What is a dream?
What Is A Dream?
Dreams is a state of consciousness, an experience that you have when you are asleep. It is really interesting and can give you insight into what is going on in your inner mind.
It can be entertaining, disturbing, or downright bizarre. It might even be possible to experience your past lives in your dreams. We all dream, even if we don't remember it the next day.
What is a dream?
Is your dream a nightmare or a reflection of your subconscious?
Any new phenomenon in a human being's consciousness is called a dream. This includes both the experience as well as the individual's interpretation of what they dreamt. It is a new phenomenon that is unique to the individual.
Dreams are symbolic representations of states of consciousness, dreams are a form of imagination and while it can be intriguing, it can also be confusing.
Dreams are memory fragments which are stored by the brain. The more you sleep, the more those fragments are stored and as you sleep deeper the dreams become more complex and detailed. This is also the reason why some people sleep more than others.
Why do we dream?
One of the most important reasons why we dream is because of brain function.
Somewhere within our brain, there is a chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which controls most of our subconscious, and unconscious actions.
GABA is responsible for regulation of the mind. The function of a dream is to give us a visual feedback on what we should be doing.
The problem is that when we do something stupid or naughty, we tend to remember it much better in our dreams than we do during the day, and so we can keep reminding ourselves not to repeat the behaviour, which is why we dream!
Humans are the only animals that dream. It is thought that about a third of the human population have some sort of recurring dream.
Many doctors now refer to it as a "sleep disorder".
When can you have a lucid dream?
The duration of the dream and the boundaries of your consciousness tend to be much longer and less restricted during a lucid dream. Your waking consciousness, known as your neocortex, begins to function normally again, but your unconscious body or subconscious, the 'metapsychic' part of your mind still acts like a dream. It is from this state that you are considered to be having a lucid dream.
Only about 10% of us are ever able to become lucid during a dream. The other 90% are suffering from an inability to become lucid during a dream.
Many myths surround lucid dreaming, and it is generally considered to be a uniquely rare ability which only a minority of the population has, although the results of this belief can be highly subjective and vary from person to person.
How to have a lucid dream
It is possible to have an out-of-body experience where you can control what you are doing and who you are in real life, an out-of-body experience is a dream that you feel that you are actually somewhere else rather than your physical body.
Take a couple minutes and try to become aware of what you are dreaming. You might not understand why you are dreaming, that is OK.
Sometimes you just know that you are dreaming and that is the important part. When you become aware, you will probably have the "tell me, tell me" feeling.
You will then tell yourself "I am dreaming" then feel your body lift off the bed and out of your physical body.
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Thank you for your interest. We hope you enjoyed this article. The information in this article is offered as a tool to help you with your dreams.