Alicia Volpe
Beautiful question
Philosophy 103,
Spring ‘13
4/25/13
What is my Question?
 Why do we dream?
Does dreaming
reflect our biggest
wants, needs,
desires, and fears,
or are they chemical
reactions in our
brain, making our
imaginations run
wild?
Why Did I choose this?
 I chose this question because for years, I have constantly wondered
what my dreams meant. Dreams have always fascinated me and
interested me on many different levels, so I decided it was time to
do some research.
 Every time I awake from a deep sleep, I open my eyes and think to
myself, what was that? Why did I dream that. What does that
dream mean? Why am I dreaming what I am dreaming. What is
causing me to dream? What is happening in my brain!? SO MANY
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS!
 This question also intrigues me because when I told people I was
asking this question for a project, they responded back to me
“Yeah, why do we dream?”, “That is so interesting, I’ve always
wanted to know what dreams are”, “Oh my gosh when you find out
can you tell me!?”
My theory
 Personally, I think dreams are images in our mind that our brain creates.
Whether we have seen it during the day, whether we have a desire for
those things, or whether those thoughts are bouncing around in our
subconscious. I think it is a mixture of things, that dreams are a reflection
of our biggest wants and desires, and chemical reactions
connecting/clashing neurons in our brain.
 There is one recurrent dream that I keep having because it is a big want
for me and I think it is my subconscious coming to life at night. When you
sleep, you don’t have to think, you don’t judge yourself for thinking your
true thoughts, you just imagine.
 Imagination is is fun as well. In your dreams you can imagine a better life,
a lover, a new car, an A on a test or anything else that may or may not be
possible. With that said, sometimes dreams can be lucid and you can
control what goes on. I have yet to have a lucid dream, but sometimes
when I think really hard about one subject I am able to dream about it in
some sort of context. Or the night before a big exam, the material on that
exam is all I can think about, so I end up dreaming about it. Whether it is
psychology or maternity, I see the vocabulary words, I see myself taking
the exam. Either failing which is a fear/nightmare, or succeeding, and
getting an A, giving myself confidence for the next day to come.
Can you define a dream?
A Dream is a
"succession of
images,
thoughts, or
emotions
passing
through the
mind during
sleep”
Define Lucid Dream
 Lucid dreaming means you have the
ability to control your own dreams
and steer them toward the direction
you want.
 If you want to fly you fly where ever
you want, if you want to see George
Clooney, he’s there because you are
controlling the dream (like in the
movie Inception).
 Here is a youtube video showing you
how to lucid dream
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
llw717IARpQ
Potential Professional Answers
 1: Biological factors in the brain that cause dreams via
chemicals, neurons, and more.
 Here are some theories supporting a biological approach to dreaming…

Activation synthesis theory: this theory believes that “Circuits in the brain become activated
during REM sleep, which causes areas of the limbic system involved in emotions, sensations and
memories, including the amygdala and hippocampus, to become active. The brain synthesizes
and interprets this internal activity and attempts to find meaning in these signals, which results
in dreaming.”

External theory: “Dreams are the result of our brains trying to interpret external stimuli during
sleep.” For example if you fall asleep to the sound of rain hitting the window, you could
potentially dream of something related to water.

Stress theory: In recent studies, researchers have found that when a patient is sleeping and
they are hooked up to a electroencephalogram, certain electrical brain activity occurs. This
brain activity occurs during the REM cycle, and the brain turns off the chemicals linked to
stress. Thus dreaming is a chemical reaction decreasing stress while you sleep.

Storage theory: while dreaming your brain is sorting through the information you learned that
day, storing useful information to long term memory and getting rid of the useless information
you won’t need or that can’t be stored. This reorganizing and “filing” projects images in your
brain while you sleep, thus causing dreams.
REM
 What is REM? REM means Rapid Eye Movement (when you sleep)
 REM sleep is the time in sleep when we dream the most.
 “In REM sleep, the brain fires in similar ways as it does when it's
specifically threatened for survival. In addition to that, the part of the
brain that practices motor activity (running, punching) fires increasingly
during REM sleep, even though the limbs are still.”
 When a person is In REM sleep and awoken it is most likely that they will
remember their dream in full detail.
 Studies have shown that decreased or disrupted REM sleep can lead to
decreased concentration, decreased memory of learned material during
the previous day, increased irritability, and of course, no dreams.
