Why do we dream?

It is completely natural for human beings to try to answer the why of things. A phenomenon that has caught our attention since the beginning of our history is dreams. And, above all, one of the biggest unknowns still in science today: why do we dream?

How dreams occur

To understand them better, we must start from the following question: where and when they occur.

Sleep is made up of several sleep cycles that are divided into different phases (if you are interested in knowing more in detail about sleep cycles, we delve into them in this article ). These phases or stages are four: drowsiness or wakefulness; light sleep; deep sleep; and the REM phase. Dreams can occur in all of them, but they occur much more frequently during the last phase. 

The cycles are repeated several times throughout the night, and not all have the same duration (the first usually lasts between 70 and 100 minutes and the rest between 90 and 120 minutes), and they can vary between different days and depending of the person.

It is said that when you remember what you dream about very vividly it is because you have woken up in the middle of a cycle, when you are dreaming most actively.

What is it and what is the purpose of dreaming?

After countless studies on this subject, it has been concluded that dreams are information that the brain stores in memory and “brings out” or reconstructs when we sleep . It is no secret that the external stimuli of everyday life affect the emotions we have when sleeping. Dreams are not something that helps erase unpleasant memories, in fact, they often put them back on the table in the form of nightmares or perhaps they are reflections of what we want to happen.

Sleeping is a task that helps regenerate and rest the body from all the day-to-day activity. Everything indicates that dreaming helps memorize and organize the information that has been stored in our brain during the day. Some studies have even shown that if you learn important information before going to sleep, it will be retained better and it will be easier to remember it, since its storage and organization is more correct.

Then why?

The truth is that it is still an inexact and uncertain science, with more questions than answers. Of course, its effects on our cognitive abilities are undeniable, becoming a fundamental element for the correct development of our mind. Some say that it is only intended to free the brain from “extra” information that has been stored, but there are also currents of thought that affirm that dreams are premonitions about what is going to happen, with hidden meanings. that decipher the future for us.

We still have much to discover about this fascinating component of our lives.

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