Dreams remain an awesome mystery. They can be trite and serendipitous; they can be frightening and portentous; they can be structured and calming; and they can be all of these at once! Which makes you wonder what they're really about. Are they visions of an inescapable future? Insights into your emotional state? Warnings of possible disasters? Or discarded thoughts that your brain no longer has room to store?
Researchers are investigating all of these possibilities and responding with many different theories. Some say that no evidence exists to prove that dreams have any point at all. But most people find it hard to believe that we dream for no reason. They offer other possible purposes for dreaming, including (but not limited to) the following:
Dealing with stress
Preserving your mental and physical health
Storing new skills and information
Getting rid of superfluous information
Leading you toward spiritual growth
Receiving intuitive messages (last but far from least!)
Before coming up with an answer to why people dream, researchers need to understand the processes involved in dreaming. The logical place to start is with what happens in the body and brain during sleep. By using electrodes to monitor brain waves, eye movements, muscle tension, and other physiological data, researchers can tell when people are dreamingand then wake them up and ask them what was going on! (Sounds like a job every little brother would love.)
