The Strange Science of Why We Dream

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It would be a lot easier to study the science of dreaming if we weren’t asleep every time we did it. Why do we dream? What does dreaming do for our brains? How did dreaming evolve? Here’s a look at the current theories from psychology and neuroscience.
References:
Barrett, D. (2017), Dreams and creative problem-solving. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1406: 64-67. doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13412
Carlo Cipolli, Roberto Bolzani, Cesare Comoldi, Rossana De Beni, Iino Fagioli, Bizarreness Effect in Dream Recall, Sleep, Volume 16, Issue 2, March 1993, Pages 163-170, doi.org/10.1093/sleep/16.2.163
Eagleman DM, Vaughn DA (2021). The Defensive Activation Theory: REM Sleep as a Mechanism to Prevent Takeover of the Visual Cortex. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 15:632853. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.632853
El-Solh, A. A. (2018). Management of nightmares in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder: Current perspectives. Nature and Science of Sleep, 10, 409-420.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30538...
Hughes, J. Donald. (2000). Dream Interpretation in Ancient Civilizations. Dreaming. 10. 7-18. 10.1023/A:1009447606158.
Káli, S., Dayan, P. Off-line replay maintains declarative memories in a model of hippocampal-neocortical interactions. Nature Neuroscience 7, 286-294 (2004). doi.org/10.1038/nn1202
Montangero, Jacques & Ivanyi, Corinne & Saint-Hilaire, Zara. (2003). Completeness and accuracy of morning reports after a recall cue: Comparison of dream and film reports. Consciousness and cognition. 12. 49-62. 10.1016/S1053-8100(02)00029-6.
Stickgold, R., Malia, A.; Maguire, D., Roddenberry, D., O'Connor, M. (2000). Replaying the Game: Hypnagogic Images in Normals and Amnesics. Science. 290 (5490): 350-353. doi:10.1126/science.290.5490.350.
Valli, K., Revonsuo, A., Pälkäs, O., Ismail, K. H., Ali, K. J., & Punamäki, R.-L. (2005). The threat simulation theory of the evolutionary function of dreaming: Evidence from dreams of traumatized children. Consciousness and Cognition, 14(1), 188-218. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15766...
van der Linden, S. The Science Behind Dreaming. Scientific American. July 26, 2011
Erin J. Wamsley, PhD, Karen Perry, MD, Ina Djonlagic, MD, Laura Babkes Reaven, MD, Robert Stickgold, PhD, Cognitive Replay of Visuomotor Learning at Sleep Onset: Temporal Dynamics and Relationship to Task Performance, Sleep, Volume 33, Issue 1, January 2010, Pages 59-68, doi.org/10.1093/sleep/33.1.59
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[@richardbidinger2577]

One of the things I've noticed about dreaming, when you're in a dream, no matter how bizarre it is, it seems perfectly rational, but if you wake up and remember that dream, you're more likely to go WTF?.

[@shadw4701]

When you practice using reality checks you can use these moments to have a lucid dream

[@tacobellcall911]

@@shadw4701 I'm gonna try that

[@DiggyPT]

@@shadw4701 nah, going "lmfao this is normal" over a martian riding a dinosaur while driving a motorbike in brazil just adds so much more

[@UwU-ok2jr]

@@shadw4701 I lucid dream sometimes but it's rare I mostly have normal dreams but it's still cool that I can lucid dream and I kinda wanna do it at will

[@Failed_Abortion]

@@shadw4701 it's said that before lucid dreaming tell yourself you're going to lucid dream. And when I kept doing it while sleeping I was in blank space where I didn't know if I was asleep or I was awake but i couldn't control it what does it mean 🤔

[@mysticaldude1533]

My brain after good dream:forgets My brain after bad dream: a core memory

[@ant9347]

That's so true I still remember getting murdered in my dream ;-;

[@dafunnygamer1045]

yes so true

[@Htiy]

@@ant9347 what happened after

[@saal0]

@@Htiy they died irl

[@ant9347]

@@Htiy I saw my guts spilling out and woke up all sweaty It was 4 at night from what I remembered and my heart was beating so fast I couldn't fall asleep again My friend said that it might have been a night terror (like sleep paralysis) It made me paranoid for a week because the dream happened in front of my house That's all I remember, as for the attacker I can't remember him/her

[@got7trash287]

As someone who’s very in touch with their dreams, lucid dreaming, remembering them etc, I think at least for myself that dreams allow your brain to practice learned things (foreign languages, driving, a task at work for example) and also sometimes it can have an inherit meaning that only you can understand, maybe it resurfaces feelings you’ve pushed down, and I think it’s a healthy and important practice, a window to your mind and soul.

[@ingridfong-daley5899]

Absolutely! It's like playing 'dream legos' with our daily thoughts and experiences, mixed in the same tub with long-term-memory blocks, but instead of building houses, we're trying permutations of problems and solutions. When I took Mandarin in college, i already had small kids and very little (no) time to study at home, but i found that writing the characters on index cards and reviewing them 5 mins before bedtime, they would settle in my head and then i would automatically end up 'practice' writing them in my sleep, over and over (i remember watching my outstretched hand in my dream, drawing them). If I picked up those cards and spent 2 mins reviewing them while i peed/woke up, i knew them for the test every single time. And if i did that every night for a week or so, they stayed permanently.

[@bmnthat]

It's bad for your soul and not right. I used to do it... I think it's wrong. I got stuck in a dream once. A nightmare actually... and I knew I was dreaming but couldn't get out. Have you ever looked at yourself in a mirror before while lucid dreaming? It's not right. Trust me, get out of the habit.

[@got7trash287]

@@bmnthat why do you think so? I’m curious. I also experienced getting stuck in my dreams, and I often feel like I just lived a whole different life and I wake up exhausted… so I get what you mean, but any basis? Religious/spiritual?

[@bmnthat]

@@got7trash287 I believe it is demonic. It is definitely a spiritual event. I used to have terrible nightmares all the time, and then 1 really traumatic experience being stuck and looking at a horrific version of myself in the mirror which I've never seen before in any dream EVER. Then after I was done being stuck in that dream, I was in a paralysis type state where I felt like something in my head kept telling me to hurt myself while I was half awake / half asleep, but couldnt move or wake up fully. I'm telling you I've never experienced this EVER in my life except that once. I have had multiple dreams every night since I was a child. And I used to be able to remember atleast 4-5 a night. Then I was so used to dreaming. That I could realize when I was in a dream and started controlling them. This was fun sometimes, but I know something isn't right about it.

[@bmnthat]

@@got7trash287 Anyway, I know this may sound crazy. But I became fed up with dreaming because enduring the nightmares wasn't worth the fun dreams. So I prayed to God every night and started sleeping with my Bible app playing audio the whole night. And now I almost never dream... and I can't remember the last time I've had a nightmare. I know he delivered me. There is no other explanation. You could call it a wild coincidence, but I have heard so many stories of this exact type of thing happening to other people as well, and God delivered them the same way. I believe with all my heart that it was him.

[@rj6929]

When my great grandmother passed, I had a dream about her and I literally woke up with tears in my eyes. That kind of freaked me out but it felt so real and just hearing her voice felt so real. I’ve never experienced something like that before. I’ve had plenty of dreams but nothing like that. Great video btw EDIT: Thank for all the comments. I really wasn't expecting much attention from it, but it feels really reassuring knowing I'm not alone in this experience. Also, to anyone who has lost someone or even a pet, I sincerely hope you are feeling better.

[@hmmm8648]

After my dog passed I had a dream cuddling with him and feeling him against me felt so real. It’s magical

[@kalpanaruhela]

​@@hmmm8648 exactly same, happened two three times after every 4-5 years of my dog's death

[@moralfortitude...2217]

My Condolences 🙏

[@TinyTorpeedoTitz]

I got the numbers messed up. I was 21-22***** when she passed

[@michiganabigail]

What a wonderful experience! I hope you never forget that. I remember once after struggling with depression and injuries related to being hit by a drunk driver that I woke up laughing. That’s never happened before or since, but I learned then that dreams are powerful!

[@VerSaati]

Much respect to the cameraman for entering your dream to record this video, truly a dedicated member of the team.

[@nicholaskokolis8465]

LMAO

[@TheRealTobias]

The inception equipment was probably also pretty expensive!

[@keatomic]

The camera man's name is Chad Kruger. Fredrick's lesser known younger brother.

[@AquilaLupus9]

Plot twist: It is actually Joe behind the banana head mask.

[@seanrahaman4923]

Why am I dreaming Joe now 😒

[@approximatelybalut3653]

When I was in high school there was this geometry problem that I couldn't solve. I dreamed about the solution and answer and after waking up, I did it exactly as I saw it and got it correct!

