Thread: Why do we have dreams?

Dreeeaams

are day residue. Importantly, they're uninhibited day residue.

Dreams are when your thoughts go off in their own little spirals. Say for instance when you're awake you pass a bus, and you think about this bus, and how it looks like a yellow centipede. Then you start thinking about bug-riders in some sort of alternate world.
Within the state of being awake, something else will likely vie for your conscious attention, and the spiral will be broken. But when you're asleep, there is no more sensory input to break it up, and it'll continue endlessly until the train of thought comes to a stop.
The hallucinatory nature of it? An extension of the sensory deprivation. When I've been lying down for a while, eyes closed, thinking, my thoughts become more vivid in my head as the sensory output from outside is shifted away. I've lain for half an hour, and then I move and it's suddenly like I had earmuffs on all that time.

Their purpose? Mostly purposeless. But simply reflecting on something for an amount of time can lead to a greater truth. If you do a technique for a while on piano, say, there might come a point where you suddenly "get it". Thoughts are no different. But dreams provide an uninterrupted source of thought away from the stimulation of reality, hence their reputation as reservoirs of wisdom.

*Moved to General Dream Discussion*

I have to agree with Lseadragon on this one. Dreams seem like trains of thought, but it's sometimes difficult to believe that when your thoughts form into your surroundings.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

*Moved to General Dream Discussion*

sorry

Dreams are the voice of your subconscious. They usually help mesh out issues in real life and sometimes are just for fun and a way to escape. Dreams are reality without boundries. Most of them are pointless and aren't vivid enough to remember. We dream because our brains routine cycle of being active, while both awake and asleep.

Lseadragon, that happens to me too. I think it's pretty awesome.