What are Dreams?

Yes. It's something I have always, and will always, wonder. What are dreams?

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Dreams are a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood.

It seems that no one can fully understand yet what dreams are, but the many different speculations really make you wonder.

Dream theories
As well as these, some believe it's to do with your spirit, believing that a dream is your spirit leaving your body and experiencing what is happening in your dreams. However, I personally believe it's to do with the structure of your mind and thoughts. While you're asleep, your collection of memories are used to create live images. As well as memories, your knowledge and imagination influences your dream and creates a live picture. We can imagine things while we're awake, so it's plausible that while we're asleep we can also imagine, but because our eyes are moving so rapidly during sleep, it becomes a clear image.


This is the movement of our eyes during sleep. As you can see, it's like, 10 times as much!

This is just a theory, and because I'm not a scientist I really have no idea at all; the stuff on wikipedia is all nonsense to me because of all the big words, but I think what is mainly being suggested is that while your body is asleep, your brain is working in a different way.

This is an interesting theory:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Hughlings Jackson (1932) viewed that sleep serves to sweep away unnecessary memories and connections from the day. This was recently revised by Crick and Mitchison (1983) and stated that dreams are like the cleaning-up operations of computers when they are off-line, removing parasitic nodes and other "junk" from the mind during sleep.[18][19] However, the opposite view that dreaming has an information handling, memory-consolidating function (Hennevin and Leconte, 1971) is also common. Dreams are a result of the spontaneous firings of neural patterns while the brain is undergoing memory consolidation during sleep.

My dreams do often involve people, things, places and events that occur earlier in the week, but this doesn't explain dejavu dreams, although we do know what causes dejavu, we just can't determine whether it actually IS a dream that we saw with the events, or if it's just the brain.

False awakening is also a wierd thing. You dream you have woken up; I have had multiple dreams like this, but again, why?

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

A false awakening is an event in which someone dreams they have awoken from sleep. This illusion of having awakened is very convincing to the person. After a false awakening, people will often dream of performing daily morning rituals, believing they have truly awakened. A dream in which a false awakening takes place is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "double dream", or a "dream within a dream".

As a part of this topic, I wanted to bring up the subject of having dreams about people. I'm mainly making this topic because last night I had a really wierd dream about this guy I like, and it was the strangest thing. The behavior of this person was completely different to how they normally are which really confused me and made me wonder what determines things like this in a dream. Since I already know him and how he behaves, why is it being changed in my head? If my brain is the one creating these images, why isn't it creating a real image? I dunno, it's so wierd, and I'm really wierd about dreams, they're a huge part of me and I really would love to understand them fully. It's just so wierd when I think into it deeper.

What do you think?

It's actually been proven that we don't dream in color. We only think we do. As to where the source that says this is, I don't know. I'll have to do more research. But yeah, no one can truly say they dream in color.

In my opinion, dreams are simply your brain accidentally thinking in you sleep. When sleeping, parts of your brain don't stop functioning as they should, so memories and thoughts start playing through our head as we sleep. However, since we are not consciously choosing what we are thinking about, this makes the images we see entirely random, which is why most dreams don't make much sense once your awake.

Originally Posted by Midnafan1

It's actually been proven that we don't dream in color. We only think we do. As to where the source that says this is, I don't know. I'll have to do more research. But yeah, no one can truly say they dream in color.

Actually, the percentage of people who dream in black-and-white is 12%. The other 88% dream in colour.

Incredibly, it is thought that this may be linked to the switch from monochromatic television to colour, since the majority of those who dream in black-and-white tend to be older, ie. in their 60s. By contrast, only about 4% of those under the age of 25 dreams have monochromatic dreams. Basically, television has a very strong impact on young minds.

Originally Posted by Astarael

Actually, the percentage of people who dream only in black-and-white is 12%. The other 88% dream in colour.

Incredibly, it is thought that this may be linked to the switch from monochromatic television to colour, since the majority of those who dream in black-and-white tend to be older, ie. in their 60s. By contrast, practically no-one under the age of 25 dreams has purely monochromatic dreams. Basically, television has a very strong impact on young minds.

I'm still stuck on what I said and I am looking for the source of where I heard that no one dreams in color. Do you have proof of what you said??? Maybe some test results from a sleep study??? Thats the only thing that could make me believe that. =p

Here's a source.