 REM sleep may help us work through difficult events in our lives as well.
Potential professional answers
continued…
 Psychological factors: When dreams are caused by your
subconscious and have nothing to do with the “mechanics” of
the brain.
 Philosopher Freud believed that dreams are caused by “our
unconscious desires, repressed fantasies, and/or are coded
messages.”
 Researchers believe dreams enable the dreamer to make
connections between different thoughts and emotions in a
safe environment as a form of therapy and mental release.
 Some also believe that “we dream in order to rehearse
behaviors of self-defense in the safety of nighttime isolation.
In turn, get better at fight-or-flight in the real world.”
More theories
 “Hobson does not believe that dreams are meaningless.
Instead, he suggests that dreaming is ‘our most creative
conscious state, one in which the chaotic, spontaneous
recombination of cognitive elements produces novel
configurations of information: new ideas. While many or
even most of these ideas may be nonsensical, if even a
few of its fanciful products are truly useful, our dream
time will not have been wasted.’”
Please watch!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GGzc3x9WJ
U
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-objaof8Llg
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=e
ndscreen&v=iZ_SnRJwkNg (Discovery channel
(This ones the best))
 Here are some videos I found on youtube that
describe what dreams are in a more clear
context.
A little of Both
 So like the videos say, “Your mind is trying to organize
things that happened during the day and you are able to
see and experience them over again while you sleep.”
 The videos also stated that dreams are our
subconscious’s way of dealing with our fears and
anxiety. We have nightmares with aggressive
environments to emotionally prepare us for the real
world. If we can handle them in our sleep we can
handle them while we are alert.
Dream interpretation
 Oneirology: the science of dreams and their interpretation.
 Researchers do not yet understand the purpose of dreams but they are
working on it!
 “Some researchers suggest that dreams serve no real purpose, while others
believe that dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.”
 Philosophical views on what dreams mean:
 Freud- dreams are wishful thinking
 Jung- believes that dreams reveal both the personal and collective
unconscious. He thinks they serve to compensate parts of the psyche that are
underdeveloped in waking life.
 Hall- proposed that dreams are part of a cognitive process in which they serve
as ‘conceptions’ of elements in our personal lives.

"Dream
interpretation is not to understand the dream,
however, but to understand the dreamer.”- Hall
Interpret your Dream!
 Take a minute and look at this site, you type in a theme
of one of your recurrent dreams and it tells you what
the meaning is behind that dream
 http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/
Which theory do I chose?
 Like I said earlier, I think there is not one reason as to
why we dream. I believe in both a biological and a
psychological approach. I dream about things I want but
then again I have dreams about things that make no
sense and that are completely random. Those random
dreams, I believe, come from my brain recognizing what
I saw that day and trying to organize them in some sort
of way to either memory or trash.
Why I chose both theories
 I chose both a biological and a psychological approach
as to why we dream because I don’t think you can have
one with out the other. If I see a car that I really want
and it shows up in my dream, then that proves that my
desire for that car is on my subconscious. Also, if I
dream about that car because I saw it earlier in the day,
then my brain is trying to organize this memory into a
long term memory or trash. I believe my brain is trying
to place it somewhere in the millions of storage files
that I have, but while doing that images project during
REM sleep, thus causing my dream of that car.
My Research
 In my research for this topic of why we dream, and what do
dreams mean, I kept a sleep journal for one week.
 I wanted to see if what I saw during the day came back to me
in my sleep.
 I wanted to see if my dreams were random or if they had an
emotional meaning
 I wanted to see how well I could recollect my dreams
 Also, I wanted to look up what the interpretation was for
different or recurring dreams on an online dream analyzer.
Dream Journal
 Night 1: I dreamt I was in Hawaii on vacation with my family. I was in the ocean
playing football with Patriots player Ty Law when all of the sudden the beach
went quiet. I didn’t understand what was going on until I looked up. Up in the
sky was hundreds of Japanese airplanes. Then they started to fire, shooting down
on us. My family and I ran into the hotel, and then I woke up in a panic.
 Analysis: I had no idea what had triggered such a terrifying dream, but it could
be related to the psychological theory of my subconscious rehearsing behaviors
of self-defense in the safety of nighttime isolation, making me better at a fightor-flight type of situation in the real world
 The online dream interpreter says the meaning behind my dream of being
attacked is my way of telling myself that my “character is being questioned. I
feel the need to defend myself. I am feeling stressed, vulnerable and helpless. I
may also be facing difficult changes in my waking life. Dreaming of an attack
provides a way for me to confront these situations that I may be avoiding in real
life.”
