Like, I get that dreams are probably a way for the brain to sort and store its recent experiences, but why/how do we even remember those dreams? I can’t think of what purpose that could serve, other than to make me question my sanity.
Like, I get that dreams are probably a way for the brain to sort and store its recent experiences, but why/how do we even remember those dreams? I can’t think of what purpose that could serve, other than to make me question my sanity.
We usually don’t.
As for why we do… The brain is a chunk of biology. You probably can’t just hit “shift+delete” on stuff.
Our brains do few things with perfect accuracy.
Scans have shown that dreams basically use the same parts of the brain as doing whatever is happening in the dream for real.
Waking up, especially abruptly, isn’t gonna “clear” your RAM so to speak. You’re gonna have access to the “state” your brain was in during sleep. And even then you have to make an effort for that stuff to end up in long-term memory, as the vast majority of the time dreams just kinda slip out of your mind without being retained.
Sometimes I wonder if this nightmare world is the dream and while I’m in this dream, I temporarily am unable to access the memories of the “real me” out there in the “real world”
Oh shit I just accidentally retold Inception
Brb gotta find my totem real quick…
I’ve had inception dreams several times, which does indeed make me question my sanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbvuM83nhcg
I suggest you look into lucid dreaming, hypnosis and shared dreaming.
the brain is incredibly complex and only 1/15th of what we consider “conscious thought” is truly conscious.
When we sleep, some parts of our brains remain active. historically we think it did this to keep a eye on the external stimuli(senses) so we can react to predators.
but as we have evolved, our bodies and brains changed. we still try to process those sensory inputs, but we we sleep we stop receiving most of them, so our brain begins to fill in the blanks. as we do, our brain begins to recall trauma and pleasure, to try and process them. they are always ever present anyways, shaping how we experience reality. in this shapeless, sensory less space, its the primary drive of effectively internal hallucinations.
as we sleep, we process those emotions by expierencing, emotionally drive hallucinations by our brain.
how do we know this? it’s been documented via sensory deprivation experiments. the overlap with drugs such as LSD is uncanny and it led to a much deeper understanding of both psychology and dream studies.
this is also why we now know “phantom limb” disorders are a result of psychological effects, not physical ones. the brain is fully aware of the lack of tissue, our psyche is the one that refuses to accept it does not exist. this is why people born with missing or deformed limbs do not expierence the same.
all this said, dreams prevent us from going insane. without them, rest feels less fulfilling as our brain fails to relax. even a nightmare is better for the overall psyche, then endless silence.
What makes you think I haven’t? I’m not talking about why we dream.
“As for why we do” refers to “why do we remember dreams” not why they happen.
Too complex to cite figures like “1/15th”.
That’s the kind of thing, unlike what parts of the brain are active during sleep, we can’t even guess.
Additionaly, there is wide variance between individuals. Some folks can control dreams, making up the story as they go with deliberate decisions. I’ve had this several times. Also, some medications have significant effects on dreaming. Overall, the various states of consciousness and the functioning of memory are poorly understood.