what are dreams * a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. * source:www.howstuffworks.com * date: February 13 2013 * We've all been there -- dead asleep, caught up in the middle of a cinematic dream that feels so real you think you've actually experienced it, even after waking. Maybe it was a nightmare that left you in a cold sweat, heart pounding. Or if you're lucky, it's a liaison with your favorite movie star. Sigmund Freud believed that dreams are a window into our unconscious, and some studies indicate that he may have been onto something. For example, in one study, amnesiacs reported dreaming about activities that the scientists knew the patients had participated in before they'd gone to sleep -- even though the amnesiacs had no memory of those activities, outside of dreaming about them. This validates Freud's theory to a certain degree, but there are hundreds of competing theories about what dreams are and what their purpose is. * So what are dreams? Strictly speaking, dreams are images and imagery, thoughts, sounds and voices, and subjective sensations experienced when we sleep. This can include people you know, people you've never met, places you've been, and places you've never even heard of. Sometimes they're as mundane as recalling events that happened earlier in the day. They can also be your deepest and darkest fears and secrets, and most private fantasies. There's no limit to what the mind can experience during a dream and really no rhyme or reason to what you end up dreaming about. Stresses in waking life can manifest in dreams plainly or be cleverly disguised with imagery. For instance, a dream about a grizzly bear chasing you through your house could be the stress you feel about the relationship with a friend. A dream about being stuck inside of a room with no door might echo your feelings about a dead-end job. * Dreams are most abundant and best remembered during the R.E.M. stage of sleep. This is the deepest stage of the sleep cycle, when your eyes are moving rapidly, your heart rate and breathing become inconsistent, and paralysis of your skeletal muscles occurs. This last part may sound pretty frightening, but it's actually a safeguard that keeps us from acting out our dreams physically. R.E.M. sleep makes up about 20 to 25 percent of the sleep cycle in adults in short increments, first for only a few minutes at a time, but growing increasingly longer as the sleep cycle progresses. Some stages of R.E.M. sleep can last for as long as 30 minutes at a time. Since long, detailed dreams can sometimes only last a couple of minutes, these long R.E.M. stages can be rich with dream activity. * Another theory posits that dreams are our brain's attempt to make sense of what would otherwise be meaningless stimuli, random messages created from the arousal of the posterior segment of the brain. Others think dreams are merely the brain firing signals as it organizes the previous day's thoughts and experiences that may end up as memory. The problem with any theory about dreams is that we can't really prove or disprove any of them, and they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. If dreams are psychologically significant, they can still be the result of random brain stimuli. Dreams are most likely a combination of theories. * Why do we have them. source: www.aboutus.com
Psychology
* * While many theories have been proposed, no single consensus has emerged. Considering the enormous amount of time we spend in a dreaming state, the fact that researchers do not yet understand the purpose of dreams may seem baffling. However, it is important to consider that science is still unraveling the exact purpose and function of sleep itself. * Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while others believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being. Ernest Hoffman, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Boston, Mass., suggests that "...a possible (though certainly not proven) function of a dream to be weaving new material into the memory system in a way that both reduces emotional arousal and is adaptive in helping us cope with further trauma or stressful events."8 * Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams suggested that dreams were a representation of unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic view of personality, people are driven by aggressive and sexual instincts that are repressed from conscious awareness. While these thoughts are not consciously expressed, Freud suggested that they find their way into our awareness via dreams. * ...disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes."
 One theory suggests that dreams are the result of our brains trying to interpret external stimuli during sleep. For example, the sound of the radio may be incorporated into the content of a dream 5.
 Another theory uses a computer metaphor to account for dreams. According to this theory, dreams serve to 'clean up' clutter from the mind, much like clean-up operations in a computer, refreshing the mind to prepare for the next day 6.
 Yet another model proposes that dreams function as a form of psychotherapy. In this theory, the dreamer is able to make connections between different thoughts and emotions in a safe environment 7. *  A contemporary model of dreaming combines some elements of various theories. The activation of the brain creates loose connections between thoughts and ideas, which are then guided by the emotions of the dreamer *