Saturday, September 7, 2019

Crazy dreams

(This is a  brain dumping, quick information look up and document entry)
Sleeping serves to regulate our metabolism, blood pressure, brain functions (cleaning brain waste, memory sorting, and learning integration) . Apparently, the role dreaming is more controversial around scientists. Some theories for the purpose of dreams include: 

Dreams as therapist

Dreams seem to operate from an emotional regions of the brain, where the logical region is shut off. The brain may be trying to make connections regarding feelings that the conscious self wouldn't make.

Dreams as fight-or-flight training

The amygdala, associated with survival and fight or flight response, is one of the most active part of the brain while dreaming. One theory suggests that dreaming is how the brain trains to deal with threats.

Dreams as muse

Dreams may serve to facilitate our creative tendencies. Many artists credit their dreams for inspiring their creative work.

Dreams as memory aides

Dreams may help the brain to integrate what you learned during the day and sort through complicated thoughts and feelings, to integrate your interpretation of what happened during the day, and to store important memories.

Factors that influence dreaming include daily activities, food taken that day, and health conditions. Sleep deprivation seems to induce more vivid dreams when you do eventually go to sleep. Pregnancy also induces intense dreaming due to increased hormone production. Mental health conditions can cause intense dreams. Antidepressant and antipsychotics have been associated with higher risk of nightmares.

(sources 12)

Why do I suddenly look up a summary of what is known about dreams? I woke up from a night of crazy dreams, one involving my mother owning a giant draw of bras of all sizes. She claimed that she "won" them as a prize). Another was about the mother of a friend who has passed away in real life. In my dream she came back to life to teach me about meridian lines on my body.

Sometimes my dreams are about stuff I encountered or thoughts I have been thinking about during the day, but I haven't been thinking about my mother or my friend or her mom. So where the hell did those thoughts come from (from the unconscious mind of course). Some people like to do dream interpretations, and they are basically creative endeavours which can go in any direction. I just want to know at a higher level what mine are trying to tell me. I think I have my crazy dreams because I am too stressed during the day (why? I have no clue). Yesterday in the afternoon while shopping with boyfriend I suddenly got sleepy and wanted to sit down, even though I have been doing next to nothing all day.

I have tried to read up on dreams before and wasn't satisfied with what I read. The scientific interpretations are very dry, because not all scientists studying dreams and sleep have crazy dreams themselves. But I think I should look up more about dreaming and how to take measures to resolve some of the issues so I don't dream about them any more.  Healthline.com suggests exercising in the morning and reducing stress in daily life in general. I suspect I need to do more meditations and a few more things.

2 comments:

  1. If you want to know what your dreams are trying to tell you at a higher level, I think dream interpretation is a great place to start.

    There is a theory (I think it's called Gestalt theory, but I'm not 100 percent certain) that says that people that appear in your dreams are representations of certain aspects of yourself. So maybe your mom represents a certain part of yourself that is protective of others (maternal etc). And so on.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Nobel. Would be interesting to speak with someone else about analyzing my dreams, but I'm afraid my fragmented dreams bore most people who know me and I am not ready to spend thousands of dollars analyzing them with a professional therapist. I will work on maybe relaxing and destress more before I go to bed, in the hopes to reduce the frequency of intense dreams (I suspect they are related to my stress levels. We'll see if my attempts are helpful or not).

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