[@letsgoBrandon204]

Ha. I read that as "When I was high in school..." 😵

[@worldsboss]

Your subconscious brain figured it out, but couldn’t tell the conscious brain so gave it to you as a dream instead. It had your back all along 😆

[@sanchitpillai6157]

Exactly! Same thing happened to me in high school with a geometry problem.

[@rengoku47]

Same thing happened trying to solve a puzzle..

[@nicolleduvall5937]

Nice. I just have math nightmares only it's not actually math. It's gibberish that I think is math :)

[@stellarwind1946]

In lucid dreams you become aware of time. In normal dreams, you have no awareness of time. Whenever I experience a lucid dream, I become aware that I’m about to wake up and have a limited amount of time left in the dream state.

[@solarpunkist3720]

Often though it seems that the more aware I am of the limited time I have the more likely I am to wake up, If that makes sense

[@StephenJohnson-jb7xe]

I often dream of people that I don't recognise, and wonder if my brain is really good at creating very realistic people or if they are someone I saw somewhere but didn't consciously register. I also dream of amazing architecture that also doesn't exist anywhere, these dreams leave me wishing that I was able to capture a detailed "screen shot" as after I wake up the details slowly fade and I can't draw well enough to do them justice.

[@edithbannerman4]

@Hello there, how are you doing this blessed day?

[@knzdkss5020]

i think it’s a combination of the faces you’ve come across?

[@koi1762]

Dudeeee that's a really good motivation to learn how to draw!

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

I *always* ♾ find dreams have *inferable, hidden information* 🕵🕵🕵 that is *not directly perceived* 🤐🤐🤐 about *the dream world* 🌍🌍🌍. E.g. Character 👤🪞 motivations ❓, modus/modi operandi 🛣🛣🛣, the validity ✅❌ of a statement 📑 within the dream, etc. Dreams 💤 are primarily logic 🤔 puzzles 🧩🧩🧩. By nature of a dream being a logic 🤔 puzzle 🧩, the characters are *always* very realistic, especially in terms of behaviour and motivations, as you need to be able to infer the hidden information from what you know. Nonsense characters would prevent that from being true.

[@iluvpandas2755]

I occasionally see random people from public transport in my dreams. They most likely were somebody you saw briefly in the day before you fell asleep.

[@dracula400]

If I could record my dreams, I'd have countless movies and TV shows.

[@Htiy]

If my dreams were real I’d be in jail lol

[@MsGrumpyKat]

Same!! I’ve said for years that my dreams could make amazing sci-fi movies

[@shadw4701]

You technically can by drawing and writing them down but sadly we don't have the technology to record them in video form yet. I hope to see that technology become a reality one day

[@shadw4701]

@@MsGrumpyKat I'd write those ideas down. You could possibly make a great story and sell it

[@peanutbutter369]

A key quality of dreams are that they are illogical. So you would have a lot of work to do to turn them into any sort of coherent story.

[@dentoncrimescene]

I once dreamt I had a group of friends that I hung out with over several nights. Once I stopped the dreams, I missed them like crazy for a few weeks and still do a little bit 20 years later. Crazy.

[@syairazihaziq9642]

Same herrrreee. I miss my school times with friends.

[@milosstojanovic4623]

Same, sometimes i dream about person which I'm sure i know, and when i wake up I'm starting to question myself did i knew that person at some point of time or if it was just a dream person. Really confusing. :)

[@David.C.Velasquez]

@@milosstojanovic4623 I know of what you speak my friend. To awake from a dream, trying to hold onto the fleeting memories of a life, and a wife, different from this world to varying degrees. Then, as this reality asserts itself onto your consciousness, you could almost weep from the grief of the loss... Someday, we will wake to find that this life will have been that fading dream.

[@crazybunny1134]

Me too, i used to have a dream about a group of people that i really liked to be with them Some years later i dreamed that they went on cuz i never returned, when i woke up i felt so sad and melancholy

[@David.C.Velasquez]

@@crazybunny1134 That's a familiar feeling, that leaves you hollow... as a room, in a house, in a dream I once had.

[@simulacrum2731]

I never realized that so many people experience sleep paralysis - it's crazy how vivid and frightening those experiences can be. It's comforting to know I'm not alone, though, and this video gave me some helpful tips for dealing with it

[@spirituallysafe]

Have you ever gotten involved with the occult in any way, even minor?

[@yashdahima1254]

@simulacrum2731, can you please give some ideas on how to avoid sleep paralysis? Thanks :)

[@MichellePoirier12]

Mind understanding is that sleep paralysis is there to help protect us from hurting ourselves in our sleep, but sometimes the amount of that is off so we can "stuck" like that after we awake

[@spirituallysafe]

This makes no sense whatsoever. Why would you try to hurt yourself in the night, whilst you are asleep?@@MichellePoirier12

[@4pmpm114]

@@yashdahima1254 i experienced SP regulary UNTILL.....1 Night i went with it...i didnt fight or struggle as we do (in our mind), i relaxed and just went with the flow... I felt pressure under my armpits then was flying around the room, trying to get to my sisters room to go "hey, look at me".... It then ended and i awoke in this bizzarre position, as if id been dragged up by the underarms.. Never had it since......all true..

[@mossyfriends1911]

I can vouch for the Tetris thing. There was a point where I was hella addicted to Tetris 99, and for a while whenever I was in that in-between state where I was just about to fall asleep, I’d be seeing those blocks falling.

[@IATap-bk8ko]

Same bro!!!!

[@alvinrasmus6674]

Im not addicted to Tetris, but yeah I have that with other games. Except there's always something annoying like super Mario that cant land on a block he just kept falling in my head

[@bird4347]

when i was obsessed with minesweeper i always had dreams of clicking tiles… it was almost exactly like i was playing the real game

[@kazzy44]

this is too real lmfao, i was seeing possible moves on how to do a t spin

[@Kaldrin]

ME TOO

[@cIaimthestars]

When I was taking antidepressants, I would have really interesting dreams. Every night after falling asleep, it was like entering a parallel life, a life that was as chronological and continuous as my real life, only it happened in my dreams. I was a student, I had family, I knew where my dorm room was and the way to the shopping centre, I knew which place had the best pizza and when to catch public transport. But none of it was real. It was all just a massive, immersive, continuous dream, and I lost that world - and that life - once I came off the antidepressants.

[@childofgod5153]

You know, through the power of lucid dreaming, you can get that world back. If you don't know, lucid dreaming is when you're aware that you're in a dream. And once you become aware, you can potentially control that dream, you can do whatever you want. The only limit is your own imagination. So then, you can go back to that "parallel life" you had way back when, if you dedicate yourself to lucid dreaming that is.

[@UwU-ok2jr]

@@childofgod5153 i had a lucid dream but i could only consciously control myself and i had a sense of logic and reality unlike most of my dreams but i couldnt control what happened in that dream only my own actions

[@ThisIsNotAhnJieRen]

@@childofgod5153 i had a nightmare once, that out street got attacked by armed men, forcefully went inside our houses and started randomly shooting people. It felt so real. But when I realized I was dreaming, as I was about to get shot in the dream, I sorta "controlled" the dream and I froze time in the dream. Everyone and everything was still until I conjured up a vehicle in my dream (which is also self driving because I can't drive well) and I got out of our street, and that's when I woke up.

[@bopperette7260]

@Mia I have the same thing except it isn't due to antidepressants. It's just my brain I guess & mine isn't a nice place it sucks and it's been going on for years now. The good thing is I've been going there so long that I know routes and shortcuts to take when danger is imminent. The thing is I've grown to kind of love it too. Not the bad parts obviously but more the familiarity. I know sh*t's gonna go down. I know the likely scenarios that could play out and as I say there is an element of safety in knowing that you know the playing field. It's good to see somebody else who also has experienced these long-term dreams. It really is a parallel life 🤷‍♀️😊

[@N.Valentine]

our souul travel during dreams - so u might actually been there or will be - the antidepressant cause the body to relax even more - so the soul don't need to worry to "operate"it

[@yeejiahong7307]

I had a really similar experience to the tetris experiment. I played some games of tetris with my friends and when I was a sleep I was constantly picturing playing a game of tetris, I swear I could even picture the exact pieces fitting together and the lines clearing.

[@wellingtonplace]

There was a time when I would sit on the bus and start playing Tetris with the shapes that people made in front of me.

[@simonczech1732]

I used to have that a lot when I used to play chess.

[@ontbijtkoek5331]

Trough lockdown I sometimes dreamt I was an actual soldier in Warzone but it’d feel so realistic as well

[@nathangarland9453]

Mate I was so into Skyrim and obvilion that I would be playing in my dreams and it was so so real.thing is I don't dream normally but my wife said I would be moving like I'm trying to use a bow and arrows.like trying to hide behind trees.i had the same with gta 5.i still don't really dream but if I do it's real as real can be.

