Dreams, Reality, & Memory

[DrmDoc]

Why are our dreams so easily forgotten? Although not the only one, one explanation is that dreaming is a mechanism for ridding the brain of useless data; i.e., dreams are irrelevant data and are not meant to be remembered. Here's the short answer suggested by the research I did for a book about the dreaming brain, which I wrote a couple of years ago. Memory was evolved to preserve the physical well-being of ancestral animals before those animals developed dreaming brains. What these ancient animals likely remembered most were those experiences that had a real impact on their physical/material survival. Consequently, as descendents of these animals, certain parts of our brain that involve memory appear to become active only in the presences of real physical/material sensory experiences. Although it may appear otherwise, dreams do not involve real physical sensory encounters; i.e., physical/material sensory experiences do not reach our dreaming brain the way these experiences do when we are consciously awake. Because our dreams do not involve real physical experiences that are actually perceived through our bodily senses, parts of our brain--associated with memory--remain inactive and we, consequently, do not give our dreams the concurrent priority and attention that produces a sustained memory of them. We forget our dreams easily because they are not concurrent with true physicality. I welcome your thoughts.

[Marat]

Wouldn't that mean that dreams occurring in response to real circumambient stimuli, such as dreaming about being in a freezing environment when your bedroom is cold, or dreaming that you are searching for a bathroom when you in fact have to urinate while asleep, would produce a more lasting memory and be more easily recalled and preserved as a memory after waking?

 

What do you think of the old Freudian explanation for the rapid forgetting of dreams after waking, that since dreams present conflicts between the id and ego which the ego cannot deal with in non-symbolic forms while awake, we have to forget them quickly after awakening, since otherwise the ego would be threatened with unacceptable material which the waking mind might be more adept at stripping of its symbolic guise than the sleeping mind?

[Violet Mistress]

Well, let's take a good look at exactly, what we dream about. For instance, two nights ago, I had a horrible nightmare about a chainsaw-wielding maniac chasing me around what appeared to be a large pit railed with cheaply made wood. This could very well come from my subconsious mind, seeing as I had played Resident Evil 5 (if any of you are familiar with it), just the week before. Although I cannot say for certain, because none of us know what lingers in our subconsious mind. Most of my dreams are about things I've already encountered. Some have even given me ideas for new stories. When I'm sleeping, it offers my mind the opportunity to run wild. Apparently, people have over one thousand dreams per night, but we only remember one or two of them. Where do the rest go? Possibly in our subconsious mind, where they can later be brought out when some sort of trigger is excountered.

 

I by no means claim to be an expert on the subconsious mind, but it's quite possibly it's where our dreams come from. Besides, a thousand dreams is a lot for the brain to proccess. It's a lot of work to store the memories of those dreams. It's possible the brain just discards them as soon as they take place. Because the brain is constantly working (even when you sleep), it's quite possible it just keeps the dreams entirely out of the area dealing with memories. (My opinions would probably make more sense if I knew what area of the brain works when we are actually dreaming).

[Mr Skeptic]

Our dreams are probably to help us process memories, and some seem to be related to problem-solving. Anyhow, remembering your dreams is potentially problematic, since you might forget that memory was from a dream, and then perhaps think you got fired from your job or slept with someone, that a friend did something nasty to you, or something similar that could get you in trouble.

[DrmDoc]

Wouldn't that mean that dreams occurring in response to real circumambient stimuli, such as dreaming about being in a freezing environment when your bedroom is cold, or dreaming that you are searching for a bathroom when you in fact have to urinate while asleep, would produce a more lasting memory and be more easily recalled and preserved as a memory after waking?

 

A specific area of the brain (prefrontal), associated with the formation of sustained memory, experiences a condition of low activation (hypofrontality) during the dreaming (REM) phase of sleep. This area, among other functions, mediates our assessment and consideration of consequence and consequential experience. Its low activation amid dream is a response to our dreaming brain's diminished conscious connection to our physical sensory (sound and touch) environment. What we remember most about our dream content begins to form during our arousal from sleep as our prefrontal function is once again stimulated by incoming (afferent) data from our physical sensory array. Consequently, dreams that incorporate stimuli from our sleep environment (e.g., cold room) are how our arousing brain integrates the internal experience of dreaming with afferent stimuli from our sensory environment. Arousing from dreams about urinating with a need to do so, is likely caused by the dream itself rather than a bodily need. This is a case of mind over body wherein the compulsion to urinate is inspired by the content of the dream rather than an afferent perception that has been integrated into the dream.

 

What do you think of the old Freudian explanation for the rapid forgetting of dreams after waking, that since dreams present conflicts between the id and ego which the ego cannot deal with in non-symbolic forms while awake, we have to forget them quickly after awakening, since otherwise the ego would be threatened with unacceptable material which the waking mind might be more adept at stripping of its symbolic guise than the sleeping mind?

 

Although not entirely his fault, Freud was wrong. Freud's ideals about the nature of dreams and our mental construct were predicated on his observations of aberrant examples. Unfortunately, Freud did not have access to the kind of imaging technologies nor brain and sleep research that we presently enjoy. If he had, he would have realized that dreaming is merely the synthesis of brainstem activations amid the sleep process. He would have understood that these activations do not originate from our senses and, therefore, are not perceived by the brain as originating from our sensory environment. Because these activations do not contain data that our brain recognizes as reality, they do not stimulate the kind of memory and gross-locomotion responses we apply to true physical/material experience.

 

When I'm sleeping, it offers my mind the opportunity to run wild. Apparently, people have over one thousand dreams per night, but we only remember one or two of them. Where do the rest go? Possibly in our subconsious mind, where they can later be brought out when some sort of trigger is excountered….It's a lot of work to store the memories of those dreams. It's possible the brain just discards them as soon as they take place. Because the brain is constantly working (even when you sleep), it's quite possible it just keeps the dreams entirely out of the area dealing with memories. (My opinions would probably make more sense if I knew what area of the brain works when we are actually dreaming).

 

It's difficult to make an accurate count of how many dreams we experience during each cycle of REM; however, REM occurs at 90 minute intervals during normal sleep on average. The longer we sleep, the more time spent in REM per interval. Our brain is predisposed by evolution to remember experiences of real physical/material consequence. Although we may not be mindfully aware amid a dream that our experiences aren't real, atonia and hypofrontality suggests that our brain is very much aware. Atonia is the cessation of the muscle readiness essential to our responses in physical reality. Hypofrontality suggest a cessation of the assessment process associated with our consideration of consequential experience.

 

Our dreams are probably to help us process memories, and some seem to be related to problem-solving. Anyhow, remembering your dreams is potentially problematic, since you might forget that memory was from a dream, and then perhaps think you got fired from your job or slept with someone, that a friend did something nasty to you, or something similar that could get you in trouble.

 

There are studies that suggest a strong association between dream sleep and conscious cognitive functions. However, the stronger studies are those that show that atonia rather than dreaming is the component of sleep process that is most essential to our conscious mental acuity. Although some of us may have construed our dream experiences as reality, the possibly of that happening is most likely not the reason our dreams are so easily forgotten. We have to think about the evolved nature of brain function, memory, and dreaming to understand why. Dreams aren't reality and memory was evolve as a survival strategy for reality. Dreaming is a response to subcortical stimuli that does not activate a part of the brain that contributes significantly memory when we are consciously awake and aware. One of the most prominent distinctions between the dreaming and waking brain is the kind and degree of data available to each.