How do dreams happen?

[Desertwolf181]

I have been trying to Google some results for this but have come up rather empty, my question is what processes in our brains create the dream in which we interact with each night. is there a scientific explanation of this yet and i am just missing it?

[parkmeats]

Science doesn't know for sure. They're a very enigmatic and surreal occurrence. It has to do with DMT.

[Laurelindo]

As far as I'm aware, dreams are the result of your brain trying to make sense of thoughts, memories, desires etc in a way that seems logical from its waking life experiences. If you often think about a certain person, then your brain will construct that person in your mind while you dream, and then it will proceed building the surroundings around that person based on what you expect; you are probably used to seeing that person in a certain setting (the person's house or the village he or she lives in) and therefore your brain will create those surroundings, which in turn trigger more associations, and so on and so forth. And since this type of construct is the exactly same construct that helps us experience waking life, it can sometimes feel very convincing and realistic, especially if you become lucid in that dream. One very controversial and quite fascinating idea regarding dreams is something called "dream sharing", where you visit another person in his or her dreams Inception-style, and while I am personally quite skeptical to this idea, I don't really have the right to completely rule it out since it is certainly a possibility that our brain activity can in some way interact with the minds of other people. Kind of like how you are able to feel empathy for other people and guess what they feel like at that moment.

[Desertwolf181]

As far as I'm aware, dreams are the result of your brain trying to make sense of thoughts, memories, desires etc in a way that seems logical from its waking life experiences. If you often think about a certain person, then your brain will construct that person in your mind while you dream, and then it will proceed building the surroundings around that person based on what you expect; you are probably used to seeing that person in a certain setting (the person's house or the village he or she lives in) and therefore your brain will create those surroundings, which in turn trigger more associations, and so on and so forth. And since this type of construct is the exactly same construct that helps us experience waking life, it can sometimes feel very convincing and realistic, especially if you become lucid in that dream. One very controversial and quite fascinating idea regarding dreams is something called "dream sharing", where you visit another person in his or her dreams Inception-style, and while I am personally quite skeptical to this idea, I don't really have the right to completely rule it out since it is certainly a possibility that our brain activity can in some way interact with the minds of other people. Kind of like how you are able to feel empathy for other people and guess what they feel like at that moment. thank you for your answer but i want to know more on the processes that occur in the brain like chemical reactions, and stuff of that nature that could lead to our brain forming these images in the first place.

[Darkmatters]

They're the same processes that happen while we're awake. Mostly anyway, though of course while sleeping some of the conscious apparatus is offline. The main difference is that at night there's no input coming in from the senses. The main job of the mind - one of the big ones anyway, is to assemble all the data coming in along the neural networks from the sensory organs and compile them into a sort of complex realtime 3D map of our immediate surroundings. Think about it - you don't directly 'see' anything, the images captured by the eyes are broken down into electrical impulses carried by the optic nerves to the brain, which then has to reassemble the images and interpret them before they make any sense. Same for all the other senses - nothing but electrical impulses carried by bundles of nerves. The brain is the command center that creates the realtime 3D map we 'see' and are otherwise aware of. But it all happens below the level of conscious awareness, so it seems like we're directly experiencing it all. When we're awake it's this constantly updated 3D map we're experiencing - at night, with the input from the sensory organs disconnected, the mind keeps on doing what it normally does - what it evolved to do - (at least during REM periods) but it's free to create imaginary scenarios based entirely on memory, fantasy, fears, anxieties, and random thoughts. And science now understands that a big part of dreaming involves reviewing recent experiences to make sense of them and consolidating memories - deciding which memories are worth processing into long-term memory and which can safely be discarded. Another function that occasionally happens during dreaming is a sort of test-firing of the adrenaline system to make sure it's working properly. The adrenaline system is what gives you a big burst of excitement and/or fear to inspire you to fight or flight, so it's a vitally important system that must be maintained and up kept for survival purposes. The brain runs a kind of diagnostic check on it sometimes in sleep, which is when we experience nightmares or shocking frightening dreams or dreams of fighting savagely. It's a sort of fire drill for the systems of the mind and body. If you want a much more detailed explanation of it read Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge. Also recommended and in the same vein are The 4 Agreements and The 5th Agreement by don Miguel Ruiz and don Jose Ruiz. I can also highly recommend a book called The Mind At Night by Andrea Rock. The Nova documentary What Are Dreams? is based on the same research covered in Rock's book:

[Sageous]

It's funny. I just said to myself, "My God, how could he have not found anything about dream physiology on the Web?" So, assuming to give you a couple of links to look at, I did the search myself... and found nothing! I guess there just isn't much out there on dream physiology. Or I'm really bad at doing searches. Here's my take: Your brain is always running. All its functions, its circuits, are active, 24/7. But when you are sleeping, the functions that handle things like sensory input and interpretation have nothing to do; yet they are still on. So, when your body is sleeping, your brain finds something for your sensory systems to do by producing dreams. So, physiologically speaking, dreams are produced by the same stuff as normal waking-life activity. This could be why there isn't much hard science defining the nature of dreams -- they're just another version of consciousness, so there really isn't anything new to describe. Now, they may be another version of consciousness, but because of their incompleteness (i.e., memory doesn't tend to be accessible, all sensory imagery is "made up," so there is no handy reality baseline to offer structure, overall brain function is slightly altered while it cyclically rests and restores during sleep), dreams can be an extremely different conscious experience -- even though they operate on the same neural machinery and patterns as waking life consciousness. So, even though, upon waking or during LD's, the dreaming experience is quite different than waking-life, the machinery driving them is pretty much exactly the same as the machinery driving consciousness. Note that I said "upon waking or during LD's" a second ago. This is because during NLD's, when the dream is perfectly real, your conscious experience is not different at all. It isn't until you wake up and remember what you were doing, or "wake up" lucidly during the dream and notice the oddity, that you question the "different" nature of your dreams. You might have noticed that I did not address dreams as being the vehicle of communication between the unconscious and conscious sections of your mind, and the actual importance of all the imagery. That's because, even if dreams' entire purpose is this communication, that doesn't matter here, because the physiology is the same regardless of information being transmitted. I'm not sure that helped much, especially if you're looking for something truly specific... plus I could have it all wrong! Hopefully someone like Zoth or Mzzkc will visit this thread, because they have a very good handle on dream physiology. P.S.: I wrote this in a hurry, so if something was unclear, let me know and I'll try again.

