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Why We Dream: Real Reasons Revealed

The slumbering mind might not seem like an apt tool for any critical thinking, but humans can actually solve problems while asleep, researchers say. Not only that, but one purpose for dreaming itself may be to help us find solutions to puzzles that plague us during waking hours.

Dreams are highly visual and often illogical in nature, which makes them ripe for the type of “out-of-the-box” thinking that some problem-solving requires, said Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard University.

Barrett’s theory on dreaming, which she discussed at the Association for Psychological Science meeting here last month, boils down to this: Dreaming is really just thinking, but in a slightly different state from when our eyes are open.

“Whatever the state we’re put in, we’re still working on the same problems,” Barrett said. Although dreams might have initially evolved for a different purpose, they likely have been refined over time so they can serve double-duty: help the brain reboot itself and problem-solve.

Dreams and evolution

A theory to explain dreams, or any human behavior for that matter, needs to take into account evolution, Barrett said. But many early theories of dreaming either didn’t address evolution at all, or downright contradicted it, she said.

For instance, Sigmund Freud proposed dreams exist to fulfill our wishes. But such gratification in an imaginary world would do little to help us adapt our instincts to the physical world, which is one key point of evolution, Barrett said.

Others have proposed dreams are more of a side effect of the sleep cycle. Dreams usually occur during Rapid Eye Movement, or REM, sleep. This stage is thought to serve several functions: to rest a part of the brain (since some areas are active while others aren’t) and to replenish brain chemicals, such as neurotransmitters.

This has led some to say that dreams happen simply because REM sleep happens, Barrett said. The psychologist Steven Pinker once likened dreams to computer screen savers, saying that it perhaps “doesn’t really matter what the content is as long as certain parts of the brain are active.”

However, Barrett disagrees. “My opinion is that, evolution just isn’t wasteful, that when things evolve for one purpose, that generally they don’t continue throughout time to have only that purpose, but anything else that may be useful about them gets refined,” she said in a telephone interview with LiveScience prior to the convention.

She also noted that REM sleep has been around for quite some time, since mammals evolved some 220 million years ago. “The longer something has existed during evolutionary history, the likelier it is to have other functions overlaid on it,” she said at the convention.

Problem-solving

Barrett has studied problem-solving in dreams for more than 10 years, and documented many examples of the phenomenon.

In one experiment, Barrett had college students pick a homework problem to try to solve in a dream. The problems weren’t rocket science; they were fairly easy questions that the student simply hadn’t gotten around to solving yet. Students focused on the problem each night before they went to bed. At the end of a week, about half the students had dreamed about the problem and about a quarter had a dream that contained the answer, Barrett said.

So at least in the cases where problems are relatively easy, some people can solve them in their sleep.

Barrett has also extensively reviewed scientific and historical literature, looking for examples of problems solved in dreams.

She found examples of almost every type of problem being solved in a dream, from the mathematical to the artistic. But many were related to problems that required individuals to visualize something in his or her mind, such as an inventor picturing a new device.

The other major category of problems solved in dreams included “ones where the conventional wisdom is just wrong about how to approach the problem,” Barrett said.

Dreams might have evolved to be particularly good at allowing us to work out puzzles that fall into those two categories, she said.

“I think that dreams and REM sleep have probably further evolved to be useful for really as many of the things that our thinking is useful for,” Barrett said. “It’s just extra thinking time, so potentially any problem can get solved during it, but it’s thinking time in the state that’s very visual and looser in associations, so we’ve evolved to use it especially to work on those kinds of problems.”

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Near-Death Experiences are Lucid Dreams, Experiment Finds

In a new exercise by a California organization that studies lucid dreaming, volunteers have been conditioned to dream near-death experiences, including the classic scenario of flying toward a light at the end of a tunnel. The researchers say their experiment demonstrates that these heavenly visions must be products of the human mind rather than supernatural phenomena.

In the sleep experiment at the Out-Of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles, four groups of 10 to 20 volunteers were trained to perform a series of mental steps upon awakening during the night that might lead them to have out-of-body experiences. If able to “separate” from their bodies, they were then conditioned to try dreaming about floating through a tunnel toward a bright light. Eighteen of the volunteers said they were able to dream such an experience.

“Some of the test subjects not only succeeded in reproducing the out-of-body flight through a tunnel, but also enjoyed the ecstasy typical of the experience, and even flew all the way to the light and met their deceased relatives there,” center leader Michael Raduga stated in a press release about the work, which has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More than 8 million Americans have had a near-death experience, and they most often occur during states of anesthesia-induced sleep, according to the center. Prior work by neurologists, including Kevin Nelson of the University of Kentucky, suggests that NDEs are indeed generated by the same brain mechanisms that cause lucid dreams. Nelson’s research shows that both types of experiences arise when part of the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal region — our “logical center,” which is usually active only when we’re awake — becomes active during REM sleep, allowing extremely vivid dreams that seem to be happening in real life. He calls the transitional state between dreaming and wakefulness a “borderland of consciousness” and believes it is in this mixed state that lucid dreams and NDEs occur.

