The Science Behind Dreams

Dreams leave us on the edge of our toes and take us across countries to distant lands. They can leave us shaking in our boots, and wishing for only a minute more to the finish the last passionate kiss. But regardless of the dream, they never fail to captivate us. They can make us believe anything is possible, and all the same while, make us question the very fibers of our being. For me, dreams allow me to analyze the roots of my problems, while the science behind dreams has just begun to understand a world of possibilities into our minds. To this day we still don’t understand the true importance of dreams, and I doubt we ever will, but ultimately dreams are here to preserve of hopes, our aspirations, our fears, and give insight into what we have yet to find.

To understand dreams you have to understand the scientific theories behind them. Although the scientists of today have made incredible leaps of discovery, neurologists who have become the founding father of psychoanalysis, such as Sigmund Freud, have paved the way for the next generation to understand the dream world unknown. One individual such as Dr. Sander van der Linden who is a doctoral researcher in social experimental psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has shown, “One prominent neurobiological theory of dreaming is the “activation-synthesis hypothesis,” which states that dreams don’t actually mean anything: they are merely electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our memories. Humans, the theory goes, construct dream stories after they wake up, in a natural attempt to make sense of it all” (Linden). Through this theory we are able to push aside folklore concerning dreams, and focus on the real importance of dreams, or lack of. Looking at the dreams as a symbolic message in our waking life that is changing or ending after every dream would be redundant, yet while I do agree dreams themselves are meaningless, I do find that what our subconscious creates surrounding the electrical impulses do help us understand the chaos of reality. We as humans need an escape method to help us understand the hectic life we live, and if dreams give us inside into helping that, then I am all for them regardless if we ourselves have just made them up after the fact of consciousness.
Although stated that dreams have no real significance, I tend to believe that while the dream itself maybe meaningless, the effect after a dream still can give us hints or clues to who we have been, and what we are to become. You can take a dream as you must, rather it be meaningless or promising, but a dream still holds a individual purpose for all of us. As any regular person, I have come to see my dreams as a wonderland filled with the heavy rush of excited might that pushes me past expectations and in to a outgoing reality. Now, my stages of wonder, or dreamland, begin like any bored high school student’s would try to get lost in any place but the present. This “wonderland” presents an escape from reality, if only for a moment, it thrusts you into a world past the stress, the anxiety, and the heartache that presents day life expects from you. You can be anything you want, see anything you would want, and create anything you want. It is a dream, a fantasy by any accounts, but it is a gift.
One example that has presented an escape from reality would be a dream I had a few months back about my own personal death. Metaphorically, this death could have been the end of a habit, a lifestyle choice, or personal relationship, but as a whole I took it as the termination of a internal conflict not a physical death. At the time I was going through a rough break down of a friendship, I didn’t trust anyone, let alone myself, and I hadn’t found closure in the situation. I needed to find a safe reliable method of releasing my stress that could give me insight into how to better deal with the situation. That’s when fell asleep one night and discovered the painless release from my stress was staring me straight in the face. I simply had to let go and stop trying the find the answers, I had to lets things fall as they may. Within the dream I was running round and round unable to stop and realize that my friendship was over, and that I simply needed to move on. Through this frightening and alarming wake- up call, the nature of death can break down the barriers to my subconscious. Within the dream I was hunted though a series of mazes before I met my untimely demise, but looking through a analytical lens I can infer that although I died, this meant that I was desperately trying to escape from the demands of my daily life. So by expanding on my dreams, no matter how dark, and exploring my subconscious this process became a major stress reliever taking the pressure off the situation and focusing on the issue at hand.