[@marioklos]

Wow, I thought the weirdest thing that happens to people (at least everyone I ever knew and talked about it) is that we don't dream about technology. No TV's, no phones, computers etc. My whole life, my passion is built on technology. I'm a digital artist, I'm a gamer but I never dreamt about it, there was never any kind of electronic device present in my dreams.

[@angii_psycho4196]

I write my dreams down since a few years, and I also write some interpretations. I'm often able to remember very much. Details, story, emotions, even thoughts. I remember my dreams often every day. I collected great stories, and I think I could compensate my very large lack of creativity and imagination with that ability and hobby. Dreams are very important and interesting for me. It's almost like I live two lives: One in our reality and one in the dream world. I feel a bit like Alice in Wunderland, which is also my favorite movie/fairytale of my childhood. I was so obsessed with this movie since I'm able to remember and my mother was so annoyed by that haha

[@teaganmonroe29]

One theory I've had about dreaming is that it's something like a diagnostic run through the brain's functions to gauge overall health, reinforce connectivity, and so on. It probably has a significant impact on our overall plasticity. I've always wondered what we'd find in experiments if we could disable REM and measure things like neural connectivity and activation, regeneration, and so on.

[@alanmacdonald3763]

Dreams : Consciousness is the prime state. Vedas > three in on nature of Consciousness. Rishi, Devata, Chhandas. Mind, Matter, Information. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Dreams are non local consciousness telling you how to come into alignment with it.

[@IncandescentThe3rd]

@@alanmacdonald3763No one cares

[@IncandescentThe3rd]

Dreams just reinforce neural connections, thats not the only reason but its the most obvious one, when you dream you repeatedly activate sets of neurons, so its basically like practicing doing stuff in life but you dont actually have to do it and waste energy

[@MDVaashir]

Our beloved Prophet Mohammed PBUH gave a completely different logic on Dreams "If you sees a dream that he likes, then it is from Allah, and he should thank Allah for it and narrate it to others; but if he sees a dream that he dislikes, then it is from Satan, and he should seek refuge with Allah from its evil, and he should not mention it to anybody, for it will not harm him". Sahih Al Bukhari Volume 9, Book 87, Number 114 An interesting dream of Prophet Mohammed PBUH, has been narated in Sahih Bukhari, volume 9, Book 87, Number 139 Narrated 'Aisha: Allah's Apostle said (to me), "You were shown to me twice in (my) dream. Behold, a man was carrying you in a silken piece of cloth and said to me, "She is your wife, so uncover her,' and behold, it was you. I would then say (to myself), 'If this is from Allah, then it must happen.

[@tommac21]

And that's all anyone will come up with a theory. And we all have them. Until someone truly knows. We just keep dreaming

[@IrocZIV]

Once, our VCR was having tracking issues, but it had no manual controls listed on the device or remote. That night i dreamt of fixing it using the channel up and down buttons, and sure enough, when I woke up and tried them they worked. While playing a tape the channel buttons doubled as tracking control. Not solving a world mystery, but still gave me some interesting insight into how my brain works.

[@maillardsbearcat]

What is a VCR?

[@norma8686]

@@maillardsbearcat A video cassette player, it was like a DVD player in the 80s and 90s.

[@maillardsbearcat]

@@norma8686 Lol I'm just trolling, I was born in 89.

[@SH7SH7SH7]

@@maillardsbearcat I like you 😂

[@norma8686]

@@maillardsbearcat I was born in 85

[@stumpedtroper]

Among other things, I'm amazed at how complex dreams can be. Sometimes the storytelling in my dreams are especially convincing, lifelike and coherent, when I can't even write a simple story sober.

[@kosi7521]

It's because nothing is 'real', dreaming or not dreaming. 'Dreams' are just our brains continuing its normal operation. Our brains do not feel conscious, we do. Hence dreams are not different from reality. The difference is that our sense organs are less sensitive when we sleep. Why do we sleep? To maintain our cells. Why do we need our cells maintained? To stay alive. Why do we need to stay alive? It has never been and will never be our decision. Its all about our genetic encoding. What are we then? POV: If we were created, it might be possible that our creators do not know that we feel conscious.

[@tedhuntington7692]

that is, i think, because there are supercomputers rendering a lot of these more complicated dream movies and sending them using rnraw remote neuron writing- seems crazy but anytime your finger m,uscle for exmaple moves you get a sense of how widespread although secretly this nano remote neuron reading and writing tech must be - gday Blitzy

[@gwho]

did you write twilight?

[@ozymandiasultor9480]

@@kosi7521 That is some weird and very wrong simplification... "Why do we sleep? to maintain our cells.." yeah sure... All of that is your idea, or something from one book, or maybe a few books? No one really knows what consciousness is, and no one really knows the true relation between consciousness and the brain, but almost all agree that there is a strong connection, almost all agree that if we can say for some part of the body that represents us, that is the brain... You can change a hip, a leg, an arm, you can change almost everything on your body, but you will still be you because you are your brain. And, according to your logic dreams are different than what we experience while awake just because sensory data is out, so you are saying that dreams are hallucinations? Because that is the definition of hallucination, perception without sensory data present... No, things are way more complicated...

[@ozymandiasultor9480]

@jean8226 That is total nonsense. Try learning biology, neurology, and psychology and maybe you will not be so confused. We have a psyche, that is a product of our brain, there is no soul, souls do not exist.

[@klausjackklaus]

I've been told I don't get enough oxygen when I sleep due to my irregular upper respiratory structure, which is why I black out when I close my eyes and make it very hard to wake up (I go through 5 alarms); I feel most rested with 12-14 hrs of sleep, has been that way all my life. But on the rare occasion I do dream, and usually an elaborate "movie". A week ago I was driving from the UK to Mauritania and got held up by rebels in Western Sahara. Another time I was Mario and saved Princess Peach before flying away on a crocodile. My dreams usually feel about 3 to 4 hours, and I've confirmed with one that was 4.5hrs

[@GameHub1-]

yeah dude you might have sleep apnea... get that checked out man

[@SunDogGod]

I have sleep apnea and I agree with you I go through these very long continuous dreams that last the entire night and it’s hard to wake up. I have to lose weight and lay off the cigarettes…

[@aishashaikh8288]

Same and I majorly remember almost all of my dreams

[@briannknight1915]

Thank you so much for putting so many skits of what you’re talking about! Sometimes it’s hard for me to just listen to someone talk and the skits help me to understand it better! Thanks for all the knowledge 💯

[@justinking5964]

Non-native spearker you are, I think.

[@Nolongerdrafts]

5:04 9:31 12:46 14:01 14:04

[@saturn724]

I once had a dream where I said to my dad "Time is 1 dimensional, you can control your future by being ready for tomorrow". It's a bit weird, but I can kinda see what that means.

[@ozymandiasultor9480]

You said such a basic truism to your said in a dream? And his answer was laughing and sarcastically answering something like, "bravo, you discovered a hot water..."?

[@kevinkarthik3329]

ngl this was so big brain !

[@kevinkarthik3329]

dreams are so mysterious

[@Vividlyforgotten]

Nice advice ur brain made bro

[@riley9895]

isn’t time the fourth dimension

[@xxx...pyxidis]

I'm an avid dreamer and can still remember dreams from long ago - it's an amazing state to go into

[@jonalberts980]

My grandpa said he had a dream about a collision the night the Titanic sank. So we were having a conversation about a dream from 1912. That blows my mind sometimes when I think about it.

[@tether6052]

Same here.

[@emrilbennett8704]

Woe! Amazing! Dreams are so fascinating. So I go to school with other visually impaired kids and my mom conducted a survey on some of them. What I find interesting is that all of the kids who reported being almost completely or completely blind from birth experienced visual experiences in their dreams. One friend later told me that she can see silhouettes of people, or other images, while dreaming or imagining a scenario. I hope we learn more about this fascinating state

[@matthewpflugh1810]

I dream every night and can remember dreams from years ago and can feel the feelings I had in those dreams

[@unimpressed..]

I remember them from childhood still and Im giving 50yrs old a hell of a go but I could give them up without a whimper. So it's a state I can do without

[@annasalvadori4795]

I have a couple of places that I sometimes happen to visit from time to time in my dreams. They're completely made up yet the feel so real and I know them so well I could draw a detailed map. They are kind of a mix of many places of my childhood and some fantasy landscapes. Sometimes years pass between each time I visit them in my dreams and I get so emotional, it's like finding a long lost familiar place.

