why we dream? -answered

[Vivisection]

(the infomation i share here is still part theory and part of my opinion too. if you dont agree, you can dig a hole and die ) Simple answer: DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) dmt is a psychedelic drug which causes extreme hallucinations in humans. the pineal gland supposedly has the ability to produce such a substance. in your dreams you experience 'out of this world' hallucinations. go figure. (another interesting fact is that a lot of DMT users claim to have "out of body experiences" whilst using the drug. (do a bit of research on "fractal machine elves"! its very interesting!) which makes OBEs / astral travelling a bit more understandable. (it doesnt 'disprove' the idea, (though personally i dont believe in astral travelling) but it makes a lot more sense.)

[Bonsay]

That's not really an aswer. The answer to Why would be more like "Because your brain needs to occupy you while it does this and that.". Your answer is more of an answer to How do dreams happen. DMT is also released when you are under a lot of stress, like when you're about to die. That's one theory explaining NDEs and OOBEs.

[Adrenaline Junkie]

Yeah, this only really explains the hallucinations we may experience, i may be right in thinking this but i may not be so please correct me if i am wrong. We dream because our subconscious mind doesn't have time to process the information stored within throughout the day and when we sleep it has the perfect opportunity to release these thoughts and emotions, i could be wrong though.

[Oneironaught]

This only tries to answer what causes us to dream. But the question you claimed to answer is why we dream. Sooooooo, why do we dream? What is its true purpose?

[Vivisection]

Hmm, i knew a guy who had a sleeping disorder. he used to sleepwalk/talk in his sleep/etc a LOT. He explained that his brain is too active during the day, and it doesnt shut down properly at night (hence he does weird things like walks around in his sleep) -- sorry bout the original answer given, i see what you mean. another question is: why do we produce DMT to dream. I'd assume to relieve ourselves stress (as mentioned before, DMT is produced at stressful moments such as death or near-death experiences) The body sleeps to rejuvinate, maybe tis the same reason for the mind. DMT helps us relax???

[SKA]

Well all claims for the Reason of Dreaming can only be made in complete or at least partial ignorance, because no scientist, psychologist or biologist has ever been really able to determine the function of dreaming. However there has often been theorised about it and I must say that I also find the DMT-explanation the most plausable of all. Think of it: You close your eyes, stop feeling your physical senses, recieve visions of surreal spirit/DC-inhabited worlds. And before you enter all of that you hear strange noise and see a bright white light: That IS a friggin' DMT trip. Why don't you go to www.erowid.org and read up on some smoked DMT-trip reports and you'll be shocked how significantly identical dreaming and DMT-trips are. It is not that hard to imagine that naturally, endogenously generated DMT trips are exactly what dreams are. It is known fact that the human body, as do most mammal's bodies, produce small amounts of DMT during normal metabolism. The pineal gland produces it, but recently I've read it can also be found in muscles, lungs and other tissues. Schizophreniacs have a significantly higher level of DMT in their blood than non-schizophreniacs, which makes them appear as People that dream while awake. And even IF it is ever unarguably proven that DMT is responsible for the visionairy state called dreaming; It still doesn't say anything about the Meaning or Function of Dreaming. It just would describe the mechanism used to create the experience, the meaning of it all being something different completely. I find the DMT-theory about dreaming most sensible so I agree with you Vivisection, allthough it is only theory and has yet to be proven. Shame that this subject isn't the primairy interrest of most Scientists around the world since they think that dreaming is just a pointless, hallucinatory delusion.

[Oneironaught]

Schizophreniacs have a significantly higher level of DMT in their blood than non-schizophreniacs, which makes them appear as People that dream while awake. That's interesting indeed and makes logical sense. For an interesting view of schizophrenia, read the book "The Origin of Consciousness in the Bicameral Mind" by Julian Jaynes. I'm not sure I agree with all of Jaynes' theories but that is a very eye-opening book concerning the subject of the evolution and meaning of consciousness, gods, and related topics. I don't recall if Jaynes mentioned anything about DMT or not (it's been a few years since I've read the book) but I suspect he may have.

[Adrenaline Junkie]

Sorry, i answered the question wrongly, i misinterpreted it. Sorry once again.

[sourcejedi]

I'm not convinced, so I guess I better start digging my hole :-). the human body, as do most mammal's bodies, produce small amounts of DMT during normal metabolism. The pineal gland produces it, but recently I've read it can also be found in muscles, lungs and other tissues. Schizophreniacs have a significantly higher level of DMT in their blood than non-schizophreniacs If DMT has been studied that much, it would be odd if someone hadn't noticed it being produced in effective quantities several times every night. which makes them appear as People that dream while awake. tho I'd agree here. I know nothing, but I did read one account of paranoid schizophrenia, and it sounded very dream-like. And even IF it is ever unarguably proven that DMT is responsible for the visionairy state called dreaming; It still doesn't say anything about the Meaning or Function of Dreaming. It just would describe the mechanism used Yah, but more so. That would just make it a trigger. Tracing what the trigger affects would give you a second step in the mechanism, but the interesting mechanism would be the electrical activity, surely. I'd find it more likely that DMT is "just" a trigger that starts the dreaming mechanism, and that dreams in sleep trigger off something else. I wouldn't say scientists are completely dis-interested in dreams. LaBerge counts as a scientist. Feynman's written about dreams. The fathers of psychology thought they meant something. Even Hobson's reductionist theory really isn't as simplistic as "dreams are random nerves firing". They just have a long way to go before they can honestly say they know why dreams happen and what they're for.

[dodobird]

(the infomation i share here is still part theory and part of my opinion too. if you dont agree, you can dig a hole and die ) Simple answer: DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) dmt is a psychedelic drug which causes extreme hallucinations in humans. the pineal gland supposedly has the ability to produce such a substance. in your dreams you experience 'out of this world' hallucinations. go figure. (another interesting fact is that a lot of DMT users claim to have "out of body experiences" whilst using the drug. (do a bit of research on "fractal machine elves"! its very interesting!) which makes OBEs / astral travelling a bit more understandable. (it doesnt 'disprove' the idea, (though personally i dont believe in astral travelling) but it makes a lot more sense.) If we experience a DMT trip every time we dream, then why should we bother to ingest it as a drug, when we dream every night anyway? I'm not against taking DMT, but I think that an interesting question.

[KxWaal]

quote (posted by sourcejedi): "If DMT has been studied that much, it would be odd if someone hadn't noticed it being produced in effective quantities several times every night." DMT really hasn't been studied that much. Unfortunately, with the start of the great "war on drugs" scam, most if not all studies into psychedelic drugs have been repressed and disallowed. This being said, they have found it is produced in higher amounts during sleep, as well as at the point of death.