With Nelson’s research in mind, Raduga designed his experiment to determine if volunteers could be coached to dream up NDEs when in the transitional phase between sleep and waking. This would demonstrate that reports of NDEs, which are commonly cited as proof of the supernatural, really are just lucid dreams.

Volunteers who successfully generated NDEs described their experiences for the researchers. One participant, identified by the center asNadezhda S., stated: “I was able to leave my body after a couple of tries. Now that I was out of my body, I wanted to see the tunnel and it immediately appeared in front of me … Once I flew to the end of that tunnel … I saw my deceased husband there in the spirit. We spoke for several minutes. His words, touch, bearing, and feelings were real, just like during his life. Later on, when I felt it was time to leave, I went up to the tunnel, jumped and gently landed in my body.”

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Neuroscience of Creativity: Why Daydreaming Matters

Here’s an interesting piece written by Matthew May, I took great interest in it since I hardly see any science based articles writting about the process or purpose of daydreaming. Dreaming, yeah, but not so much about daydreaming. I would guess they have similar functions but not entirely the same. Take a look below:

by Matthew E. May

Most people know that 3M’s Arthur Fry was not trying to invent the thing he invented in 1974–the Post-it Note–he was daydreaming in church.

As neuroscientists now know, and was conclusively shown in 2009, it’s when our minds wander that our brains do their best work–it’s when we’re not trying to think creatively that we’re often most creative. That’s when a still mysterious process in the right hemisphere of the brain behind the right ear makes connections between seemingly unrelated things, and those connections then bubble up as sudden insights, as if out of nowhere.

Jonah Lehrer, through our discussion of his just released new book Imagine: How Creativity Works, helped me sort out and make sense out of the latest discoveries, and what the results might imply for anyone wishing to better tap into their natural creativity.

“It’s not an accident that Arthur Fry was daydreaming when he came up with the idea for a sticky bookmark,” advises Jonah. “A more disciplined thought process wouldn’t have made the connection between the annoying little pieces of paper he used to bookmark his choir music and a weak adhesive another 3M engineer had developed. The errant daydream is what made Post-it notes possible.”

Jonah believes that the kind of thinking that enables these unexpected connections is the essence of creativity, and people who daydream seem to be better at it. The trick, though, is daydreaming and letting your mind wander, yet remaining aware enough to recognize a sudden insight when it comes. He makes the point that if you don’t notice an idea, it’s not useful daydreaming: “The reason Fry is such a good inventor—-he has more than twenty patents to his name, in addition to Post-it Notes—-isn’t simply that he’s a prolific mind-wanderer. It’s that he’s able to pay attention to his daydreams and to detect those moments when his daydreams generate insights.”

What that means is that not all daydreaming is created equal. Sitting around the house all day in one long protracted daydream won’t produce any insights, unless there was a certain density of attention paid to a specific problem that preceded it. It’s dedicated daydreaming—-purposeful mind-wandering that yields productive creativity.

“When our minds are at ease,” says Jonah, “we’re more likely to direct the spotlight of attention inward, toward that stream of remote associations emanating from the right hemisphere. In contrast, when we are diligently focused, our attention tends to be directed outward, toward the details of the problems we’re trying to solve. While this pattern of attention is necessary when solving problems analytically, it actually prevents us from detecting the connections that lead to insights.”

Naturally, I’m curious about the role of daydreaming in Jonah’s own creative process.

“I think about this great Albert Einstein line,” he tells me. “The one about ‘creativity is the residue of time wasted.’ In my own creative process, I now feel much more comfortable knowing that when I’ve hit a wall, spent a day tinkering with the same stupid paragraph—that it’s time to take a walk and accept the fact that the most productive thing I can do will look really unproductive to everyone else. I now take more long, languid showers and don’t feel guilty when I take long walks in the middle of the day.

“Answers to my toughest problems come to me while I’m walking, when I’m not thinking about them. I know when I’m stuck that I’m not going to solve them by just playing with words on my computer screen—-I need to get away.

“I think about Jonathan Schooler, who has pioneered the study of daydreaming and mind wandering. He’s shown that people who daydream score higher on creativity tests. He takes a dedicated daydreaming walk every day on this beautiful bluff along the Pacific, just north of Santa Barbara. He talks about how he always knows when he desperately needs a daydreaming walk.

It’s the problems that really seem impossible, where there’s no feeling of knowing, no sense of a solution, no sense of progress—those really hard problem that are most likely going to be solved by long walks, showers, meditation, games of ping pong…those kinds of things.”

What Imagine and the literature about the neuroscience of creativity says is, when we need moments of insight, when we need to find far-reaching connections between seemingly unrelated ideas, when we’ve really hit the wall…that’s when we need to relax, to stop thinking about work, because the answer will only arrive when we stop looking for it.

