Why we dream?

 In the third millennium BCE, Mesopotamian kings recorded and interpreted their dreams on wax tablets 

A thousand years later, Ancient Egyptians wrote a dream book listing over a hundred common dreams and their meanings 

And in the years since, we haven't paused in our quest to understand why we dream 

So, after a great deal of scientific research, technological advancement, and pesistence, 

we still don't have any definite answers, but we have some interesting theories 

1. We dream to fulfill our wishes. 

In the early 1900s, Sigmund Freud proposed that while all of our dreams, including our nightmares, are a collection of images from our daily conscious lives, they also have symbolic meanings, which relate to the fulfillment of our subconscious wishes. 

Freud theorized that everything we remember when we wake up from a dream is a symbolic representation of our unconscious primitive thoughts, urges, and desires 

2. We dream to remember 

To increase performance on certain mental tasks, sleep is good, but dreaming while sleeping is better 

In 2010, researchers found that subjects were much better at getting through a complex 3-D maze if they had napped and dreamed of the maze prior to their second attempt 

In fact, they were up to 10 times better at it than those who only thought of the maze while awake between attempts, and those who napped but did not dream about the maze 

Researchers theorize that certain memory processes can happen only when we are asleep and our dreams are a signal that these processes are taking place 

3. We dream to keep our brains working. 

The continual activation theory proposes that your dreams result from your brain’s need to constantly consolidate and create long-term memories in order to function properly 

So when external input falls below a certain level, like when you’re asleep, your brain automatically triggers the generation of data from its memory storages, which appear to you in the form of the thoughts and fellings you experience in your dreams 

4. We dream to rehearse. 

Dreams involving dangerous and threatening situations are very common, and the primitive instinct rehearsal theory holds that the content of a dream is significant to its purpose 

Whether it’s an anxiety-filled night of being chased through the woods by a bear 

or fighting off a ninja in a dark alley, these dreams allow you to practice your fight or flight instincts and keep them sharp and dependable incase you’ll need them in real life But it doesn’t always have to be unpleasant 

For instance, dreams about your attractive neighbor could actually give your reproductive instinct some practice, too 

5. We dream to heal Stress 

Neurotransmitters in the brain are much less active during the REM stage of sleep, even during dreams of traumatic experiences, leading some researchers to theorize that one purpose of dreaming is to take the edge off painful experiences to allow for psychological healing. 

Reviewing traumatic events in your dreams with less mental stress may grant you a clearer perspective and enhance the ability to process them in psychologically healthy ways.

- source of the writing : Ted education