[dutchraptor]

Or how about this? Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions: Amazon.co.uk: J. Allan Hobson: Books Dreaming-a very short introduction by allan hobson. It's a brilliant book, quite compact but it describes the dreaming process (and the history behind dream research) quite excellently. The language is complex but understandable if you do some research. The book is definitely entry level, so it's word the read if you know nothing of dream science. Though this book focuses more on what causes dreams and sleep than the current theories on how dreams are formed. The largest current theory on the subject is that of memory consolidation, that is, that dreams occur to sort fasten memories. It comes in two strains, one which goes along the path that when we sleep important memories are fortified, the neurons are strengthened, unimportant memories just wither away. The other more controversial (but well supported) strain of this theory is that when we sleep unimportant neurons are weakened, so as to save energy. The beauty here is that, both strains account for neurons being strengthened and neurons being weakened, both serve a very similar purpose but have cause a different reason as to why we dream. By emphasizing on fortifying important neuron we are assuming that dreams occur to make fortify memories, while if we emphasize that non-important neurons are broken down we may assume that dreams occur to save energy. The picture likely isn't black and white though. Both strains have a wealth of evidence backing them up, so there is a large likelihood that the reality is a mix between the two (I.e we dream to make important memories more accessible and to remove unimportant memories, to save energy) There are of course other theories including that we dream to test out situations, or to improve out mood. It seems though that these are usually considered sideline to the memory consolidation theories.

[Darkmatters]

thank you for your answer but i want to know more on the processes that occur in the brain like chemical reactions, and stuff of that nature that could lead to our brain forming these images in the first place. In that case, there's no difference between waking thought and dreaming thought. The chemical processes would be the same - it's just the brain doing what the brain does. So what you're looking for then is just brain neurochemistry or physiology. Charlie Rose did an extremely interesting panel discussion lasting through several episodes where he talked with prominent brain scientists - I'll see if I can dig that up. Frustrating - the Charlie Rose website does have all the videos from the Brain Series, but there doesn't seem to be a good way to separate them from his other topics. If you're interested though, this is deeply fascinating stuff and worth sifting through the list of videos for and spending some time watching when you can. Here's the site: Charlie Rose - click on Search and then type or paste in Brain Series and click on the word Program in red at the top to sort the list. That way it's pretty easy to find the brain series videos. **EDIT** How could I had forgotten??!! If you're interested in brain chemistry associated with sleep and dreaming, you should read Thomas Yuschak's Advanced Lucid Dreaming, the Power of Supplements. It's technically about how to use supplements to enhance the lucid dreaming experience, but it goes into some detail about the chemistry going on in the brain - and contrary to what I said earlier (when I wasn't thinking about this) - it is different from when you're awake. There's acetelcholine and serotonin and lots of other chemicals.. I don't trust my memory at all on this though, so your best bet is to get the book.

[Darkmatters]

Another video (sorry!): Right at the beginning, maybe 30 seconds in, is a brief explanation of what happens when we enter REM sleep - the brainstem squirts the chemical acetalcholine into the bloodstream. This effectively immobilizes the dreamer so he can't physically act out his dreams. This phenomenon is known as REM Atonia, similar to sleep paralysis with the distinction that you're sleeping when it happens (you have to wake up while immobilized for it to be sleep paralysis).

[dutchraptor]

In that case, there's no difference between waking thought and dreaming thought. The chemical processes would be the same - it's just the brain doing what the brain does. So what you're looking for then is just brain neurochemistry or physiology. First part is largely right, dreaming and waking states are actually extraordinarily similar. However the chemical processes aren't the same. The activation-synthesis model says that dreams are a product of the spontaneous activation of the brain stem and limbic system with disabled motor system and external sensory input. A huge difference is that while awake the aminergic system is activated (Adrenaline and serotonin are prevalent) and that a number of cues over the day cause your body to shift over to the cholinergic system. For instance melatonin which is also known as the "Hormone of darkness" is synthesized from serotonin when it gets darker. The cholinergic system is that which allows the brain stem to activate. The increase in acetycholine is what gives dream their vividness, hence why many people take it as a supplement. The main distinction between dreaming thougth and waking thought is that waking thought accesses higher functions. It is believed that dreaming is actually required for higher functions to carried out. As such, it is more so that waking thought is like an upgraded version of dreaming, than that dreaming is an inhibited version of waking. You should have a look at the "activation-synthesis" model for dreams, it's very interesting and as far as I know is one of the only theories that currently describes dream onset. I would certainly say that lucid dreaming and waking thought are strikingly similar, at least more so than non-lucid dreaming. It's fascinating that lucid dreaming is even possible, it shows that a pathway does exist to activate more than the brain stem without the necessary neuro-modulators in place. It would be great if we had a comprehensive model in which all different states of mind could be accurately described and categorized.