The next time someone catches you daydreaming on the job and asks you why you’re not working, tell them that in fact you’re doing your best, most creative work.

For more on science based pieces and articles written by either me or others check out my Dreams section of this blog.

Do Animals Dream?

Yes. Many pet owners have seen their sleeping dog or cat twitch or paw the air, as if dreaming of bones to bury or mice to chase.

Stanley Coren, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the book The Intelligence of Dogs, says that canines go through the same sleep stages as we do, only faster.

After about 20 minutes, a dog enters REM sleep, the stage in which most vivid dreams occur. Big dogs dream longer, Coren says, and little dogs dream quickly and frequently.

He doesn’t know why, and neither does anyone else. Insects and fish don’t experience REM sleep, but some birds and all mammals do. Reptiles might also experience REM, and some scientists argue that our mammalian dreaming might be a holdover from our reptilian brains.

The purpose of dreaming remains a mystery, but infants (of all species) dream more often. This is probably because the sensory stimulation helps form new neural connections.

In adults, the best working theory is that dreams stimulate the regions of the brain associated with memory. Finches replay the melody of their birdsong in their dreams, and lab rats retrace the mazes they have run.

For more on dreams..

dream

Where Do Dreams Come From?

Until recent years, the study of dreams has mostly been in the dark. With many of the data being inconclusive as it is such an illusive function of the brain to grasp.

But new studies from unexpected places could shed some light on where our dreams are formed, which would in turn explain for such extraordinary visuals when in the act of dreaming.

As some of my old time followers may already be aware of, I have a deep obsession with dreams. So I went and did some personal researching to find out or get some clues on the leading theories of where our dreams may be forged. The following are two separate excerpts one from a Journal of Neurology and another from a Scientific American article on The Science Behind Dreaming:

Abstract:

The term Charcot–Wilbrand syndrome (CWS) denotes dream loss following focal brain damage. We report the first case of CWS, in whom neuropsychological functions, extension of the underlying lesion, and sleep architecture changes were assessed.

A 73-year-old woman reported a total dream loss after acute, bilateral occipital artery infarction (including the right inferior lingual gyrus), which lasted for over 3 months. In the absence of sleep–wake complaints and (other) neuropsychological deficits, polysomnography (sleep study) demonstrated an essentially normal sleep architecture with preservation of REM sleep. Dreaming was denied also after repeated awakenings from REM sleep.

This observation suggests that CWS (1) can represent a distinct and isolated neuropsychological manifestation of deep occipital lobe damage, and (2) may occur in the absence of detectable REM sleep abnormalities. Ann Neurol 2004

In other words:

A very rare clinical condition known as “Charcot-Wilbrand Syndrome” has been known to cause (among other neurological symptoms) loss of the ability to dream. However, it was not until a few years ago that a patient reported to have lost her ability to dream while having virtually no other permanent neurological symptoms.

The patient suffered a lesion in a part of the brain known as the right inferior lingual gyrus (located in the visual cortex). Thus, we know that dreams are generated in, or transmitted through this particular area of the brain, which is associated with visual processing, emotion and visual memories.

Journal ref: Total dream loss: A distinct neuropsychological dysfunction after bilateral PCA stroke

How About No?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being realistic but this is actually not entirely true. I don’t mind looking a bit foolish explaining this if this is actually a joke but whatever.

I don’t really believe in wishing upon a star, but on the defense of those that do believe in that; Stars vary in shapes, sizes, energy output, and even chemical composition which allows it to either grow really old before it dies or die a youngster. With this in mind, you’re only a few million lightyears late if the star was rather young and weak or old and at the end of its life and perhaps really distant from your position, and even then you ought to consider a few of the following..

For instance our star, the sun, has a couple billion years of life to go before it turns into a white dwarf star and dies collapsing under its own gravity. Our star is an average star, and average stars are a plenty in this universe.. that’s why they’re called average. So if some hypothetical alien was wishing upon this star, our star, and it was a mere few million light years away, this star would still be alive and kicking off its energy since our star still has some couple billion years to go before it dies. Also, light years are measured by time not distance.

So when you say “FUCK YOU AND YOUR DREAMS YOU’RE A FEW MILLION LIGHTYEARS LATE DOHOHOHOHO >:]” it does not imply that the star is dead but rather that the star you’re viewing now in real-time is but a baby picture of what the star actually is now. It may dead, it may be kicking its few bits of energy, it may still be energy abundant or in its prime. But know this, not every star you view in the night sky is dead.

Just like not every wish or dream you make is dead. Keep dreaming the good dreams and make em’ happen!

Science: 1 Pessimists: 0

PS: I really need to stop arguing with pictures..

Beautiful Dream by Stamga

“The Beautiful Nightmares” of Zdzislaw Beksinski