• Question: why do you have dreams

    Asked by yas to Chloe, Irene, Uday on 19 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Uday Bangavadi

      Uday Bangavadi answered on 19 Nov 2015:

      A dream can include any of the images, thoughts and emotions that are experienced during sleep. Dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or frightening imagery; focused and understandable or unclear and confusing.

      There is not likely ever to be a simple answer, or a single theory that explains the full role of dreaming to human life. Biological, cognitive, psychological—it’s very likely that dreaming may serve important functions in each of these realms.

      Like sleep, dreams are vulnerable to disruption from problems with mental and physical health. There are a number of conditions (as well as medications) that may affect dreams, and that can make dreams more difficult and disturbing.

    • Photo: Irene Regan

      Irene Regan answered on 19 Nov 2015:

      Great Q:)

      Here are some key points about dreams.
      Though a few people may not remember dreaming, it is thought that everyone dreams between 3 to 6 times per night.
      It is thought that each dream lasts between 5 to 20 minutes.
      Around 95% of dreams are forgotten by the time a person gets out of bed.
      Dreaming can help you learn and develop long-term memories.
      Women dream more about family, children and indoor settings when compared with men.
      Recalling something from last week that has appeared in your dream is called the “dream-lag effect.”
      There is a difference in the quality and quantity of dreams experienced in rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep.
      48% of people that feature in a dream are recognized by the person dreaming.

      Why do we dream?
      There are several hypotheses and concepts as to why we dream. Are dreams merely part of the sleep cycle or do they serve some other purpose?

      Possible explanations for why we dream include:

      To represent our wants and wishes
      To interpret random signals from the brain and body during sleep
      Because of stuff that happened during the day
      To work as a form of therapy or help
      Blind people dream more with other sensory components compared with sighted people.

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