[@amazingsupergirl7125]

I see places in different dreams too. Also, people. Sometimes I make recurring friends. And, about once a year i dream I’m with my best friend and favorite actor….Nicole Kidman. Those are my favorite. ❤️🤟🏻

[@Gearz-365]

I've always seen dreams as the subconscious' way of keeping us entertained while we sleep, since we'd have dreams that could be sad, scary, funny, etc. It's like watching a movie without being awake, and you being the main character

[@connynielson8686]

Good theory..maybe natures way to ensure we get enough rest

[@beactivebehappy9894]

There was a time during my teenage years but I was at my healthiest happiest Era and every night during my vacation I used to be like, “Hmm… So which genre would we like to watch tonight?” before placing my head on the pillow

[@alanmacdonald3763]

Retile automatic responses are SUBCONCIOUS. Dreams are from SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS, the prime field the religious' call God. Dreams are daily status reports.

[@duskmallow]

The environments in my dreams are often incredible. Both architecture and nature are really detailed and the lighting and atmosphere are breathtaking. It's really interesting and kind of frustrating because I am an artist and when I'm awake, I really struggle with painting good environments. I'm much better at drawing people than places, but in my dreams it's the other way around.

[@mr.boomguy]

That is one beautiful mind you got there! My dreams are just strange and chaotic, sometimes fun, othertimes horrorfying

[@aarushikishore1417]

dem ikr most of my painting ideas have been derived by the things i see in dreams i mean they are so pretty

[@adnan7698]

Same here. Ever since I've watched the building twisting and folding effects in doctor strange, inception etc and time travel in movies, my dreams are often non linear stories where reality is warping in ways prohibited by physical laws. Also, having read some of Jung's work, i love to identify the patterns in my dreams and am always amazed by how on point most of the stuff is

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

If it's okay to be smart, then why not actually learn something that will make you act smarter? 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

[@Godzillagamer1577]

same but instead of happy most of mine are just torture because i for some reason can feel pain in dreams what

[@PLuMUK54]

When I was taking my final exam of my degree course, I'd done a huge amount of revision. However, during the night before, I had a dream about the paper, and I saw the topic of the first question, one I'd not revised. On the hour bus ride to the exam I read everything that I had on the topic. I opened the paper...yes, you've guessed, the topic was...the first question! Had it not been for the dream, I'd not have covered the topic, rather an obscure one. In fact, I was the only one who had studied it, and I got my best marks on that question. Why did I dream that I wonder? Glad I did though.

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

If it's okay to be smart, then why not actually learn something that will make you act smarter? 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

[@daphenomenalz4100]

That has happened to me, I once saw a dream of randomly opening a page of my physics book and hadn't read that line. The next day, a question came from that exact line😂 and i was really happy.

[@katherinexu5554]

I had a similar experience with my stats course.

[@antopk5464]

If I am seeing a bad dream I could know it and hopes that it will end soon so I can wake up, If I am seeing an exciting dream like a big Tsunami wave is coming to get me (which needs a lot of money to do as VFX if in movies) and by realising that I can run nowhere from it and waiting for it calmly I feel the dream as real.

[@ohokay4663]

Hobbyist author here. Some of my best stories are based on my dreams- one story so much so that I actually just wrote the dream down and tried to reverse engineer a story out of it instead of drawing inspiration. I think dreaming is definitely some sort of method of brainstorming- all the dreams i have about stories end up feeling more satisfying and natural than ones i think of while awake.

[@billymays1761]

Dreams are the original AI engine

[@Dancin9lady]

Me too! Some of my favorite stories are based on dreams, even series of multiple dreams that all felt connected

[@ohokay4663]

@@billymays1761 GENUINELY YEAH! It's raw unfiltered organic neural network with little to no Moderator Intervention

[@downwithtrudeau]

My cat has to be dreaming. She meows in her sleep sometimes. Her paws flicker like she is running. Sometimes the whole leg will move slightly and she does that chirping thing. I'm certain she is dreaming about chasing and catching some prey 😁

[@likebot.]

Pretty sure it's birds she's chasing in her dreams.

[@SporkleBM]

Aw thats adorable ❤️

[@Nilguiri]

Are you sure you haven't accidentally plugged her tail into your charger?

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

If it's okay to be smart, then why not actually learn something that will make you act smarter? 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

[@incredibleflameboy]

@@VeganSemihCyprus33 or maybe just watch the educational videos posted on this channel which have no bias because they're simply statements from someone interested in the topics and willing to share that knowledge.

[@chanmarr8118]

Never had nightmares until I hit my 20s. Sometimes I’d wake up, not remembering what it was but close to tears (once, I did cry) and extreme levels of discomfort, like I wasn’t safe. It would sometimes drive me crazy not being able to remember because I’m curious as to what could’ve been so terrifying that I’m crying. I’d have an inkling of what happened as I awaken but it slips out of my grasp the more aware I get.

[@moongirl786]

Interesting. Nightmares and I are old friends, since I had night terrors as a kid; I would literally get out of bed and start acting out the dream, like running away from something. We had to have a baby gate at the top of the stairs for a long time as a result. I don't remember those early nightmares, but I do remember a few of my most common scary/unnerving dreams I've had since I was a teen; losing control of a car and crashing is a common one when my life feels out of my control in general

[@SH7SH7SH7]

@@moongirl786 in sha Allah you’ll be ok

[@starlegends3092]

Ey, at least you dont have to develup phobias over what was in them like me.

[@zacharytang3840]

@@starlegends3092 ever developed a phobia of sticker books, motion picture cameras and yo-yos? I even started to hate math after a nightmare

[@starlegends3092]

@@zacharytang3840 I have a phobia of being possesed because of my past dreams. I think one reasin its such a big phobia is because i turned against them when i started middle school, and I had bad angziety about a bunch stuff then. Most of my phobias ive gotten over, but it will be a miricle when I get over that one. Now I have nightmares about it so it started all over again. I also was scared for a weak after seeing a micky mouse charictors scull fly out of there head in a dream. I was so grossed out. My brain was trying to make a gross dream that night lol. He turned into a ghost and suddenly decited he wanted to kill his wife that he just saved from a crushing thingy.

[@GTNover]

Ive had dreams of a plane crash days before my flight. I was just fine. Went by statistics and figured the dream was a subconscious fear.

[@lahsep9628]

For 2 months straight I had dream of dying...I literally died 50+ and every time differently...now I don't fear death, I already died too much

[@villageidiot9867]

I've never died in a dream. Which makes me feel like if I do die in my dream it's probably for real. I've come close but woke up before I died. I also can't physically hurt anyone either. I've tried fighting for my life and there is literally no power in my punches.

[@adamcummings20]

I don't remember ever dying in a dream and waking up, but once, in the middle of a dream about being in a war that was happening in my village for some reason, I was hit by a tank shell, and I believed I was 'dead', but I was just paralysed, still conscious in the dream, just aware of the fact I was dead. Don't remember how that felt

[@MontgomeryWenis]

I've been recording my dreams since I was a child, about 20 years. I used to have nightmares and extreme anxiety dreams every night. For years I was plagued by these, until I finally figured out how to control them. Before I even knew what lucid dreaming was, I was able to nearly master it. A decade passed before I learned what I had taught myself to do was such a complex ability. I haven't had a nightmare in 15 years. A few anxiety dreams here and there, but nothing I wake up terrified over. And a lot of my dreams have felt prophetic, but I'm fairly certain that's just due to my incredible sense of intuition.

[@mauimonique]

✨Lucid dreaming ✨

[@maillardsbearcat]

Ah yes, your inflated sense of intuition

[@starlegends3092]

Ya, I have what I think are prophetic dreams sometimes, but I used to lucid dream on accedent and it was not good. Like, I had lucid nightmares or just ones i wish i didnt have. And that was before i knew what lucid dreaming was, and I hated them. They made me scared to go to sleep. I had control over them, but at the same time they seem to have had a mind of there own.

[@semaj_5022]

Yeahh, I'm pretty sure most "prophetic dreams" are just your brain taking your recent experiences and gained information, and extrapolating future events based on that information and experience. But I'm just a dude, not a scientist.

[@mauimonique]

@@starlegends3092 Have you tried any sleep music specifically for lucid dreaming?

[@maillardsbearcat]

I think when you sleep, you brain goes into repair and memory consolidation mode, and dreams are a glitch where you become slightly conscious enough to experience the neurons firing in that alternative state of mind. Same with hallucinogens, parts of your brain are communicating with each other that normally don't, and you're conscious enough to experience it. We just interpret the experience with our reasoning to get some sort of meaning or continuity, but there isn't.

[@lord_khufu]

In some of my dreams i did something that feels really ingenious but when i woke up that part of the dream is the part i never remember, i usually lie there conscious for a few minutes trying to make out what i did in that dream but often time i just forget the dream altogether and nothing makes sense anymore.