 Maybe this dream was caused by my stress of school work or maybe I was
replaying the movie “Pearl Harbor” while I slept.
Dream Journal
 Night 2: I am on the beach in my home town and I see this boy that I like, but
there are two of him. One is close by relaxing in the sun and the other is drinking
by the rocks further down the beach. Both versions of the same guy are telling me
to come to where they were, but I chose the closer one sitting on his towel. Then
my roommate comes over too and sits next to this boy and I get very jealous and
awaken.
 Analysis: There are so many themes going on in this dream. This dream had
emotional meaning to be because in the dream I had strong feelings for this boy. I
also had strong jealousy feelings that felt so real when I awoken. There is also a
recurrent theme of the beach, possibly hinting at my desire for summer and school
to end. Also, why were there two of him? Did it have to do with good vs. bad?
 Online analyzer: “To dream that you are on the beach and looking out toward the
ocean indicates unknown and major changes that are occurring in your life.”
Maybe the unknown of this summer, the unknown of my relationship with this boy,
and the emotional connection I had with this topic made me dream this.
 This dream supported a more Psychological approach to why I dreamt it.
Dream Journal
 Night 3:Again, I dreamt of being in my home town and I am walking
around with this girl who use to be my best friend in middle school. The
twist is that everything is flooded. The beach is destroyed, streets are
flooded and so are the stores. But there we are, walking around in knee
high water taking pictures. But I can’t remember how it ends.
 Analysis: This dream was again, so random to me, but I am pretty sure I
saw on my facebook newsfeed that she uploaded a new picture. So
maybe this is both a psychological reason as to why I dreamt about her
and my town, I was probably making connections between different
thoughts and emotions of how we use to be friends. Or it is a random
biological approach, storing information in my brain, opening up one of
my many saved files, and projecting images during REM sleep.
 The dream analyzer suggests that the flood represents “desire to wipe
everything clean and make a fresh new start.” maybe I want to make a
fresh new start with this girl and reboot our friendship. Also to dream of
an ex-friend “suggests that an object or a recent incident has
subconsciously reminded you of him or her. Alternatively, the ex-friend
represents a lesson you learned from the falling out. You need to apply
that lesson to a current issue, problem or relationship."
Dream Journal
 Night 4: This was an odd night, I had a variety of dreams; I dreamt I was
in Africa observing tigers. Then I dreamt of sledding down a hill. I
proceeded to dream about losing my coat.
 Analysis: I woke up confused. I had no idea what was going on and why
all those things appeared in my head. I don’t think I desired to see
tigers, sled or lose my coat, so this night was a more biologically
supported dream night. The cause of this dream was probably stimulated
by certain things I saw or heard during the day and my brain was just
trying to make sense of it all as I slept.
 Dream analyzer: “the tiger represents female sexuality, aggression, and
seduction” in regards to the coat “too dream that you lose something
indicates that you may really have misplaced something that you had not
realized yet.” and lastly in regards to the sled “To dream that you are
sledding represents your fun-loving personality and open-minded
perspectives on life”
 All very different and unrelated topics that could have been stimulated
by simple brain organization.
Dream Journal
 Night 5:I had a short dream that I was out on a boat with my former
best friends who I no longer talk to and the waters were rough and
scary.
 Analysis: as soon as I woke up I thought, my relationship with those
girls is rough just like that ocean water. I couldn’t remember the
whole dream, but it seemed clear to me that I dreamt this because
my relationship with my old friends is always on my mind. Seeing
them everyday is a constant reminder. Maybe my psychological
desire to be close with them again stimulated the dream or maybe
during REM sleep, which causes areas of the limbic system involved
in emotions, sensations and memories, sparked the dream after
seeing them in class.
 Dream analyzer: “If the ocean is rough, then the dream represents
some emotional turmoil. You are doing your best to handle life's ups
and downs."
Dream Journal
 Night 6: This was a long one; I dreamt I was living in the old apartment building I
use to live in as a kid, only it was much bigger. My older brother was throwing a
party there and he wouldn’t let me go to the party. But I went anyway and it was
huge, there were people everywhere. In my dream I caught my little brother
smoking marijuana and then the party got out of control.
