• Question: Where do dreams come from?

    Asked by superninjaturtle to Andrew, Ash, Gem, Paige, SJ on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Andrew Thomas

      Andrew Thomas answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      There are lots of theories about where dreams come from and what they are for-some scientific and some less so. I think it’s generally believed that they are just a symptom of your brain sorting stuff out while you are resting, but I don’t know for sure.

    • Photo: SarahJayne Boulton

      SarahJayne Boulton answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      Like Andrew I like to think of them as being my brain sorting things out and commiting aspects of the day to memory, however I do find recurring dreams a bit weird.

      They’re thought to come from the subconcious firing off into the sensory parts of your brain while you’re sleeping but indeed, noone really knows. I find that when I’m ill I have really vivid dreams, so I wonder if feverishness or stress hormone levels can trigger your sleeping brain to be more active.

    • Photo: Paige Brown

      Paige Brown answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      There are theories that dreams are related to spontaneous presleep thought… in other words the thoughts that randomly come to your head right before you fall asleep. http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=1983-04963-001

      After all, your brain does not stop when you are sleeping! The connections between your brain cells that carry information are still running even though you are asleep and can’t see because your eyes are closed. Of course you can still hear and smell… which is why you might dream of a siren or ambulence when your alarm clock first starts ringing, and you dream of a feast when you smell someone cooking bacon right before you wake up! Your mind is still processing information even though the part of your brain that functions while you are awake is momentarily shut down to some extent…

    • Photo: Gemma Staite

      Gemma Staite answered on 1 Jul 2012:

      Dreams come from the subconscious mind. Whilst asleep these are involuntary, and are believed to be your brain sorting out what you have seen and heard. This allows your brain to compute the information contains within the memories and transfer it from short term memory to long term memory.

      When you get really bizarre dreams, I like to think it’s because your brain is trying to sort so much information in such a short space of time and when it all comes together, in slightly different order it all seems very strange

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