who dreams in black and white? Does a fully

functioning and healthy person have different dreams from a hearing or visually impaired

person? Can these people hear and see in their dreams? These are some of the most popular

questions that have to do with dreaming.

Remembering dreams has many factors that correlate to it. Age, gender, and sleeping

disorders all play a role in this. Some people think that you only have one dream a night, this is

not true. Once a person reaches the age of ten they can dream up to six times a night. One

statistic says that after five minutes a person will forget fifty percent of their dream and then after

another five minutes a person forgets ninety percent of the dream (Nichols Hannah). There are

some things a person can do to help enhance their chance of remembering their dreams. Not

waking up to an alarm, letting your body wake up naturally can help a person remember dreams.

When you wake up, immediately write down your dreams and do this as much as possible. When
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you first wake up is when you are going to remember the most about a dream. Once a person hits

adulthood it becomes harder to remember dreams. Dreams become less vivid with age, therefore

having less effect on the person dreaming. Gender can affect what you dream about, but it does

not have much of a correlation to remembering the dreams. Women dream about indoor settings

with family and little ones, while men dream more about the outdoors. Remembering dreams is

greater in people with sleeping disorders like insomnia. A lot of times they dream about what is

bothering them so it makes it easier for them to remember the details.

Since not everyone remembers a dream, some individuals like to say that they do not

dream. This is in fact not true. Everyone dreams. In children, girls had higher anxiety levels in

dreams. They also had a harder time remembering dreams than males. In a pregnant woman,

infant/child dreams occur a lot more in the third trimester than they did in the first one. They also

dreamed more of these types of dreams than nonpregnant women. Related to that, people with

occupations that care for other people were reported to have dreams that correlated back to the

people they take care of. When a person loses a loved one, they are more likely to have dreams

with the lost loved one in them. Most of the dreams are joyful and happy, but a rare few were

described as disturbing. People going through withdrawals from drugs were reported to have

similar dreams. Even after six months clean, most of them were still dreaming about drugs. Some

were dreaming about refusing them, but others were dreaming about using them.

Not everyone dreams in color, some people can dream in black and white. Only eighty

percent of people younger than thirty dream in color. Once people hit the age of sixty, only

twenty percent dreamed in color. The rest dreamed in black and white. Scientists who have been

studying this for a long time have come up with the idea that dreaming in color increased when
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color television became a more normal accomidity. Frome nineteen-ninety-three to two thousand

nine the number of people dreaming in color increased. Older people say both dreams are clear

and with good quality, while younger people say black and white dreams are not as vivid as

colored ones.

People who are visually or hearing impaired (or both), still dream. Their dreams are

different from a normal persons. A person who is visually impaired from birth will not really

have visual dreams. They will have auditory and tactile dreams. They will still have the same

emotional dreams as a seeing person would. If a person becomes blind after they were born they

can still have visual dreams. They will dream about the things they were able to see when they

had those capabilities. They will have fewer of them depending on at what age they lost their

sight, but they are still able to. Deaf people can have visual and auditory dreams. Eighty percent

of deaf individuals said that when they dream, there is no sign of the impairment that they endure

in reality. These people are the ones who were not born deaf. What they hear in their dreams is

what they used to be able to hear. The same goes for people who are paralyzed. In their dreams,

they can do what a normal person is able to do.

There are so many unknowns about dreams. There's not a specific answer as to why we

do it or the purpose it serves in our daily life. There are theories and so many different types of

ways to study dreams. There are many things that go into remembering dreams and the different

types of dreaming. There are lucid dreaming and night terrors, as well as good dreaming. The

unknown about dreaming is what makes it fascinating.

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Works Cited

American Psychological Association​, American Psychological Association,

www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/science-of-dreaming​.

Christina. “The Psychology of Dreams.” ​Owlcation,​ Owlcation, 1 Feb. 2020,

owlcation.com/social-sciences/Dreaming-Minds.

Cohen, Doris Eliana. ​Dreaming on Both Sides of the Brain : Discover the Secret Language of the

Night​. Hampton Roads Pub., 2017. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat01128a&AN=scc.b1840530&site=e

ds-live.

“Do Dreams Really Mean Anything?” ​Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/supersurvivors/201801/do-dreams-really-mean-anyt

hing​.

George Lai, et al. “Acute Effects and the Dreamy State Evoked by Deep Brain Electrical

Stimulation of the Amygdala: Associations of the Amygdala in Human Dreaming,

Consciousness, Emotions, and Creativity.” ​Frontiers in Human Neuroscience​, 2020.

EBSCOhost​, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2020.00061.

Nichols, Hannah. “Dreams: Causes, Types, Meaning, What They Are, and More.” ​Medical News

Today​, MediLexicon International, 28 June 2018,

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/284378#causes​.
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Stumbrys, Tadas & Erlacher, Daniel & Johnson, Miriam & Schredl, Michael. (2014). The

Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey. The American journal of

psychology. 127. 191-204. 10.5406/amerjpsyc.127.2.0191.

Nagy, Tamás, et al. “Frequent Nightmares Are Associated with Blunted Cortisol Awakening

Response in Women.” ​Frequent Nightmares Are Associated with Blunted Cortisol

Awakening Response in Women –​, SZAKADATSARA, 26 Dec. 2015,

semmelweis.hu/psychophysiology/2015/12/26/frequent-nightmares-are-associated-with-b

lunted-cortisol-awakening-response-in-women/.

Hyde, McKenzie. “What Are the Most Common Nightmares?” ​Amerisleep,​ 12 Feb. 2020,

amerisleep.com/blog/what-are-the-most-common-nightmares/.