All of us dream while sleeping.
Sometimes we see our dear ones, sometimes our enemies and even sometimes the horrible things too.
We talk, we dance, we fight, we also sing during dreaming.
It also happens sometimes that we feel that whatever we are dreaming is actually happening in reality and after waking up we get confused that what was happening earlier.
Dreams may be defined as a vast collection of images, sounds, emotions and thoughts that are frequently occurring in our mind during the sleep cycle.
The exact logic behind dreaming is still not clear and the facts are accepted only theoretically.
The scientific study of dreaming is designated as oneirology.
Ancient people thought that dreams tell something.
Physiologists think that dreams are certain responses of neurons that come to play during sleep.
Psychologists believe that dreams are the messages from god and are a source of future foretelling.
There is no fully accepted biological definition of dreaming yet present and many scientists have described it according to their understanding.
Eugene Aserinsky in 1952 discovered REM stage of sleep while performing surgery of his Ph.
D.
advisor.
Aserinsky noticed the movements of the eyelids and recorded the brain waves with the help of polygraph which confirmed that the patient was dreaming.
Aserinsky and his advisor published a very good ground breaking paper in the journal Science.
Studies suggest that the process of dreaming mainly occurs during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of the sleep cycle and the electroencephalogram shows the activity of the brain almost similar to that found during the wakefulness.
The dreams that are observed during the non-REM sleep are generally non-memorable.
A normal human being spends six years in dreaming during his complete life span.
Most dreams are of 5-20 minutes duration.
The origin of dreams is supposed to be from brain but nothing is clear in this regard.
The release of certain neurotransmitters is suppressed when a person is in REM sleep as a result the motor neurons are not stimulated.
This condition is termed as REM atonia and this stops the physical movements of the body during sleep.
Animals also dream but their dreams are very complex and very difficult o interpret.
Sigmund Freud interprets that dreams are not retained for a long time as they are of a prohibited character.
The REM sleep and the length of the dreams are correlated.
The length of the dreams increases at the end of night ranging more than 15 minutes.
A number of theories have been given to explain dreaming in organisms.
J.
Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1976 proposed the activation synthesis theory.
This theory interprets that the sensory experiences are constructed by the cortex as signaled by the pons of brain.
They suggested that the cholinergic PGO (ponto-geniculo-occipital) waves activate the forebrain and the hindbrain cortical structures to cause the rapid movements of eye during REM sleep.
The forebrain that has come into action is responsible for the generation of dreams from the collected information.
Forebrain is also responsible for the generation of the sensory information.
Mark Solms suggests that REM sleep and dreams are not correlated at all as suggested by Hobson.
Jie Zhang later on proposed the continual activation theory which suggests that dreaming is a complex process that is the result of brain activation and synthesis and both the REM sleep and dreaming are under the control of different brain mechanisms.
Zhang suggested that the major role of sleep is to encode, transfer and process the data in the form of facts from temporary memory center to the long term memory center since this fact lacks any strong scientific evidence so it is called consolidation.
NREM sleep is responsible for the processing of the declarative memory which is the conscious related memory and the REM sleep processes the procedural memory which is the unconscious related memory.
According to Zhang the pulse like activation of brain is responsible for the generation of dreams.
Eugen Tarnow says that dreams are the ever- present excitations of the long term memory when a person is awake.
The strange types of dreams are the results of the format of the long term memory store.
Penfield & Rasmussen interpret that dreams are the result of the electrical stimulation of the cortex of the brain.
According to a study of 2001 the illogical situations, characters and the dream flow are helpful in the formation of semantic memories.
When we are asleep our eyes are closed and our brain is isolated from the outside world during that period.
The thalamic activity of brain is suppressed during sleep.
During the mid 1990s William Domhoff has analyzed dreams on the basis of their contents.
Individuals experience emotions while dreaming and the most common is the anxiety.
The other emotions include abandonment, pain, joy, fear, laughter and the negative emotions are much more pronounced than the positive ones.
The youngsters dream about sexual matters which constitutes about 10% of their dreams.
Men and women also dream of sexual orgasm and nocturnal emission.
Such types of dreams are called wet dreams.
70% of females and 65% of males often experience recurrent dreams.
Recurrent dreams are those dreams which are experienced after certain occasions including the same format.
Some people experience black and white dreams.
Dreams form a essential part of our life making us happy sometimes and making us sad sometimes.
So keep dreaming.