Exploring The Mysteries Of The Sleeping Mind

By: Emma Wen

As you regain consciousness from a deep slumber, fragments of your dreams start to resurface. Some are bizarre, with stacks of random foods or monsters while others tap into our fears of public humiliation or phobias. Dreams are a diverse landscape, prompting the question: why do we dream? Several psychologists have analyzed this question, distinguishing between the manifest content (the actual dream) and the latent content (its hidden meaning). Moreover, psychologists have explored ways to attribute a purpose to the latent content of dreams. 

Freud’s well-known dream theory suggests that dreams serve as a form of “wish-fulfillment” (SimplyPsychology). In other words, repressed emotions and desires are released during dreams. This allows an individual to be free to deal with the emotional arousals the next day. For instance, if your sibling had been annoying you and your parents didn’t let you do anything about it, your dream’s manifest content might involve getting back at your sibling, while the latent content would be the underlying anger towards your sibling. 

The threat-simulation theory proposes that dreaming is a biological mechanism that simulates potential dangers (CourseHero). Psychologists have attributed much of our behaviors to an evolutionary perspective which explains that human behaviors adapt for survival advantages (Myers). This would explain why many people are afraid of heights; their ancestors realized that they would die if they walked off a cliff. Dreams, in this context, act as simulators for adapting to potentially harmful situations. For example, the manifest content of your dream might be about your first day of high school where you forget your phone at home. The latent content of this dream would be that you are nervous about high school and forgetting your phone is a potential threat. 

The activation-synthesis theory addresses that dreams result from the brain’s attempt to make sense of electrical impulses, drawing upon pre-existing memories (NIH). This theory explains that these dreams become more memorable upon waking as the brain strives to integrate these impulses into a familiar story. 

Recently, more dream theories have also surfaced. In 2021, Erik Hoel, a research assistant professor at Tufts’ Allen Discovery Center, studied machine learning programs and their ability to become ‘overfit.’ This exploration began to align with his insights into dream theories. Dreams, according to Hoel, serve as a mental break from the monotony of daily tasks. Much like an overfit computer, our brains, in their repetitiveness, need a disruption, leading to seemingly absurd dreams. This could help to explain why sleeping on a problem allows the brain to explore unconventional solutions. Your brain was trying every “normal” way of figuring out the problem but needed a break by imagining fake scenarios so that your overfit brain could be disrupted. 

Various other well-developed hypotheses have emerged, each offering a unique lens through which to understand the purpose of dreams. While these theories may not be perfect, they provide diverse perspectives and serve as elaborate guides to uncover our deepest fears and desires. Dreams, far from being a mere escape from reality, organically allow us to express our thoughts in a profound and nuanced manner.