Do dreams actually mean something?

So I'm a little weird when it comes to my dreams. I have very vivid dreams and can almost always remember them. I once had a dream 31 times is a period of 2 months. I actually saw a doctor for it because it was driving me nuts. Then it just stopped one day. I belive you'll dreams are very important. Not necessarily like predicting the future and shit. But it's your mind telling you what you really want. What you really desire in life. Or what you don't.

I'm just blabbering on. But I'd like to hear some other opinions on the subject?

 

Our minds are fascinating things. Perhaps the most intriguing, beautiful, tragic and utterly nonsensical thing about them is their ability to imagine.

Our dreams are more or less just a subconscious projection of our imagination. Often they're based on things that have had an impact on us, but also often they're complete nonsense. There have actually been hypotheses posed by neurologists to suggest that naturally produced drugs such as dimethyltryptamine may have a visual dream-inducing effect, however these are more or less conjecture as far as I know.

Regardless, as far as dreams are concerned, all roads point toward neurochemical phenomena. It may be possible as you say that dreams represent what is truly important to you, but I on the other hand have different experiences, so as far as that is concerned it is probably more of a psychological thing.

 

Not sure. It is this the clinical name for the drug DMT that's going around now? If so I've tried it because of its so called "dream high" and I can say I was disappointed. It could just be me. But I think when you try to make yourself in a daydream state (kinda like forced lucid dreams) it's not the same as of your brain were to do it on its own. But that's just my opinion on it.

 

Yes, DiMethylTryptamine is DMT. And you misinterpreted what I mean. DMT occurs naturally in many living creatures, and it has been speculated that it may be a source of dreams when you are asleep. I am not talking about actually taking the drug.

 

Ohh my bad. Just a little sleepy and didn't read very carefully. I'm just fascinated by the human brain. Someday I hope to peruse a career in psychology. It's crazy how every individuals brain works in a different way but also all in the same.

 

To some it might, to some it might not. It's like believing in God. Some believe and others don't.

 

Why would dreams matter to some people and not to others? If there really is anything realized in our subconcious, wouldn't it apply mostly evenly to everyone?

 

I learned about dreams in psychology, and there are a ton of different theories.
The two main theories that I believe in is that your brain goes crazy and makes a TON of connections from your day and creates the vivid images, or the freudian theory, which is that you dream about things that you desire in some way, but can never feel or do in real life because it is unacceptable in society.

But the one that makes the most sense in my opinion is that your brain just makes connections from your day. No meaning really in dreams.

 

This is a valid point. But he is also right. It is comparable to religion. It's all based on opinions and what you want to be live. With religion the brain just wants something to explain everything. How we were made and so forth. With dreams it's all based on what we were taught to believe and how our brains work differently than other individuals.


I'm glad to hear your guys opinions. That is why I made this thread. I didn't want everyone to agree with me. I just wanted to see some different outlooks on the topic.

 

If you were to assume that everyone were psychologically identical, yes.

Not everyone is psychologically identical though.

 

People are psychologically similar in general, and most people have dreams. I would assume dreams have some sort of evolutionary purpose if basically everyone has them, otherwise, why do we have them at all?

 

On what authority can you say that?

You also misunderstand evolution. It is a process of survival of the fittest by which those who mutate to become superior in some way outlive those who do not (to put it incredibly simply. I'm aware it's not exactly the case). Dreaming is something that occurs in our down time - in deep sleep, when we are most vulnerable and inactive - and therefore cannot particularly be attributed to the process of evolution without some sort of evidence to show that it has helped us outlive our ancestors.

You're also missing the point that just about every animal dreams in some way or another; I often get woken up by my dog who sometimes sleeps on my bed when he starts dreaming and kicking around and murmuring etc. so it's not just attributable to the human race, but also to races that are not sentient / self aware.

Lastly, you're assuming your premise is the only possible answer given the null hypothesis of "dreams have no purpose" to be false. I don't know if you realise this or not, but the way you word your post certainly gives off this vibe. Perhaps dreams do have a purpose, but without somuch as an anecdote to suggest so, you can't just go assuming speculation to be true.

 

I'm not assuming it's true, I don't have any expertise with dreams at all, I'm just trying to open it up for discussion. Most bodily functions have a "design" of sorts - eyes work a certain way because of evolutionary efficiency, your ears are shaped a certain way because of evolutionary efficiency. If people/animals dream, it is reasonable to entertain the thought that dreams have some sort of value to that person or animal.

 

Meaning understood, thanks for clarifying.

While that may be true to an extent, we also have bodily parts such as the appendix that serve absolutely no function whatsoever. As they are a function of the mind, I'm a bit hesitant to start comparing dreams to other bodily functions though. I'd pose the conjecture that they're more closely linked to the brain resting, as, from memory, they only occur during REM sleep towards the end of sleeping / before waking up. I could be wrong, I am by no means a neurologist or psychologist.

 

More than often dreams are forgotten and hold no relevance in your life. We can't utilize them in a productive way, so I'm going to say no.

 

Why is it that some things that happen in dreams seem to happen in real life at some point (deja vu), considering the small amount of dreams that people actually remember?

 

I share this feeling. I kinda think that there might be some dreams that can be true. Nevertheless I believe in some of them.

 

How do we utilize something we don't realize until the event happens?

 

I don't know, I'm not a scientist. However, this makes it seem like dreams are able to do something our brain can't do while we are awake, learning how to benefit from dreams may be like learning how to swim.

 

Our brains are incredible at counting patterns in things, such as real life events that tie in with dreams. However, they only ever count the "hits" and ignore the "misses" - and this is a lot of the time how confirmation bias becomes part of the equation.

For every dream that has "come true", the vast majority of them won't have. The vast majority of them aren't even remembered. Deja Vu is just coincidence linked to our subconscious imagination.