I don't belive dejavo. The times I feel it, I'm in a spot that I was before. It just seems the same. Here's an exiample. Every thime I have to go to this one city, I swim in the hotel's pool. When I go underwater and look at the staircase I have dejavo. This is becasue I've done it before, but I never did it on purpose. Somehow I just get in the same postion and the secne looks ALMOST like it did before. Hopefully that maes sence.

@Astarael

Okay, I do accept your source as valid. However, let me pose a question. How does anyone actually know it's actual color??? Our brains could just be saying in our dreams, "Hey, that ball is red." and we automatically think it's red. Even if in actuality, we don't really see the color. We just assume that our brain wouldn't lie to us. So we put the color in our memory.
I guess what I'm trying to say is our brains understand something as being a certain color but it's not actually that color. Sort of like with color blind people. >_< I wish I could explain it better. =p I'm at a loss of words.

But yeah, I do believe the study to an extent seeing how it is official and all. I'm not going to say it's 100% wrong. However, I won't 100% believe it until they actually do a study involving wires connecting to the head to study brain waves and things of the sort. That's the information I was looking for. From the information given by the source, it says they kept journals and took a questionnaire. If there are people out there like me, and I'm sure there are, they'll see that this could have it's flaws based on what I was trying to explain. Now if only I could explain it better. XD

But yeah, kudos for showing me that source. =] I actually enjoy reading and studying anything that has to do with dreams. =] So that was fun for me. ^_^

Originally Posted by Midnafan1

@Astarael

Okay, I do accept your source as valid. However, let me pose a question. How does anyone actually know it's actual color??? Our brains could just be saying in our dreams, "Hey, that ball is red." and we automatically think it's red. Even if in actuality, we don't really see the color. We just assume that our brain wouldn't lie to us. So we put the color in our memory.
I guess what I'm trying to say is our brains understand something as being a certain color but it's not actually that color. Sort of like with color blind people. >_< I wish I could explain it better. =p I'm at a loss of words.

But yeah, I do believe the study to an extent seeing how it is official and all. I'm not going to say it's 100% wrong. However, I won't 100% believe it until they actually do a study involving wires connecting to the head to study brain waves and things of the sort. That's the information I was looking for. From the information given by the source, it says they kept journals and took a questionnaire. If there are people out there like me, and I'm sure there are, they'll see that this could have it's flaws based on what I was trying to explain. Now if only I could explain it better. XD

But yeah, kudos for showing me that source. =] I actually enjoy reading and studying anything that has to do with dreams. =] So that was fun for me. ^_^

What does it matter if the colors we see aren't actually that color? The same could be said of objects in real life right? Either way, what makes things a certain 'color' are the labels we attach to them to identify them.

^kindof what he said.

Really, in your dream you are technically not seeing anything. So the question is, are the replicated memories actually firing "red color" synapse memories, or are they firing monochromistic synapses? If it is the latter, I don't no how one could actually confuse one with the other.

On a side note: I don't usually remember if my dreams were in color or not: however, there was one dream that I distinctly remember being in VIVID color.

I was in a cartoon world (DBZ) and I was flying around and shooting energy balls at Freeza.

It was kinda awesmome. xD

Since my dreams tend to involve whatever I'm thinking about before I go to sleep among other recent memories, I rather like that "consolidation" theory. I think it's also a case of keeping your mind active while your body is unconscious, or maybe consolidating subconscious as well as conscious thoughts (which might be why we get active dreams when we've eaten before going to bed, because it's the body trying to burn off that extra energy, but I'm no more an expert than anyone).

I don't really get the point of dreams, and I don't bother myself with it, but I do wish they'd stop putting me in a certain mindset before I've even woken up. I would describe some but I'm sure some dream-interpreter on here might be able to tell more about me than even I'd like to know if I did.

Originally Posted by Flames of Valor

What does it matter if the colors we see aren't actually that color? The same could be said of objects in real life right? Either way, what makes things a certain 'color' are the labels we attach to them to identify them.

That's actually what I was trying to say. XD We just attach labels to the colors. We don't see the colors we just interpret them as those colors. So when we wake up, we remember out of interpretation what the colors where.
Anyways, this is just my personal theory.