 Analysis: Personally, the cause to this dream was obvious to me because that night
I was suppose to go to the bar with my brother and he refused to bring me. He did
not want me going out with him and his friends in real life. This probably
emotionally upset me and triggered me to dream about going out with him and his
friends. This supports the psychological and biological theories. I desired to go out
that night but got denied, and my brain was probably trying to process why that
happened as I slept
 Dream analyzer: “To dream that you are at a party suggests that you need to get
out more and enjoy yourself.” In real life I obeyed my brother and stayed home
but in the dream I disobeyed and went to the party and disobedience means “that
you are going against your conscience. You know what the right thing to do is, but
still refuse to follow what is right. As a result, you are experiencing much inner
turmoil. The dream points to a rebellious attitude."
Dream Journal
 Night 7: I had a dream that I was on the Quad at URI and a
guy came up to me and asked me out, he became my
boyfriend and did everything for me. Then I became bored of
him and left him”
 Analysis: This could have stemmed from a variety of things,
but I did fall asleep with the TV on, which may have caused
me to dream about having a boyfriend and dumping him. So
that coincides with the External theory: “Dreams are the
result of our brains trying to interpret external stimuli during
sleep.”
 Dream analyzer: suggests that “To dream about a relationship
with a stranger represents the different sides of your
personality. You may be trying to connect to unknown aspects
of your subconscious.”
My perspective
 Am I satisfied with my answer?
 I am completely satisfied with the research I found and I am satisfied with my own
view of dreams. Unless researchers come up with new evidence and theories as to
why humans dream, I am content with both the biological and psychological
theories, not because some philosopher explained his theory, but because I
conducted my own experiment. .
 Previously I stated my goals for my journaling:

I wanted to see if what I saw during the day came back to me in my sleep. I wanted
to see if my dreams were random or if they had an emotional meaning. I wanted to
see how well I could remember my dreams. Also, I wanted to look up what the
interpretation was for different or reoccurring dreams on an online dream analyzer.
 I met all my goals: I saw things in my dreams that I had seen earlier that day or
week, some of my dreams did have emotional meaning, and some were
completely random. I was able to remember my dreams in pretty good detail if I
wrote them down as soon as I woke up. Lastly I used the dream analyzer online
that clarified some of the topics covered in my dreams, which helped me
understand the meaning behind my dreams.
In the end
 In the end my theory as to why we dream is a mixture of
things. I think we dream because our brain is trying to make
sense of our day. Our brain is trying to organize our days
events and make connections to other scenarios, thus bringing
up mental pictures and visions while we sleep. I also believe
that If I really want something and it is constantly on my
mind, then I will dream about it. Desires and fantasies play a
huge role in the cause of dreams and I don’t know how you
can argue against that.
 The only thing I wish I knew now was the how…How is it that
these images project like a movie in my brain while I sleep? I
really hope researchers can discover more about the
mechanics of dreams because now that we know the “why”
they should figure out the “how.”
Wishful thinking….
 If you have never seen the movie Inception then watch
this clip.
 If you have seen it, don’t you think the movie is based
off of lucid dreams?
 Just something to think about because I wish I could
control my dreams!
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yshUmxuEjE
References
Bryant, Charles W. "Why Do We Dream?" HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks, Inc, 1998-2013. Web. 27 Apr.
2013. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/why-do-we-dream.htm>.
Cherry, Kendra. "Dream Interpretation: What Do Dreams Mean?" About.com Psychology. N.p., 2013. Web. 27
Apr. 2013. <http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-interpret.htm>.
Cherry, Kendra. "Why Do We Drea? -Top Dream Theories." About.com. N.p., 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.
<http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm>.
Dell'Amore, Christine. "Why Do We Dream? To Ease Painful Memories, Study Hints." National Geographic.
National Geographic Society, 29 Nov. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111129-sleep-dreaming-rem-brain-emotionsscience-health/>.
"An Online Guide To Dream Interpretation." An Online Guide To Dream Interpretation. Dream Moods, Inc.,
20 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2013. <http://www.dreammoods.com/>.
Simons, Llana. "Why Do We Dream?" Psychology Today. Sussex Directories, Inc., 11 Nov. 2009. Web.
<http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-literary-mind/200911/why-do-we-dream>.