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

If it's okay to be smart, then why not actually learn something that will make you act smarter? 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

[@Felhek]

Still is unknown how the brain can create virtual worlds so realistic

[@user-zn4pw5nk2v]

@Mom's Spaghetti i have thought about it this way and that is why i am here, from my point of view, sleep is needed to make you train your brain for tomorrow, just like AI needs training time and testing time(to train the neurons), so too the human brain, why waste a perfectly good 8 hrs of nighttime(in hibernation) when you could prepare for tomorrow's fight with a boar, with like a fake kung-fu training session(in a dream). The social thing is the same thing, preparing you for the things you wanted to accomplish better tomorrow, than you did yesterday, you may not understand dream logic, but i have seen it, it was my choice to put some of my close friends (schoolmates) in my dream, as was the choice of putting them in my kindergarden, and also of jumping over short skyscrapers (i needed some fast travel, from one chat room to another), my choice(as in my subconscious choice)... Everything in the dream seems perfectly logical, because you blindside yourself by asking your subconscious what is logical in the dream world, none is, it was made so you could understand the logic you had lack of, that is why it also helps with studying. The only thing this hypothesis lacks is explaining recurrent dreams(a 1 to 1 copy, otherwise it's just a continuation), or ones that are really upsurd( like just flying through the air or feeling like a tree, since that is only an experience, not really a thing you could learn better, but may help with spacial memory and mapping) And why can't it be all of the above why only two or three, as i see it "training for tomorrow" includes all of the other. (My how silly, those scientists can be)

[@youngmiljr919]

@@user-zn4pw5nk2v how far have you gone with your beautiful hypothesis

[@FredoSantana90]

I sometimes feel nostalgia for the dreams i used to have as a kid, they were vivid and so peaceful, i could manipulate and pause them like after i woke up id look forward to going to sleep after school so i could continue where i left it like it was an exciting book. I can remember specific dreams like they are actual real memories

[@jayteet.8204]

Solving something in a dream happened to me a couple of times in college while solving a problem in finding the error of my code on a program I'm working on. I can vividly remember the solution when I woke up. So I went to my computer, applied what i dreamt of, and just like magic.. everything worked perfectly. 😊😊😊

[@yourmajestytheinternetuser]

I once told my friend group that my dreams during test weeks were usually me literally repeating what I have been studying (with all my review materials). After explaining to them, some thought I was a weirdo, others thought I had an eidetic memory, and I thought I found the best way to study. I always did well on my exams.

[@BadioTheAfricano]

I memorized recited verses from my newly written songs - and would only remember them when I heard the beat, but my head had to be rocking.

[@ginnyjollykidd]

My older sister always did her math homework in the morning, much to my mom's ire. "Why didn't you finish your homework last night!") She said she processed it in her dreams, and she could finish the assignment when she woke up.

[@sophierobinson2738]

I did my best on my exams when I got tipsy the night before. Partied at Shakey’s Pizza the night before a physical geography test and aced it next morning. The highest other grade was 70.

[@scienceislove2014]

I too have an eidetic memory but for a brief period of tume

[@honeybunch5765]

There was a stage where I dreamt about flying a lot. I could lift myself from earth and fly high above my house and trees. It was the most wonderful feeling everytime. Haven't had that dream recently. I can also control my dreams and if it is a nasty dream I can tell myself it is only a dream and wake myself..

[@LusidKaiju]

I can also wake myself up on command and even slightly open my eyes for a moment but I can’t see anything but light, I also had a flying dream, it started in a spaceship with alien animals (I was a dragon like one) and then I left the ship to fly in these cloud,y bright hills and through ruins, the weirdest part is that I had to actually flap my arms and it was kind of hard work but I never got tired

[@villageidiot9867]

I've tried to wake myself and yelling comes out as mumbling. That's usually when the girlfriend wakes me up. One that I remember is a demon came in my room and charged me and hit me and I flew out my window backwards in slow motion over my back yard. The weird thing was I saw a chicken in my backyard. The next day there was a chicken in my backyard. I don't live in a rural area and I don't know where it came from. I left it and the next day it was gone.

[@Docinaplane]

That's called lucid dreaming. I totally get it. One way to know you are dreaming is that a dream has no beginning, you just find yourself there.

[@angrygalamb]

I had tons of dreams in which i flied and many of them were lucid ones. Especially during quarantine so i guess it had to do smth with the quarantine. Anyways i still have a strange habit, where i "start to fly" but then remember im not dreaming and can't just magically float. Most of my flying dreams were set in my school as well so that doesn't help lmao

[@hannabaal150]

I have had many lucid dreams over the years, more when I was younger. Something that Nancy Wilson of Heart said in "These Dreams" has haunted me a bit. "Funny how your feet in dreams never touch the earth" I don't know if I walk or float, though I think I float. Any dream walkers out there?

[@debbiewareing1178]

Many (not all) of my dreams are about being ill-equipped or unprepared. They manifest in many different ways, but when I analyse them they nearly always come down to being ill prepared, not ready or organised ending in catastrophe. Very interesting.

[@henrycardona2940]

Dreams may remind us of what we should never forget, or at least what the brain says not to forget. Look at PTSD victims, their dreams are vivid and unfortunate. Perhaps it is those unforgettable moments that fuel our subconscious to dream about what it would do if it were conscious again, like a ghost remembering what it is like to live.

[@worldsboss]

As a gamer, I have had lots of gaming-related dreams. It’s interesting that the brain uses existing memories when conjuring up these scenarios, so I always assumed that it was an accidental bi-product of the increased electrical surges of REM sleep. Electricity restoring the brain, then accidentally activating neurones in the process, which our subconscious interprets as dreams. The subconscious being almost like an autopilot setting.

[@dantesos7564]

Pretty cool thought. As a kid obsessed with video games, I can totally relate to this! Bowser used to chase me a lot in my dreams!

[@moralfortitude...2217]

Omgosh...whoa, not the only one...only thing is there is no B64 in bingo. All the #'s don't match letters...🙄 plays lots of different bingo games...

[@MajapahitEagleLeader]

If I dream about games, I will dream about Minecraft or Free Fire

[@adrianjas284]

You know how memory experts can memorize and repeat a hundred random words by creating a story using said words? I feel like dreams are the same. But dreams are not just made of things you experienced in the last day or so. I think our brains create little stories every night to stop neural pathways to our memories from decaying.

[@takini4918]

Wow that really make sense

[@ThreadBareHope1234]

I've wondered about this too. Most of my dreams are just random stuff or whatever was on my mind that day. But I also had some nutty dreams that kinda showed me things I already knew and needed to confront. Like oddly specific images with certain emotions that represented a very specific conflict in my life. Nothing new, just telling me to acknowledge feelings or ideas I have suppressed. I personally thought these dreams were like my lower instincts telling me to do something different.

[@CrazyBunnyGuy]

I went through a period of dreaming the same dreams all over again (a set of about 5 or 6 dreams with some variations but basically the same ones all over again). This happened in my late 20s and early 30s. Now I'm mid30s and mercifully moved away from the reruns in my head all the time. I personally often dream about things which I don't particularly like but are likely to happen to me (sometimes work-related, sometimes life-related). (Un)fortunately not in a very clear way and these situations are often wrapped in a very weird scenario. So when and if a specific situation does happen in a waking world I'm more or less prepared because been there done that. :) It really helps!

[@Yourfriendmegan]

The last couple of weeks I’ve started sleeping on my back because of shoulder issues, and I noticed I remember my dreams every night when I do so. I actually hate dreaming and sleeping because most of my dreams are nightmares and I get a lot of sleep paralysis.

[@moongirl786]

Interesting. I usually sleep on my side as well, especially when my sinuses are acting up, but maybe I'll have to try that. Just to remember better that is, not to try and get sleep paralysis; that does not seem from fun from what I have heard/read.

[@Saurabh_Ambekar]

For me it's totally opposite, I like sleeping and dreaming. And never had any nightmare ....... Bad dreams, yes ( like a horror movie or school) but not a nightmare like where I woke up

[@metametodo]

Thank you for remembering me to try to sleep on my back if I want to remember dreams. Now that you pointed out I notice weeks when I slept on my shoulder and had nothing, but the last time I slept on my back I had multiple dreams.

[@ingoseiler]

When I sleep on my back I always get sleep paralysis and night mares

[@harishmurali8715]

Could be sleep apnea. When I sleep on my back, get dreams where I’m drowning or running really fast and unable to breathe etc.

[@davidwhitney1171]

There is at least one common dream trope: you're back in school, sitting for a final exam, and realize you didn't study and, perhaps, never attended a class. For me it goes further- In my dream I have a critical exam and not only haven't studied or attended class, but don't even know the room where the class was given or the room where the exam is taking place- totally lost!