Originally Posted by Midnafan1

That's actually what I was trying to say. XD We just attach labels to the colors. We don't see the colors we just interpret them as those colors. So when we wake up, we remember out of interpretation what the colors where.
Anyways, this is just my personal theory.

I know, I was asking why it is relevant.

But I already made a dream thread. D=

It doesn't really feel like it fits in SD (which is why I didn't make a thread here), unless we're focusing on the "does it have to do with spirituality" thing. Which would definitely fit in with the common religious fare that's always here.

Anyway, to answer that first question about spirituality, I'm completely against that notion.
I can't stand that dreams have that aura about them that connects them to spirituality-- it's probably because not a lot (comparatively) is known about dreams. I hate talking to people about it and coming off as some spiritual person or someone talking about the occult. Because it's not any of those (unless the person who's talking about it is spiritual).

Dreams happen when your conscious mind switches off and your subconscious is allowed to do as it likes. Because dreams stem from the subconscious they can be interpreted though not, I believe, in the way Freud described in some of his essays. I prefer the Jungian approach to dreams and dream interpretation which states that, for the most part, dreams must be interpreted on an individual basis, one mans cigar is another mans penis, as it were. Having said that most dreams aren’t all that important and people often forget them not long after waking or don’t recall them at all. However the dreams that stay with us, or recur, are often the result of problems in our subconscious and it’s much better to resolve and understand those problems than to simply ignore them.

As for dreaming in colour, I know I do. I've had many dreams where colour plays a large part, one of my recent dreams for example contained no colours other than purple, the walls, the floor, even myself were all in a single colour. What's even more strange is that I'm colour blind, yet apparently in my dreams I'm not.

My dreams are random, and are never the same (although as a child, I have different recurring dreams every Halloween and May 23rd respectively until a few years ago. I don't know why it stopped). The dreams both include people I know, and people I don't. Sometimes, separately--as in everyone is someone I (don't) know), sometimes together--as in there are people I do and don't know. Usually, my dreams include something that is physically impossible- flying, multi-colored trees that sing, to name a few recent ones. I also never have nightmares. The last one I had was a few weeks ago, although it wasn't really a nightmare (It was normal until the very end when a...thing came out of nowhere, scaring the ♥♥♥♥ out of me). The last nightmare before that was the recurring dream on Halloween which stopped many years go.

I dream in color.

As for what they are, I don't know. I don't care. I do want more.

My dreams are strange.Sometimes I dream about things that will happen.I dreamed of my grandmother and I she said goodbye to me.I asked "where are you going?" and she just smiled.
My mother woke me up and said that my grandmother died!!!!!That happened last week.

One time i was dreaming of a girl with neon greent eyes and she was at a graveyard and as I walked up to her she pointed to a grave that said my name and the little girl said to me "Mommy is that you," and I turned around and turned back and she was there and told her "Your not apart of my life! Go Now!" (It was all in my dreams.) Can any one help at what my dreams mean??

Originally Posted by Links girl!

One time i was dreaming of a girl with neon greent eyes and she was at a graveyard and as I walked up to her she pointed to a grave that said my name and the little girl said to me "Mommy is that you," and I turned around and turned back and she was there and told her "Your not apart of my life! Go Now!" (It was all in my dreams.) Can any one help at what my dreams mean??

Hmmmm you lost me there somewhere near the start. But I do think I sort of understand that dream. Well my theory of a dream is that all your memories are played back in your sleep in a random sequence of order and sometimes get mixed up with different things. Such as my dream where I had wings I was remembering an anime and another memories came in and they mixed. Thats my theory on a dream ^^

Links girl: Interesting. This to me seems like a premonition of something though i'm no expert. The curious thing is even if you could see the future somehow that person in the dream talked to you when they shouldn't have been able to talk to. Did anything significant happen to you before you had that dream?

Zelda Phoenix: You know that reminds me of a dream i had! I was walking through someplace(i think it was a forest) anyway it was all misty and dark. Then i saw a cat. I looked at the cat for a long time then watched as it disappeared into the mist. A few days later one of my cats was hit by a car.

In regards to my dreams they usually revolve around me being in roles similar to video games. For example one night i was playing TP a lot and when i went to sleep i dreamed that i was walking through Hyrule Castle. This happens a lot and with many different video game franchises.