This post is part of a series of guest posts on GPS by the undergraduate and graduate students in my Science vs. Pseudoscience course. As part of their work for the course, each student had to demonstrate mastery of the skill of “Educating the Public about Pseudoscience.” To that end, each student has to prepare a 1,000ish word post on a particular pseudoscience topic, as well as run a booth on-campus to help reach people physically about the topic.
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Are Your Dreams Really Trying to Tell You Something? by Carrie Tubbs
Sleep is one of our most essential needs to survive in the world. Doctors and researchers have done many studies about different stages of sleep, sleep disorders, and about what is happening in the brain as we sleep. Sleep is important for our brain’s mental health and even our physical states throughout the day. If we do not receive enough sleep there are many impairments to our bodies and brain functions such as an increase in blood pressure, overeating habits, impaired memory function, inability to concentrate, and even an increase in the amount of stress you feel. Upon waking up, people may feel refreshed, but they may also feel terrified, excited, upset, and even in panic. A lot of these feelings can be influenced by dreams.
Researchers have recently found that dreams may even influence your decision on things that are happening in our daily lives. Roughly six years of life are spent dreaming. Some people say that they don’t ever dream, however 95% people forget their dreams upon waking up. History shows that since 3000-4000 B.C people have been documenting their dreams and trying to find superficial meanings. In fact, some people become so interested in their dream meanings that they sleep with notepads by their bed to write about their dreams as soon as they wake up to study them later on in the day.
Originally, dream meanings were interpreted to be religious messages and were many times interpreted by priests. Once the religious reign over dreams was over, many thought that their dreams were just related to their own fears. However, during Sigmund Freud’s development of psychoanalysis he emphasized the importance of studying dream meanings which has continued to carry on into today’s society. He believed that our dreams were a way for us to realize our desires from our unconscious and to release impulses, therefore if you analyze your dreams you could know who you truly are and what you want. Another early influential force in psychology, Carl Jung, believed that dreaming is an access to your unconscious as well. The difference in their theories is that Jung believed that the link to the unconscious was to help people overcome a problem or fear that they are having in waking life.
In today’s society this has been taken even further and some people believe that dreams can predict their futures, show them which direction to take in a life changing decision, or even show you your true feelings about someone. This may not seem like such a bad idea, but what people don’t take into account is how many people think that they are experts on this subject. Many people invest their time creating books and blogs about what each specific detail in your dream could mean, but what needs to be recognized is that since all of these have been created, some of them have started to become differentiated. Each reference to what a dream detail means has a different interpretation depending on where you look meaning that dream meanings are not universal. The people who write down their dreams could also document their daily stress or events to try to match them up with ties later. This is how so many meanings can be produced for the same dream detail. For example, one dream dictionary believes that if you see a gun, it represents anger, depression, and danger. Another believes that it represents confrontation, blame, or obsessiveness. For other dream details that don’t already have a stereotype, the analysis can be even more exaggeratedly different. For example, a bicycle in one dream dictionary compares the bike to a life balance. In another dream interpretation system, it represents good opportunities that are coming.
Besides objects or items that find meaning in dreams, there are also some themes that exist in dreams that have been interpreted as well. Birds are one popular example in which throughout your dream, you may see many flocks of birds in the background. If you look up this dream theme on one site, you may say that they signify goals, joy, or love. On the next site, you will find that it signifies awareness and imagination. In some themes, the significance does seem to be similar, but in others it is far off. It is more differentiated with things that don’t already have a stereotype and are not too specific. Upon searching for a general topic such as birds you can find exaggerating differences such as these.
Through all of the research on sleep and dreaming, scientists still waiver in their opinions about the purpose and use of dreams. As a prior student wrote last year:
The scientific definition of dreams is the mental activity containing thoughts, emotions, and images that occur while a person is asleep. This is normally in conjunction with rapid eye movement (REM). Dreams that occur during REM-sleep normally involve aggressive emotions while dreams that occur during non-REM (NREM) sleep normally involve friendly emotions.
Therefore, dreams are a result of the electrical energy. This energy stimulates stored memories in various regions of the brain. Scientists have yet to determine why the brain does stimulate memories during the dreaming process, but there are various hypotheses. Hypotheses that state paranormal or supernatural phenomenon as possible explanations are not taken as seriously as the ones that use biological and emotional processes of brain activity.
Some of the scientific hypotheses that attempt to explain dreams state that dreaming is a method by which the brain is attempting to disconnect the cortex from any additional sensory input. This would allow the cortex to rest. These hypotheses can also explain the lack of critical thinking skills and poor decisions that people make when they do not get the right amount of sleep.
Another scientific hypothesis indicates that dreaming is a method of memory encoding, particularly emotional memories. This is based on the evidence that the amygdala is active during the dreaming process. The amygdala has been shown to be a key component in the formation of memories during emotional experiences.
With so much research being done on sleep, one of the most critical and valued points of life, there may come a day when we do receive answers on whether or not dreams have meanings outside of those we place on them. For now, people will still continue to document these dreams, see psychics, or look up on the internet for their meanings. Hopefully these dream analysts catch on very soon that these meanings for dreams are far differentiated and are anything from universal. Otherwise, we are just adding fuel to the pseudoscience flames.
