Dreams

Throughout my life I, like everyone else, have has thousands of dreams. Most I can't remember but some seem to stand out in my mind like I'll remember them forever. Dreams are so fascinating and have been the topic of many debates by psychologists and scientists alike. I used to think that dreams were just crazy things that you thought up when you fell asleep and let your mind wander. But there are so many more theories that seem to have equally likely concepts about dreams.

Sigmund Freud is the most popular dream analyst. He believes that everything happens for a reason, even your dreams. He thinks that dreams are your way of letting out your deepest desires and wants. He believes that during sleep, your superego that normally controls the id, your crazy primal desires, lets lose and that's why we dream about wild things.

Another theory is the Activation- Synthesis Model of Dreaming. This was developed by J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1977. According to this, certain circuits in the brain are activated during sleep which activates emotions, sensations, and memories to surface, which causes us to dream.

Other then these two theories, there are so many more simpler ones. One example that I can see as being true is our brain trying to register outside stimuli into a meaning. This is why our alarm clocks can become part of our dreams. Another theory is that with the emotions coming into the mind, it mixes with the events of the day and helps tie together loose ends. This explains how people can come up with an answer to a problem that they couldn't figure out before, because the brain kept working on it overnight without other interruptions putting the pieces together. We might never know the real meaning of dreams, if there is any meaning at all. So it is up to each individual to determine their own meaning and believe in what they want. So what do you believe?

Sources:
http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/freud.htm
http://www.lucidity.com/LD8DFM.html