Dreams are super weird, and also occasionally so awesome we’d rather stay asleep than wake up. They can also be horrible and terrifying, but, now that I’m thinking about it, I wouldn’t trade them for guaranteed nights of nothing for the rest of my life.
Would you?Didn’t think so.
The question of why we dream, what purpose they serve, has been on the minds of psychologists, scientists, researchers, and laypeople for centuries because, when you start to think about it, dreams are totally bizarre; we close our eyes, and our brains give us stories – whether we want them or not.
Here are 7 of the more popular ideas on why:
People who have been diagnosed with psychiatric disorders are far more likely to also suffer from chronic sleep problems. Harvard University researchers even found a link between dreaming and common psychiatric disorders in 2009 – sleep problems seem to raise the risk of developing them.
We believe this is because stress hormones (among other things) are negatively impacted by interrupted REM sleep. When it happens continually, psychiatric disorders can result.
This theory, known as the activation-synthesis model, was introduced in 1977 and is based on the idea that dreams are created by signals – not from our own experiences or memories, but rather from our brains’ responses to the activation of parts of the limbic system.
When those areas activate in our sleep, the brain leaps into action and interprets the information in the form of dreams.
This theory posits that those interpretations of fresh information can lead to the formation of new ideas.The post Why Do We Dream? Here Are 7 Popular Theories. appeared first on FeedBox.