I recently watched “Inception” where the actor of the “Titanic” stars – Di Caprio. In this movie, the dreams are manipulated. They are built rather than spontaneously triggered by the brain. But though the dreams are initiated, Di Caprio’s dreams in the movie were characterized by spurts of his deceased wife’s presence often acting as an antagonist – one uncontrolled factor in his dreams.
Ever wonder why we dream? Or why dreams can seem so real and meaningful when we are experiencing them but are mostly forgotten? Or why, when we do manage to remember a dream, it often seems so weird? It is voluntary and most of the time, we cannot remember what and who was in our dream, but we do remembered that we had a dream about something or someone.
Pyschologist Joe Griffin first published the theory of Expectation Fulfillment of Dreaming in 1993. He explains that our dreams plays a central role in keeping us normally sane and in some rare situations, drive us mad. Griffin’s theory offers a holistic synthesis of the interdependence of biology and psychology that explains the evolutionary origin of dreaming and what it actually does for us every night. Since its publication in 1993 it has not been contended.
Dreams might just be the brain’s way of preparing for all of experiences it will encounter upon waking. – Dr. J Allan Hobson
If you would look up any dictionary, the word ‘dream’ is another term for expectation. It is Nature’s solution to the emotional problems that afflict humans. It is innate in everyone to function as a discharging mechanisms for our emotional arousals that were not accomplished the previous days. When we were not able to accomplish our expectations, it puts stresses on our autonomic nervous sytem. Through dreaming, we complete those tasks to wake up unstressed and our instincts intact.
When we have positive expectations, we tend to have happy dreams but when our system is stressed with negative expectations, our dreams cannot cope, then sleep disturbance sets in. Dreams are sometimes miserable, nightmarish – depression may set in. I remember my daughter being scolded before going to sleep. I woke up to the sound of her crying and realized that she was dreaming. When asked, she said that her aunt was scolding her. Apparently, her dream was an extension of what happened the previous day. To allay the anxiety and stress, I provided positive explanation and pacified her that her aunt is not angry with her and it is just merely to correct her. After that, a restful sleep ensued. In adults, an extreme stress overload can interfere with the dreaming process to such an extent that psychotic symptoms arise, e.g., in schizophrenia, symptoms manifest in waking reality perceived through the dreaming brain.
According to a new study by sleep and dream expert J. Allan Hobson, dreams might just be the brain’s way of preparing for all of experiences it will encounter upon waking.
“It helps explain a lot of things, like why people forget so many dreams,” Dr. Hobson told The New York Times. “It’s like jogging; the body doesn’t remember every step, but it knows it has exercised. It has been tuned up. It’s the same idea here: dreams are tuning the mind for conscious awareness.”
Photo by funkblast
