Russell's Teapot issue 4

D
R
E
A
M
S
Dreams are hallucinations that occur during REM sleep,
the deepest state of sleep. They usually reflect someone’s
mood or events throughout their life, or any trauma that
the person may have experienced. Some people even
believe that their dreams can tell the future. But what do
dreams actually mean, and why do they exist?
One theory is that we dream in order to confront any unconscious
emotions that are locked in our brain. Objects
in dreams sometimes have symbolic meanings, usually
those you remember when you wake up. For example,
being in an embarrassing situation in your dream may
be your brain confronting any shame or anxiety buried
deep in your unconscious. Confronting these emotions
in dreams is convenient because when we are asleep the
brain is in its most vulnerable and emotional state, which
leaves the dreamer relieved after they wake up.
Another theory is that dreaming helps memory; a study
that was conducted investigated how dreams can assist
memory. A group of people were told that they were
going to partake in a maze: those who took a nap and
dreamed about the maze were more successful than those
had not slept or had not dreamed about the maze. This
leads researchers to believe that there are some memory
processes that only take place while we are asleep, causing
our memory to be stronger and more successful.
Another theory is that dreaming keeps our brain working;
this is because we believe that the brain always needs
to be active or creating memories in order to be healthy
and functional. Theoretically, this is done by dreaming
so that the brain can create memories even while we are
asleep. This could explain why we sometimes feel like we
are falling as we are drifting off to sleep. We still are not
sure why the body can sometimes jerk right before we fall
asleep, however doctors theorise that when we go into the
deeper stages of sleep, the brain misunderstands the situation
and thinks that we are falling or dying, causing it to
startle the body. This happens to the majority of people
every now and then, so it is perfectly normal.
levels of stress and anxiety, particularly right before you
go to sleep. However, there are several foods that can also
contribute to nightmares due to the chemicals that are
in them. Cheese is a quite common (and well known)
factor of nightmares. Sometimes it depends on the type of
cheese, for example blue cheese is believed to cause vivid
dreams or nightmares, while cheshire cheese can cause
someone to have no dreams. However, if you regularly
suffer from nightmares, you may have a sleeping disorder.
Being afraid to go to sleep or regularly waking up in the
middle of the night due to dreams can both be signs of
sleeping disorders.
Lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming is the idea of being fully aware and
alert while you dream. Many people do this to practice
skills, for psychological reasons, or even just for fun. In
all fairness, the majority of people spend approximately
one third of their life in the dream state, which is a lot of
life that could be potentially spent experiencing things
that may be more difficult to experience in the material
world, such as flying or going into space. There are several
methods to lucid dream, one of them being regular reality
checks throughout the day. Clocks do not work properly
in dreams: time moves much faster in dreams than they
do in real life. Things may also be significantly more
blurry than usual, or you might have too many fingers
on each hand. However, you could also simply fall asleep
with the intention of lucid dreaming and wake up in an
unknown world. These things are all part of dreaming,
just one more normalised yet extraordinary phenomenon
of the brain.
By Natasha Kirmani
Nightmares
A nightmare is a dream that is unpleasant or frightening
and many people experience nightmares from time
to time. There are several factors that could individually
affect dreams, such as events that have happened or foods
that we eat. Nightmares are usually causes by elevated