In dreams, there are no rules.
Interview: Noëmi Kern
Sleep researcher Christine Blume explains what researchers know about dreaming and what remains to be clarified.
UNI NOVA: How are dreams formed?
Christine Blume: Researching the phenomenon of dreaming is difficult because it cannot be measured using neuroscientific methods. To find out whether a person is currently dreaming, and perhaps even what they are dreaming about, you need to wake them up. Accordingly, we can never measure a dream in the moment that it emerges. We dream of things we experience in everyday life and that are on our minds. Researchers refer to this as the continuity between being awake and dreaming, and analyses have shown that people who have experienced the same things during the day also have similar dreams.
Why do we dream?
Many people think that dreams must have a specific function, and special value has always been attached to them. In psychology and psychiatry, there are also therapeutic approaches in which the phenomenon is seen as particularly significant. For example, dreams are thought to offer access to unconscious processes or to simulate difficult situations that prepare us for challenges in real life. So far, however, neuroscientific research has been unable to clarify the function of dreams. Some researchers even hypothesize that dreams are nothing but a by-product of night-time brain activity — an “epiphenomenon” — and may have no special function at all.
When do we dream?
Previously, dreams were thought to occur primarily in the “rapid eye movement” phase of sleep, in which we are essentially paralyzed and have particularly intense and bizarre dreams. It is now clear, however, that we dream in all stages of sleep — although the quality of dreams varies depending on the stage. We presumably therefore dream for several hours a night.
Why do some people remember their dreams better than others?
Given the number and length of dreams in a night, what we remember is only a fraction. There is no definitive answer as to why recall is easier for some people than for others. The attention we pay to dreams is probably a factor. It is therefore possible to train oneself to remember dreams, for example, by keeping a dream journal and making a note of dreams immediately after waking — before the brain turns its attention to other things. Many people feel that they remember more bad dreams than positive ones. Presumably, however, people simply remember the negative ones better. Incidentally, how precisely we remember our dreams is not an indicator of good or bad sleep.
Dreams are sometimes completely absurd. Where does that come from?
Dreaming is also related to creativity. The idea is that our brains break memories down and then cobble experiences together into a new storyline along with a problem we are trying to solve. In sleep, unlike when we’re awake, we lack a “supervisory authority” that says: “No, that’s impossible.” That’s why we can do things like fly in our dreams.
Do dreams contain messages?
Dreams derive their content from the waking mind, and the emotions in dreams are similar to those we experience when we’re awake. Accordingly, a dream can be the starting point for addressing things that are apparently bothering us. It’s up to the individual to decide what meaning to ascribe to dreams and whether they want to interpret them at all.
More about dreams
More articles in this issue of UNI NOVA (November 2024).