[@rutwickgangurde3247]

Hi five. But I somehow am able to wake myself up by telling myself, it's a dream!

[@daphenomenalz4100]

😂

[@migueljarias]

I have a similar one where i randomly think that I never finished High school and so i gotta go back and finish it and I’m super lost.

[@tericalynn5134]

I get that one a lot too

[@kanupriyabhadhouria8354]

Ok i gotta admit this................this person.........is the best for learning something without getting bored and all

[@mlbrooks4066]

My dreams are always the same. Very vivid, full of people I don’t know and I’m always trying to find something in a place I don’t know. I’ve given up trying to rationalize them out when I wake up. They don’t help me with anything. They just are.

[@billruss6704]

Not mentioned is lucid dreams. I have had a few. The first time I was like, wow I am dreaming but I am totally in control. Not long after I had another, I decided I would try to fly. It was like the first time the great american hero tried to fly. After a few tries I got the hang of it. I was totally flying, incredible feeling.

[@angrynoodletwentyfive6463]

I lucid dream most of the time because something about my dream clues me in to it being impossible. A fictional character being present, or the water on my local beach not being cold even though I live in maine. My brain is like "nope not possible, you are dreaming" I don't usually try to control it though... when the lucid dreams get scary I purposefully do not react... like as if my brain is refusing to give itself the satisfaction of reacting to the nightmare it created.

[@averalam8216]

Does flying in your dream feel like grasping air and trying to balance

[@dokyuo7390]

So? Is it normal to be able to lucid dream every night because I only recently found out some people aren't in control of their dreams whenever they want

[@sarahroth7034]

I've been trying to lucid dream and I've been getting better at starting them, but as soon as I realize that I'm lucid dreaming, I get so excited I wake up :/

[@V.Hansen.]

I am usually lucid dreaming and feel in control but whenever I am flying, I am 100% certain it is real. It never feels like a dream. It feelsl so natural. I am always annoyed when I wake up.

[@Thebreakdownshow1]

Okay has anyone else stopped remembering dreams I haven’t remembered on in the last 8 years. I guess may be 4 total that I remember.

[@areaakhil7266]

I'm at that point where I don't get enough sleep to see dreams 😔

[@Thebreakdownshow1]

@@areaakhil7266 that’s what I thought so I took sometime off from work got really good sleep but no dream lol.

[@michaelrabon1189]

Yup. The only reason I dream now is if I’m in a middle ground between asleep and awake and if there’s an external stimuli going on, like an alarm going off or someone in the room, then my brain somehow forms a dream around that and puts that into the dream so I sleep through it… other than that, I don’t remember any dreams at all.

[@iwiffitthitotonacc4673]

I'm probably special, because I remember dreams vividly. Textures, smells, touch, etc.

[@Thebreakdownshow1]

@@michaelrabon1189 I always wonder why that happens on internet and my doctor have blamed me working late nights on my channel. On certain days and then sleeping in time on other.

[@stefaniac2095]

I have been remembering my dreams every day since I was a child (I am in my late 40s) and I have been writing them down since childhood. I wake up tired every day because I am in amazing adventures in my dreams. They are often imbued with the classics (being late, being chased, being confused on what to do albeit feeling great pressure to complete a goal), but also filled with creative endeavor and solutions to my artistic hobbies or work. I did a sleep study but they only checked for sleep apnea, which resulted negative. I also dream of dead people giving me messages to their loved ones, and I dreamt of the future in a few occasions. And I talk and sleepwalk. Just to complete the picture. I have never met anyone like me.

[@brewstopher2233]

Sometimes my dreams are episodic, if I wake I return back to the dream, and the best ones for some reason are apocalyptic, like nuclear war, devastating weather events, and aliens and or zombie wars!

[@officialblimp]

I love writing out all my dreams and looking back on them after years 😂

[@jordennebeltrame8961]

Same here!

[@tether6052]

I can't even write because I dream even if I nap for ten minutes.

[@christopherflux6254]

What’s weird is that some of my dreams turn out to be prophetic.

[@amazingsupergirl7125]

I draw them in comic format, especially if they’re visual like aliens, wild animals, or scary ones.

[@thisispissingmeoffroyally428]

​@@christopherflux6254 example please!

[@kit2770]

I took an entry level psych course in university, and the section on dreaming was so, so interesting.

[@PaigeSquared]

I intentionally avoided dreaming for years; night terrors. My mental processing declined, I started ruminating more, less working memory and more getting stuck in negative emotions. I wasn't processing new information, connecting it to the rest of my knowledge and coming to an understanding of what to do or how to move forward. My day time started being taken over by other ways to process. Dreams allow us to understand the events of our life, without the emotional brain involvement. When I was awake,my emotions were in the way of meaningfully processing. Now I'm not trying to run from dreams, but it took years before I was willing to face them again.

[@yashdeveloper9449]

I've noticed that dreams can enhance the new stuff that I'm learning recently. Like when I was learning to solve a rubix cube, I remember it even coming to my dreams and the next day I was kinda faster at working out the algorithms

[@Kenxclout]

What do you call a Tylenol with great dreams for the future? Aspirin'

[@Dunkskins]

Felix Wankel had a dream as a 17 year old who had no knowledge of traditional combustion engines, in his dream he came up with the concept for the rotary engine which he later on in life created. Another famous example of dreams becoming reality.

[@amazingsupergirl7125]

I think dreams work out things we feel while awake but can’t handle. I have high anxiety and have a lot of dreams about working on an endless stack of paperwork, trying to escape a tiger, searching for a way off a college campus that never ends, etc. if I succeed, it’s like I conquered the anxiety and have a non-stressful dream. I’m not conscious so I’m not in control. I think that’s why they go off the rails yet seem normal. I used to study Calculus before bed and dream about it all night. It’s a huge part of life that’s not being taken advantage of. Im surprised there isn’t more research going into it.

[@laurie113]

I have great respect for my dreams . They can scare me. And do . Also I dream vividly in the morning daylight. I rarely remember REM asleep in the evening. Morning dreams have terrified me.

[@rady7273]

I think it's important to remember that evolution just does its thing, it's just random things that develop, there doesn't need to be ONE use, if dreams help with all of this a bit it's useful enough to stay. It all seems a little different when you lucid dream because you basically hijack that machine of creativity and do what you want with it. And I can say from experience that dreams respond to emotions and expectations (subconscious ones mostly, but also conscious ones). It's kind of a look into the blackbox that's always running in the background of our thoughts

[@mauimonique]

Dreaming is one of my favorite parts of life… Gets even more interesting when you keep a dream journal. Now you have your very own short stories. THEN, you can further those stories, interpret them, paint them, etc. The possibilities are endless…. Ahhh the smell of creativity is ripe!

[@vinishap222]

Wow! That sounds interesting but I would lack the motivation to do that.

[@royalfelineandtracygrant]

Wait, dreams can be repressed memories? This explains a dream I had years ago! I was in a car accident when I was very very little, and a few years later, even though I didn’t remember the accident, I had a dream about it! I only remembered about 20 seconds of the dream, but it basically told the whole story of what happened that day. I am so glad I no longer need to be confused about that!

[@kankuro2978]

This happened to me once, a dream that can solve a problem showing you every steps and details how to solve the problem, but it only happened once.

[@JackSparrow-re4ql]

This is the reason dreams are closely linked with story writing. Both dreams and stories are problem solving.

[@edithbannerman4]

@Hello there, how are you doing this blessed day?

[@tommac21]

Dreams are just what they say dreams. No reason or rhyme. No one will evercfigure them out

[@hannabaal150]

Sometime in my 20's I was able to recognize I was dreaming and not wake up. These "lucid" dreams continued well into my 50's. I turned most of them into flying dreams. If the dream became too intense it would wake me up. I've also had two dreams of dying, one on an ancient battlefield where I was hacked into pieces and the other being shot. It was very confusing to me to wake up after having been killed in a dream. I didn't ask myself 'where am I?' or 'who am I?'. My first thought was 'what am I?', and once I figured out what I was, things got clearer! It was bizarre....

[@andredelacerdasantos4439]

I've died many times in my dreams and the feeling after I wake up is always an intense relief.

[@amazingsupergirl7125]

I can die in my dreams too. Apparently most people don’t. The craziest one was when a pride of lions attacked and killed me.

