Why do we dream?

Have you ever wondered about the dream you had last night? What was it about? Was it just meaningless, or did it had any meaning to your present life? Well, Dreams can be entertaining, emotional, or just downright bizarre. We believe dreams are the mixture of your thoughts and events that happened to you during the day, kind of your own movie about your day, but only weird and non-sensical. The dreams are most active during Rem Sleep or rapid eye movement stage; this stage occurs after 4-6 hours of your sleep. Of course, your daily life would make sense, everything will happen frequently, and everything makes sense when you are awake, but in your dreams, nothing makes sense. Maybe it is because dreams are triggered by emotional centers of the brain, not the logical regions. Even after all these hypotheses, scientists and psychologists can't figure out this mystery. Though they Do have many theories about this concept, such as they might a way of relieving our daily stress, they might be a way of solving your emotional problems. Below are theories about why do we dream.

Dreams as therapists

When a tragedy happens to you, you suffer from an enormous amount of emotional pain. This pain stays for months or even years if you do not open up or just accept your situation. To get over this tragedy, your relatives or loved ones might suggest you go to a therapist. Which is a perfect solution since you can't open up about your feelings, a therapist will help you get rid of those feelings and trauma that you have been going through. So, the theory suggests that may be Your dreams are the ways of confronting emotional dramas that happen in your life. Since the emotional centers of your brain trigger the dreams, you will be more sensitive during the dream, which will help you to open about your feelings and emotional pain. That is why it is better if you take a nap whenever you are stressed and tired; your dreams will recharge you!

Dreams as fight-or-flight training

Two hundred thousand years ago when the first homo-sapiens(Humans), an intelligent species was emerged and was spreading throughout the land. At this time, humans were living in the caves. Since they didn't have any advanced thoughts for food like agriculture, they had to go hunting and face many risks practically. Like a leopard attacking them or a deer coming right at them. They had to make instant Decisions of when to fight and when to flight. So, to make our selves better, or I should say, to evolve, our brains had to make fake scenarios in our head to train our fight or flight instincts. Amygdala is One of the areas of the brain that’s most active during dreaming. It is responsible for your survival instincts and your fight or flight response. So this theory suggests that since amygdala is more active during your dreams, this might be a way of your brain to train you for a daily threat that you might have.

Dreams as memory aids

One of the widely believed theories of why we dream is that they help you store essential memories of your life and help you get rid of unimportant memories and make you more focused about what your consciousness thinks is important. In short, dreams might be a way of organizing your memories from most important to less important. Researches have found that sleep helps you store a memory. If you learn new information during your day or maybe learn a new skill, and after you fall asleep, you will recall that information better than the ones you tried to remember without sleeping. For an example let's assume you started learning guitar today and right after learning the cords and positions you fell asleep, your brain will repeat that process in your dream, to help you get a better grasp on it. That is why greatest minds have told us, "If you want to remember something, Sleep on it."

How to remember your dreams?

To better remember your dreams or to keep track of your Dreams. You might want to remember better. The chemical associated with memory is norepinephrine, brain activities such as this are at its lowest while dreaming, that is why you can not remember your dream. To better remember your dreams, you might want to start a dream journal. Just write down everything that you remember right after you wake up, do it before your brain distracts. Having a Dream journal will tell your subconscious that next time you wake up, you want to write down whatever dream you had. So, your subconscious will then remember your dreams better than before

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is when you know that you are in a dream while sleeping. The movie inception fantastically portrays lucid dreaming. During lucid Dreaming, you can control everything around you. There are many benefits of lucid dreaming. It helps you overcome your fears and phobias. You can practice real-life skills in your dreams to get better at it, and above all this, you can have sex in your dream to have that magnificent experience.

How to have a lucid dream?

Well, if you just heard this concept from this article, then you might not have your first lucid dream today(Based on my Experience). Like any other skill, lucid dreaming requires practice to get better at it and to have it every day. Here are a few tips that you can try on a daily basis, which will increase your chances of Lucid dreaming.

Tip 1:- Keep asking your self, "Am I in a dream?"

If you ask your self this question enough during the day chances are you will ask the same question in your dream, and then you can distinguish from if you are dreaming or not. Have a few reality checks, like while asking look at your hand. In the dream you hand will be weird you might have six fingers or something strange. So, have a reality check like that to know if you are in a dream or not.

Tip 2:- Before Sleeping believe that you are going to have a Lucid Dream

Your subconscious mind will work on something that you really believe in. So if you believe that you are going to have a lucid dream chance are it will give you a lucid dream.

Tip 3:- Have a dream journal

A dream journal is a great way to have a track of your dreams. Some common substances that manifest in your dream will give you a clue that you are in a dream. When a dream is created, it is built by the things that you know. Somethings in dreams will not change, bizarre stuff like seeing a raccoon in your toilet while drinking tea will give you a hint that you are probably in a dream.

These are common Tips to have a lucid. There are probably many tutorials on how to have a lucid dream; they will guide you through it. Dreams are a great way to relive our stress and make us focused. They keep our creativity Going!