Dreams are stories and images that our minds create while we sleep. They can be entertaining, fun, romantic, disturbing, frightening, and sometimes bizarre.

They are an enduring source of mystery for scientists and psychological doctors. Why do dreams occur? What causes them? Can we control them? What do they mean?

This article will explore the current theories, causes, and applications of dreaming.

FAST FACTS ON DREAMS

We may not remember dreaming, but everyone is thought to dream between 3 and 6 times per night
It is thought that each dream lasts between 5 to 20 minutes.
Around 95 percent of dreams are forgotten by the time a person gets out of bed.
Dreaming can help you learn and develop long-term memories.
Blind people dream more with other sensory components compared with sighted people.

•CAUSES

Dreams: Do they represent our unconious desires?

There are several theories about why we dream. Are dreams merely part of the sleep cycle, or do they serve some other purpose?

Possible explanations include:

representing unconscious desires and wishes
interpreting random signals from the brain and body during sleep
consolidating and processing information gathered during the day.

.What are dreams?
Dreams are a universal human experience that can be described as a state of consciousness characterized by sensory, cognitive and emotional occurrences during sleep.

The dreamer has reduced trusted Source control over the content, visual images and activation of the memory.

There is no cognitive state trusted Source that has been as extensively studied and yet as frequently misunderstood as dreaming.

There are significant differences between the neuroscientific and psychoanalytic approaches to dream analysis.

Neuroscientists are interested intrusted Source the structures involved in dream production, dream organization, a However, psychoanalysis concentrates on the meaning of dreams and placing them in the context of relationships in the history of the dreamer.

.Source capabilities
reflecting unconscious mental function trusted Source in a psychoanalytic way
a unique state of consciousness that incorporates experience Trusted Source of the present, processing of the past, and preparation for the future
a psychological space where overwhelming, contradictory, or highly complex notions can be brought together trusted Source by the dreaming ego, notions that would be unsettling while awake, serving the need for psychological balance and equilibrium
Much that remains unknown about dreams. They are by nature difficult to study in a laboratory, but technology and new research techniques may help improve our understanding of dreams.