[@alanmacdonald3763]

Remembering past lives that caused issues in this life, now being addressesd

[@krystal7710]

Dude. My heart almost stopped when you said that. Bout not where or who or BUT WHAT AM I. I’ve said that Exact thing to my kids trying to explain what I felt once waking up. Like I had just came online. I dream every single time I sleep. But I’ve only ever felt that once. That’s very crazy that you said that. I even googled those exact words and only found one other person that said it. It had comments and many people said that that is true Ego Death. It’s a perspective. But I’ll NEVER forget that feeling. Just thought I’d share

[@stuart23969]

I had to learn to do that from a very young age as I woke up terrified every night. Never saw bad things in real life, however saw them in dreams and half of the terror was not understanding what I was seeing so I literally had to take over my dreams and stay asleep to finish them. Soon after I could control them and even continue a dream the next night if it hadn't finished yet. As I got into my teenage years I had a lot of bedsheets to change 😂😂😂

[@Amuzic]

I have many wonderful and terrifying dream experiences from the childhood. More often than not they are vivid, sometimes more vivid than the real life(they are rare). I have also experienced lucid dreams. And on two occassions terrifying dream loops(where i keep waking up inside the dreams and not realising i was still dreaming). And at least on two occassions i heard completely original tunes...and i recreated one of them, right after i jumped out of sleep.

[@iminlov3]

From nlp and personal experience i believe significant emotional events throughout the day re appear in a metaphorical way (a visual and feeling way) and after seeing logic and feelings laid out like that in a tangible way it gives us fresh perspectives and sometimes leads to solutions:new ways of thinking, sometimes its just a trippy recollection or a mix of those things

[@shadw4701]

I happen to actually enjoy nightmares but I think its because of my positive attitude towards dreams or the fact I play videogames so when something scary happens like I run into a monster or demon I'm more likely to fight than run away

[@spiritedchung5926]

My dream constantly automaticlly shut down itself without me even wake up

[@TheTabby]

When I was young I used to have very vivid and seemingly long dreams. The kind of dreams that stay with you through out the day, you can't stop thinking about them. I used to write them down in a dream journal. As I got older, I seemed to have stopped dreaming (or more like, stopped REMEMBERING) my dreams. It makes me kind of sad, in a way. I used to go on strange adventures. There was one time where I had a dream about a particular house. It wasn't my house, or anyone I have known then or since. But I remember every detail. Then, one day several years after having said dream, and my Dad and I were driving down some back road of a small town we had never heard of to pick up a trailer my Dad was buying. And I swear....we passed by The House. EVERYTHING was as I remembered from my dream. Every detail. Down to the color of the curtains in the window. The number of flower pots on the porch. Everything. I had never been there before, but somehow, someway, I knew that house. I also used to dream about a particular town all the time. Not a real town, one that my brain created, but I used to have several reoccurring dreams that took place in this particular town, and from several different parts of the town. I used to call them districts. There was a housing district, a business district, the outskirts, the megaway (think a gigantic freeway, I mean absolutely massive, like 20 lanes on each side and it had a weird U-turn section where the U part went up into the air almost like a roller-coaster and the cars just kind of....drove up it and around, no problem), the back roads.... All of it connected, but all of them were separate dreams. I need to find that dream journal, I don't know if I still have it or not...

[@dellaamelia3373]

I was about to ask you about the journal! I'd be interested to read it if you ever wish to publish it! ❤

[@jimringomartin]

Great job on this. You are as educated and entertaining as you are weird. I have so many dreams per night and I keep asking myself "why the hell did I just dream about shooting a rubber band at my brother in the middle of the night, as kids, when we are now in our 60's" I have had a theory for ages that our short stupid dreams are like using a laptop and opening a lot of old files that should have been deleted, which may be a dreams' sole purpose. Or as Scrooge says "You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

[@lineakristensen1821]

My dreams have gotten insane lately. So vivid. Feeling so real. I'm almost always doing something important. Like saving the world or escaping something horrible. But I'm never really scared, more intrigued. When I'm not saving the world, I'm often in water parks or something similar, but there's always an element of danger. Like having to do a crazy steep slide or something like that.

[@roxylindholm5179]

We always dream: If you're awake, you dream of the world, if you're sleeping, you dream of, what's inside yourself.

[@awoodmann1746]

Sometimes I continue my dream as I am waking up.

[@animerage1862]

I find this so fascinating for diff reasons. Like a lot of other people, I have lucid dreamed before and had fun doing whatever I wanted in the dream, one that comes to mind was deep diving but since I knew it was a dream I could breathe underwater and explore/just have fun. Most of my lucid dreaming comes sadly from nightmares though, there is usually a point right before the dream is about to get bad, I usually describe it as an atmosphere change, where I know I am entering a nightmare and I either let it play out of curiosity or exit, but once I enter I see it through to the end. I usually exit those dreams now, have had enough nightmares to last a lifetime, though the exit usually isn't fun or pretty either (have to prove to my brain that it is a dream which often means hurting myself and showing that I can't feel the pain or screaming loudly but no sound coming out despite my throat feeling like it should). I always noticed those nightmares almost always come when I'm stressed with life and am having mental breakdowns in the middle of my day, its almost like those breakdowns follow me into my unconscious. It aligns with a couple of those theories, trying to process what I am going through during the day, while maybe also practicing how to avoid negativity in the dream world through nightmares. More recently though, I had an ankle surgery, and I had a dream the other day that I was walking regularly, and then an alarm bell rang in my head that I can't and need to be using my crutches so I don't pop my stitches, but it didn't hurt to walk on in my dream and I was in perpetual confusion XD I figured my brain was in the middle of trying to process what was real and what wasn't. It is very interesting, always excited to see where neuroscience takes us!

[@anonymoustx2146]

I used to dream a lot especially the one where I’m falling down a dark hole and jump out my sleep. Lately I don’t dream anymore and when I do, it’s about real life situations that I keep thinking about.

[@Shantari]

8:20 I've had this idea for a while that dreams are how we perceive the brain sorting our memories, linking associations and such before putting them more securely into long term. It would explain why dreams generally mix what happened during the day with memories we were reminded of. (For example, if seeing a movie reminded you of a friend, perhaps the dream would incorporate the friend into the events of the film.) One thing I've noticed in my own dreams is what I call "dream geography". Where the setting of the dream will be based on places we've been to, but will especially draw on how originally remember them. There's a grocery store that had a huge remodeling done that changed placements of the entrance, the cash registers, all of it really, many years ago. When I'm awake I think of the store as it is now. But in my dreams, the grocery store takes its set up from how it used to be when I was a child. (Obviously the aisles get ever changing angles, and other strange changes that don't remain consistent for long, but the bare bones of it is based on the original set up. To the point that it's through the dreams that I've been able to piece together my memories of what it used to be like. Mostly. Still not sure if I remember correctly where the dairy aisle used to be.)

[@thebigchill123]

this holds true to my theory that we have two separate memory's one for dreams and one for real world memory's. When you were a child you must of dreamt of that supermarket and then when you are dreaming later in life you are drawing from your dream memory's

[@MsPiu22]

Even though I don't live in my parent's house anymore, in my dreams ,I only see my old house ..

[@vickielove9066]

How would you explain dreams that are completely unrelated to movies or memories? I've experienced both places and events in my dreams more than once that I've never experienced in any form during a waking state

[@beactivebehappy9894]

@@vickielove9066 You might have your conscious brain is just not aware of it, also possible that the brain can conjure images and locations from existing memories by mashing them together- Highly likely since the neurons sit that close to each other

[@tinawilliams9610]

😊😊😢😢😊😊😊

[@zaferalabbas]

This is, quite possibly, the best "It's Okay To Be Smart" video ever.

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

If it's okay to be smart, then why not actually learn something that will make you act smarter? 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

[@almuel]

I was thinking of David Lynch since the beginning of the video. Was pleasantly surprised to see his work was included in 4:12

[@detaaditya6237]

Dreaming is an important part of my life. Often I dream inside a dream, lucid dream, have false awakening (annoying as hell if it happens during weekday), and the craziest one is, starting to dream before I even fall asleep - like the dream has begun but I'm still kind of conscious

[@samsungphone9932]

always draining never enough sleep i hate it

[@janedoe6704]

Thats called hypnagogia.

[@pavannoolvi4274]

Woah bro be cautious you might be having signs of insomnia

[@ritik_kumar698]

It has happened with me too.... Like when I go to sleep I start dreaming while being conscious at the same time....I mean I was just lying on my bed dreaming something but at the same time I could also listen to what my family members were saying in the room ..... But it usually happens at the very early stages of sleep....

[@SarahMichelle777]

I do all this too…Im glad it isnt just me.

[@treering8228]

I’m 44 and since I was a little kid I’ve dreamt about being in a Costco type store where people are scrambling for items when a scary militia comes in to round people up. I’ve always escaped into an apocalyptic city. It’s always terrifying. I live 200 miles from the nearest city now… I am not a prepper but those dreams are my most vivid and apparently guide some of my actions.

