Why we dream

Talk-back radio may still reserve airspace for ‘dream interpreters’, but according to most sleep experts, their guess is as good as anyone’s—why we dream remains one of science’s biggest mysteries.

While a rash of theories has surfaced in the past decade, there’s no real front-runner. As psychologist Steven Pinker told Scientific American Mind, “For all we know, dreaming might be like a kind of screen saver in which it doesn’t really matter what the content is as long as certain parts of the brain are active.”

What is clear is that older theories, such as Sigmund Freud’s notion that dreams represent ‘wish fulfilment’ are out, and more functional explanations are in.

Many scientists are now edging towards the ideas that dreaming may replenish neurotransmitters, rest certain zones of the brain or even restore the thermoregulatory system—thereby ‘conditioning’ and nourishing the brain while we slumber.

For the most part though, experts have focused on disproving various dream myths—including these:

Dreams contain a set of symbols that can predict the future

According to the University of California Santa Cruz, you’ll find various websites listing ‘dream symbols’, but these can’t always be trusted as everyone has their own set of symbols (that can’t be generalised across the entire population). Yet even then, no convincing studies prove symbols exist in dreams, full stop (but don’t let us spoil the fun—science doesn’t have to explain everything. Surely).

Dying in your dream can trigger a heart attack that kills you in your sleep.
As the University puts it: “You’re no more likely to die while dreaming than any other time… In fact, some ‘dying’ dreams can actually be pleasant.”

Six things we know about dreaming

1. Most people over ten dream at least 4-6 times a night 
2. Contrary to popular belief, kids under nine just don’t dream that much! 
3. Blind people dream too 
4. You will most likely forget 95-99 per cent of your dreams 
5. Nightmares often follow a distressing life event and tend to occur in the later part of the night 
6. On average, you dream for 1.5 to 2 hours a night—over a lifetime, that will equate to about six years of your life (and total up to 200,000 dreams!).

References available on request