Dreams have remained a highly compelling topic of scientific and philosophical study for the duration of history, but they have never been fully understood. Dreams are sequences of emotions, images, and ideas that arise involuntarily in the mind during a specific period of sleep known as REM sleep. Dreams have the ability to affect relationships, choices, and mental health in an individual’s daily life.
Vivid dreaming typically takes place approximately 90 minutes after beginning sleep in a stage known as REM sleep. REM stands for rapid eye movement and causes increased speed in respiration, higher levels of brain activity, eye movement, and relaxation of the muscles (Sleep 1). A study organized in 1960 by William C. Dement, MD, PhD, researched the psychological effects of REM deprivation. Dr. Dement woke his subjects just as they entered REM sleep and detected an increase in tension, anxiety and irritability in his subjects along with difficulty focusing, lack of coordination, depersonalization, and hallucinations (Dream 1). The outcome of this study affirms that dreaming has acute importance and that not dreaming can induce significant consequences on one’s mental health.
Vivid situations in dreams can affect relationships in daily life. Dreams that include arguments between significant others or close friends can cause conflict when you wake. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland brought light to evidence that showed a connection between dreams and behavior in relationships. Relationships in which one partner dreamed about cheating or lying between the two had more arguments and fights.
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The study revealed that an individual’s closest friends appear in 20% of their dreams which significantly increases chances for the brain to create unlikely, but plausible situations (Burke 1). When an individual experiences fights between themselves and their friends during sleep, the anger or frustration that they felt can be expressed in their daily lives. Negative dreams cause people to make choices that create rifts in friendships and relationships.
Choices that a person makes can be drastically affected by events that transpire in their dreams. In Ancient Greece, the greeks thought of dreams as prophecy and made choices that would either interrupt or develop the prophecy. There are many Greek stories that tell of someone experiencing a prophetic dream and acting to progress the future in the ways that they desire. In one of the many stories, a Lydian King named Croesus had a gruesome dream that his son would meet his end from a wound caused by a spear.
Croesus did everything in his power to keep his son away from weapons, but eventually allowed him to go on a hunt. In this hunt, Croesus’ son was accidentally killed by his bodyguards spear. Not only did Croesus’ dream forsee the future, but it additionally set a series of events in motion that guided Croesus to the fulfillment of his son’s death (Kamil 1). In Greek medical beliefs, people who practiced in the art of healing believed that the divinity Asclepius had great healing power.
Doctors believed that Asclepius would visit them in their dreams to give them advice, diagnosis, and cures. Religious disciples desiring to experience a prophetic dream would practice incubation, or ritual sleep in a sanctuary. Many sanctuaries built rooms solely for this purpose (Kamil 1). The visions that the doctors would receive would convince them to attempt new medication and techniques when healing the sick or injured.
REM sleep is when the memories and information gathered during the day is mingled, merged, and melded together in abstract and imaginative ways. Mental visualization before sleep and during dreams improves information retention.
The night preceding the dance competition, I lay in bed visualizing each note of the song as it comes alive. I visualize every movement of my hands and feet. I imagine the cool air running through the high ceilings of the stadium and dazzling bright lights radiating towards the mat. I can just barely hear the crowd drowned behind the music. I imagine the adrenaline coursing through my veins and my breath becoming faster as the music washes over me like a wave.
I imagine the beat of the music flowing around me in time with my pounding heart. I relive the hours upon hours polishing the dance at rehearsal. I process each improvement and each correction previously given to me. I fall asleep to the music and dream about each exhilarating moment. My dreams building a stronger sense of preparation before I walk onto the mat the next day. Sleep hands me the opportunity to process and discard the stress and anxiety surrounding the events of the near future.
During the state of dreaming, the brain will contemplate over astronomical quantities of information and extract rules that creates a mindset to generate solutions for previously indecipherable problems (Walker 1). Dreaming also helps to process problems and conflicts that occur during the day. In a study conducted at UC Berkeley, they tested this theory by waking participants throughout the night, during both non-REM sleep and dreaming sleep, and gave them anagram puzzles. By monitoring their sleep, the researchers were able to awaken the
participants at different points of the sleep cycle to perform the test. When woken during non-REM sleep, participants could solve very few of the puzzles. On the other hand, when participants were woken during REM sleep, they were able to solve 15-35% more puzzles than when they were awake. The individuals woken while in REM sleep described the experience as if the solution “popped” into their heads effortlessly (Walker 1). These experiments show proof that the process of visualization during sleep can aid in problem solving as well as memory.
Imagine explosions and gunshots surrounding you. The cries of the wounded soldiers calling out for help. The hours of unmitigated terror and your heart pounding so hard you believe it may leap out of your chest. The world dissolving into dust and smoke while every breath you take feels like inhaling shards of glass. Imagine blood soaking through your clothes and poisoning the spiteful air. The pungent smell of rust and smoke drill through your head along with the thundering of bullets and explosions.
You are able to hear the pounding beat of your heart and breath being taken in, then silence. Imagine seeing the violence even after the war is over and you are home with your family. Imagine reliving this nightmare in your daily life, feeling out of control and utterly powerless.
Dreams affect an individual’s mental health by assisting in the process of healing through traumatizing experiences. An important function of dreams is to help recover from painful, dreadful, and hurtful experiences during the hours we are asleep so that we can learn from them and progress forward in our lives. “REM sleep is the only time when our brain is completely devoid of the anxiety-triggering molecule noradrenaline. At the same time, key emotional and memory-related structures of the brain are reactivated during REM sleep as we dream”(Walker 1).
The processing of memories is occurring devoid of a vital stress chemical which allows us to re-process devastating memories in a secure and calm environment. Because of the absence of noradrenaline, dreaming can help aid in de-escalating PTSD reactions and guide people to control their emotional reactivity. Evidence for this idea originated from a study done by Murray Raskind on war veterans with PTSD, who often suffer devitalizing nightmares.
When given the drug Prazosin, medication that lowers blood pressure and blocks the production of the brain stress chemical noradrenaline similar to the effect of dreaming, the vets in his study had fewer PTSD symptoms (Walker 1 ). Confronting fears during sleep helps identify the factors that are causing stress and anxiety.
Health, Happiness, and memories. Vital aspects of everyday life are affected by the dreams that so many people overlook. Understanding and learning about REM sleep and the events you see while you sleep can help people perceive the complexity of the human mind. Very few beings on the earth realize the potential that dreams have. Dreams are so much more than meaningless mental visualization and imagination. An individual’s relationships, choices, and mental health are affected by their dreams.
