A Scientific Look at the Dreaming Mind
From the scientific perspective, dreams are the result of an altered state of consciousness that certain complex organisms experience during periods of sleep. Firing patterns originating in the pons, with the ascendancy of acetylcholine, brings this about.
This process effects the mind and body differently, such that the psychological function of dreams is to facilitate the classification of events and the consolidation of experiences in the mind. Meanwhile, the physiological function of dreams is to provide a brain with periodic stimulation sufficient enough to develop and preserve neural pathways.
Although an animal’s brain continues to function in some form or another throughout the entire process of sleep, the dreaming mind of an animal is much more active during periods of rapid eye movement (REM) than that of non-rapid eye movement (NREM). Of these, REM sleep occupies about 1/5 of the sleep cycle, while the rest is NREM. As part of this, the rapid eye movement stages of sleep are rarely less than 10 minutes long and may last for for an hour or more.
About 60 to 80 minutes after first falling asleep, the brain’s activity begins to increase; the sleeper drifts from deep Stage IV sleep to Stage III, Stage II and Stage I — at which time rapid eye movements begin. After about ten minutes in REM, the brain drifts back down through the four stages. The process is repeated every 90 to 100 minutes, but as sleep progresses, the REM periods lengthen and the NREM periods shorten.
In addition to this, there are several biological changes that tend to occur during REM sleep, such as a change in body temperature, an increase in oxygen consumption, and a variability of heart rhythm. On top of that, NREM sleep is primarily conceptual, while REM is far more perceptual in nature.
Although there are primary functions of the dreaming mind, there are specific roles that certain dreams fulfill while others do not. In some cases, the content of a dream is reflective of the dreamer’s cognitive stage of development in life.
In essence, many dreams serve as an extension of one’s conscious daily concerns, and these episodes may or may not indicate the specific desires that guide an individual’s waking behavior, being an uncensored combination of personal motivations and conceptions.
According to the continuity principle, there is considerable congruence between what we dream about and our preoccupations in waking life, so dreamers often encounter the same content — themes, settings, and characters — in the context of their dreams, throughout the span of a lifetime regardless of how they live their life.
Dreams are the way that a sleeping mind makes sense of the world. This is completely different from the way the waking mind makes sense of the world, that’s why things can seem so very strange when we look back on what we just experienced in a dream. Ultimately, dreams are the way that memories are formed and problems are worked out. We are just along for the ride.