[@mr.boomguy]

I think it's ok for you to prep and be guided by your dreams, but don't let them control you. And that's what it sounds like you're kinda close to.

[@AliRaza-nm6tz]

Yesterday i had a dream of forgetting my visa fee at home just one day before applying the visa,so this helped me in remembering to have that money from my bag to my wallet,dreams really help us in very strange ways!!

[@sanaael-sayed2775]

thank you, you're a great source of information and inspiration! ❤❤❤

[@whatrtheodds]

I think it's problem solving. I was in a violent relationship and I replayed the relationship for 5 years in my dream, it really sucked. It always ended where I was helpless and trapped. Then I went to therapy and my dream one day changed, I said NO to my abuser I regained my power. This gave me much more respect for my dreams. It was an amazing experience especially after years of being haunted.

[@nunya5136]

🥰

[@EarthnikNews]

Since childhood I’ve known that dreams were practice for survival. The brain (my brain) would always throw problems my way, sometimes from daily life and sometimes for way out there! Of course there are other subtleties I don’t understand about my dreams, but I love them all, good or bad. I took a class from some researchers at Stanford on learning on how to have Lucid Dreams. Imagine being awake in your dreams. Awake enough to make choices … do I drive or fly (like fly without machinery) to work today?!? Like, which one of these lovely ladies … well, you get them point. I highly recommend you look into lucid dreaming - it will change your life in a great way forever!

[@lilly850]

I definitely believe that the brain makes us have dreams about things we wished happened in real life or things we are stuck on, like closure that people did not give us. Our brains try and give us that closure in our dreams.

[@pprehn5268]

Dreams are my inner psychologist creating metaphors resembling the questions of my current situation.

[@darkprelate]

I'm currently an 8th grader in elementary school, and by my dreaming experiences personally agree with the theory about social practice, prepare-for-danger theory and problem solving one. When I have a math problem, I usually dream about solving the problem, and get it solved in the morning. Also, whilst I started thinking about my future (wanted) career in neuroscience, and started to realize that I would need every grade to be perfect and to be successful in competitions, I've started dreaming about getting a difficult task, or many of them, and needing to work in high stress environment with many task to complete. After that, when I wake up, my worries and stress get alleviated instantly.

[@absolutefoot4594]

Wait the hell kinda elementary school you going to

[@darkprelate]

​@@absolutefoot4594 I'm now in high school, but it's not about the school itself always. Sure, I chose one of the most demanding schools in my country (Croatia), and more tasking assignments put stress on my classmates and me, together with all present pressure when grades are involved. But the true challenge arises from my aspiration to compete in chemistry and biology, respectively - which requires a lot of time and effort, which I sometimes don't have or am too tired to have. Despite my worry, I got an extraordinary result in the biology competition last year, and I hope I can follow up this year with chemistry and biology. In retrospect, I do not know why I am "confessing" my life's problems in a KZbin comment, but I guess there is no considerable harm in it, so I am keeping it.

[@absolutefoot4594]

@@darkprelate I was initially referring to the fact that you attended elementary school for eight years, which is just longer than I've ever heard of. I'm not familiar with any kind of science competitions either, but it's interesting to hear how others do things differently. Ok also your focus in biology and chemistry is incredible; I wish you success!

[@Vivacious_Varenya_]

9:50 Joe -"Dreams let us practice dangerous events and situations " Meanwhile in my dreams- "Ahhhhh the half unicorn half demon math teacher is trying to become a fairy and needs to make me do a 1000 sums to become a fairy!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!"

[@CheeseOfMasters]

seems you had a little catching up to do, how thoughtful of your brain...

[@Vivacious_Varenya_]

@@CheeseOfMasters haha😂

[@Coco-sv4ji]

I usually have very imaginative dreams, owning a cruise and jumping in the ocean to swim with dolphins, interviewing ghosts for some reason, running through alleys etc etc, makes me look forward to my next dream.

[@danicafilipic3121]

The Egyptian Scarab beetle was especially interesting with one of his patients. He was amazed. Early night dreams are often about your daily life. A movie you watched. Conversations during the day. Early morning dreams as re more spiritual and prophetic

[@God-ld6ll]

Have had accidental lucid dreams at a fair rarity without remembering using any prescribed methods. I’ll tell you from experience, I manifested a dragon out of view to land in front of me to have me ride it. And also had conversations with people who were distinctively not human. Just to show: maybe it is not limited to non-fiction-or-fantasy. Though even I still have a rather tricky time doing things like flying.

[@davidmartins7647]

Whenever I lucid dream o accident, i alwaya have the urge to break the laws of physics: explode things and create stuff out of nothing. I can do those things, initially, but soon my brain starts negating me, because it does not understand how to create things out of nothing and end up waking up. I know there are tricks, like, looking away, then looking back and imagining a thing there, but when im asleep i cannot remember to put them in practice. Its still fun tho.

[@shadw4701]

Lucid dreaming is underrated and sadly mist people dont even know it exists. You can have them more by keeping a dream journal and doung reality checks

[@ambrosiabrown9305]

Pregnancy dreams have a different level of intensity and weirdness. In the last one, my friend and I had to climb a building to escape deadly gas. Then out of the fog, came a bunch of tiny figures a few inches tall climbing the ladder in mass like ants. They were tiny zombies with hands for heads. We had to kick them and shake them off. We were trying to keep them from climbing up to our faces where they would use their tiny hands to gouge our eyes out as they burrow into our brains. Then a song started playing over loudspeakers and they all froze, turning into plastic dolls. My sister and I were discussing previous pregnancy dreams only to find out that we both dreamed a Hunger games/Jurassic Park crossover. Mine also had zombies because I tend to have zombies in my dreams a lot 😆.

[@sierradavis562]

THIS. i had the most vivid disturbing dream last night

[@nawithgi]

I am grateful that here, there are so many people who have dream experiences like me. I am sometimes very confused by the dreams I have, sometimes my dreams are a sign, do I have to do something according to the dream I had last night? Or is there something that is actually a code for me? Like a mystery, and it's unfortunate that every beautiful dream I have must be the memory always fades when I wake up, maybe it's rare but I've experienced lucid dreaming too, like I'm dreaming and when I open my eyes a little, I'm awake but like when I close my eyes, I can magically continue the dream according to what I want like I arranged it with a conscious brain, woahh that's wonderful

[@YourCapybaraAmigo_17yrsago]

I rarely remember my dream but when I do they are incredibly detailed. If only I could be as talented, imaginative and capable in my waking life as I am in my dreaming state.

[@IapetusStag]

Trust me Joe, for a person with PTSD and warshock like me, dream is NOT a good thing. I can get hurt because of my dreams, and wake up in pain and shivering fear because of dream (and even if I don't dream).

[@brendan31415]

I feel for you I have PTSD and post concussion (not from war). My dreams are hard to experience and often feel like they are weeks or months in duration. Often I'm confused and in pain, can't figure out what is going on. Frequently I know that if I don't figure it out I'm going to die. And I can't figure it out. So in the end I just give up. Then when I wake up I'm in pain and have major brain fog for a couple of days, even though my injuries healed years ago. It sucks.

[@rubixloverful]

just don't PTSD 😏

[@cuitaro]

@@rubixloverful PTSD is a mental condition. You can't "don't do" PTSD

[@IapetusStag]

@@rubixloverful You'll laugh until you have it. You'll wonder why you can't control your own thoughts which makes it vomit, spasms and whatsnot. Sorry for the political terminology but enough with the right-wing mindset. Don't laugh at what soldiers experience after a war, you insecure pri**

[@rubixloverful]

@@IapetusStag then don't soldier 😏

[@la_blanca2905]

Thank you for making these videos very easy tú understand as if I was a child because quite frankly the sciences can be very overwhelming but learning shouldn’t be. Especially since as you age it gets harder to learn 😂

[@brianarbenz1329]

Don’t forget the indigestion factor. Aka, the siren going by your window, or low flying jet plane overhead. External interruptions often trigger dreams to which our minds assign a sometimes elaborate meaning.

[@edithbannerman4]

@Hello there, how are you doing this blessed day?

[@MortMort]

I csn somewhat always control my dreams, when I program or solve software development problems I usally take a nap and solve them in my slumber. Works like 70% of yhe time

[@connieannemcentee1892]

If dreams might help keep the visual cortex functional, what does this mean for persons who are blind? If a person has never been able to see, what are their dreams like?

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

If it's okay to be smart, then why not actually learn something that will make you act smarter? 👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖

[@dellaamelia3373]

Wow. They should cover this up in the next episode.

[@ratre7349]

They don't see the dreams but they hear it or smell it or feel it

[@dellaamelia3373]

@@ratre7349 how do you know?

[@ratre7349]

@@dellaamelia3373 i read somewhere in internet