Dream

Dreaming is the subjective experience of remembered and imaginary images, sounds/voices, words, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. The scientific discipline of dream research is oneirology. Dreaming has been associated with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a lighter form of sleep that occurs during the latter portion of the sleep cycle, characterized by rapid horizontal eye movements, stimulation of the pons, increased respiratory and heart rate, and temporary paralysis of the body. However, this association has been questioned since it may be that dream recall after REM sleep is common and because dreams are more easily recalled after waking from light REM sleep.

More theories

There are hundreds of theories that attempt to explain dreaming. Aside from Freud's psychodynamic explanation and the activation-synthesis theory (both described above), another theory is Francis Crick and G. Mitchinson's "Reverse learning theory", adumbrated on in their piece 'The function of dream sleep'.

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The basic hypothesis of Crick & Mitchinson is that the brain sorts through the day's information and uses dreams to rid the mind of unwanted information. 'Parasitic' memories result from the vast and various amounts of information we consume that we our memory is the recipient of. Delusions, and other disturbances are expelled through dreaming. As a consequence, Crick & Mitchinson stated that "we dream to forget," and reverse learning disburses information through dreaming, and revitalises the dreamer. The revitalization comes by making certain memories more significant, since there is no more existing erroneous or anomalous information to check through.

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Crick and Mitchinson's hypothesis predicts that lack of REM sleep would lead to hallucinations, and interestingly, case studies such as that of Peter Tripp seem to concur with this view. This also explains why we find it hard to recall our dreams. However, it also predicts that dream recall will lead to dysfunction, and there is much empirical evidence to suggest that dream recall does not lead to dysfunction, but rather enhances well-being.

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Cartwright's "Problem Solving Theory" simply states that we are sorting out information that is useful for our immediate survival. As such, our dreams should be able to give us useful insights into how to solve problems. In this theory, a recurring dream is an example of an unsolved problem. Some people will actively ask for a dream regarding a particular problem before they fall asleep.

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