Dreams are one of the most mysterious functions of the brain. What exactly is the point of the bizarre visuals we experience while we sleep? Are they just a coincidental byproduct of some other sleep process in the brain, or do they have their own uniquely important purpose? My recent article for Medium, titled “What Happens in the Brain When You’re Dreaming?”, targeted exactly these questions.
So what do we know so far? Scientists are still investigating what the brain is up to when we dream. It’s a question with many challenges, not least because people need to sleep awkwardly in a lab and try to recall the complicated content of their dreams. But there is progress!
People experience their most bizarre and vivid dreams during rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep. During this type of sleep, the brain inhibits motor systems to paralyze muscles and stop people from acting out their dreams. You may experience this paralysis during nightmares when you try to run but your legs feel powerless.
Scientists are still unsure about the function of dreams, but one theory suggests that dreams are a byproduct of the brain’s memory organization system during sleep. As the brain rehearses and organizes activity linked to new memories - for example those related to what happened during your day - you see relevant images pop into your mind.
Another theory suggests that dreams are a basic form of early-life consciousness. As fetuses and babies, we used this virtual world to practice and develop a mature mind. Some of our earliest perceptions and emotions may have hit us during REM sleep in the womb as we lived through our first dreams.
Whatever the true answer, dreams are a perfect example of the extravagant feats that the human mind is capable of.
The art of dreaming
Art is good at stimulating thinking about problems that are difficult to put into words, and dreaming is certainly one of those problems. Many of René Magritte’s paintings remind me of what it’s like to dream.
Here is his painting titled The Human Condition (1935). It highlights the difference between reality and representations of reality. We assume the painting within the painting is a fair picture of what is going on behind the wall that separates the room from the beach. This simultaneously puts our perspective both inside the room and out on the beach. But of course, the painting on the stand is only a representation of reality created by the painter, rather like the representations our brain creates during dreaming.
The second painting below is titled The Fair Captive (1947). It plays a similar trick to the previous painting but goes a little further. The painting within the painting emphasizes the difference between representation and reality by including not only the world we assume sits behind the painting on the stand, but also part of the fire that sits in front of the stand. This kind of play on reality is very reminiscent of the bizarre stories that people recall from their dreams.
Three ways to make better use of your own dreams
Dreams are quickly forgotten because experiences during sleep are entirely invented in the mind and lack any direct anchor to the real world around you. If you want to remember more of your dreams, write down any experiences you recall immediately after waking up, and use this as your personal dream diary.
Many of the world’s most famous creative insights were inspired by a dream. These include Kekulé’s vision of the structure of the benzene molecule, and Paul McCartney’s inspiration for the Beatles song “Yesterday”. Keeping a record of your dreams, for example with a dream diary, and considering each dream in the context of your real life may help inspire you too.
During sleep, the brain works through approximately 90-minute cycles that transition from light sleep to deep sleep then back up to light sleep. If you want to nap, set your alarm for 90 minutes to make sure you wake up during light sleep and avoid that horrible groggy feeling.
That final quote
I’ll end on a quote from the philosopher and poet Henri-Frédéric Amiel:
“Dreams are excursions into the limbo of things, a semi-deliverance from the human prison.”
Keep dreaming big, and don’t forget to hit SUBSCRIBE at erman.substack.com.
Erman