Soooo what’s up with Dreams?

There have been many things written about dreams.  What they mean, where they come from, why we have them.  But there isn’t one agreed upon answer to any of those questions because well, dreams don’t really make sense.  We drift out of consciousness for the night and we experience images, sensations, and actions in our minds that are all out of our control.  Sometimes we remember them; sometimes we don’t.  And rarely do they make much sense. At least mine don’t.  But for the sake of discussion I’m going to try and see if I can make some sense out of what goes on when the sandman visits me at night.   

One theory about dreams is that they are produced from random fragments of thoughts and memories from the day being sorted out and cataloged in our minds.  This seems to make some sense, since I can say I often have dreams related to things that have happened or I’ve  been thinking about.

For example, I recently had a dream in which my friend Kevin was having a birthday party where everyone that was invited, all friends from high school, were playing a giant game of laser tag in our high school.  It was a pretty sweet dream since laser tag is all kinds of fun, and I was hanging out with some really good friends from high school I haven’t seen in a while (well technically still haven’t seen for a while).  Now the strange part is, Kevin’s birthday is at the end of the month, but I hadn’t thought about it being his birthday because it’s 3 weeks away.  Is my brain reminding me of his birthday so I can send him a card with a laser tag gift certificate in it?  I haven’t played laser tag since I was probably about 12, and haven’t really thought about playing laser tag in who knows how long.  I also haven’t visited my high school in a half dozen years, which might explain why in my dream it didn’t really look anything like my high school, but yet I still knew that’s where we were. But all of these rarely visited memories came together in a dream about a game of laser tag.  Very strange.

So how does my brain put all of these random thoughts, ideas, and memories together into a vivid visualization of a laser tag game?  Do other people have weird dreams like this? Or is it just me.  It would be nice if I could have reminder dreams for special upcoming events and dates so I wouldn’t forget a birthday, anniversary, or appointment ever again.  Hmm I wonder if there’s some way to make that happen.

A second theory states that dreams allow the repressed parts of the brain to be satisfied through fantasy and keep the conscious mind from being overwhelmed by these repressed thoughts.  I guess this theory somewhat applies, since I have dreams about playing competitive basketball, football, and baseball pretty frequently.  I’ve always sort of wished my sports career went a little better than it did in high school and have had some regrets in the way that I prepared myself and approached them back then.  You could say I was a little lazy.  And I’ve always wondered what could have been had I taken things a little more seriously.  What could have been. I’ll probably live out that regret over and over again at night.  Stupid brain.

Another theory presented by the famous thinker Mr. Sigmund Freud says that the brain uses dreams to present difficult and stressful situations to help us control our emotional responses to these situations.  This one also tends to ring true with me in some ways, although my brain seems to place a large importance on some rather minor life stresses.  You would probably be amazed by the amount of flat tire dreams I have.  Flat tires do suck and are not fun any to deal with, especially when you need to be someplace, but they rank pretty low on my conscious brains list of greatest fears.  I’ve experienced three flat tires in my life and since then I’ve become slightly paranoid about checking the air level in my tires each and every time I get in and out of my car.  But I’m more afraid of being mugged, going broke, or losing my hair than dealing with another flat tire.

Or being late.  My second most recurring “nightmare” is being late to something.  In the dreams I never know what I’m late for, I just know that I need to be someplace, and I always have obstacles in my way that prevent me from getting to that place in a timely fashion.  Like a flat tire.  Or not being able to find any pants.  (Yes those really happened)  And I usually end up having to run there. In super slow motion.  When I’m not dreaming, I am a very punctual person, and haven’t really had too many traumatic punctuality events in my life that may have triggered some kind of post traumatic stress situation.  I’ve always valued being on time and almost always have been.  Still, I dream about being late all the time.

Maybe I’m a little more neurotic than I give myself credit for and I worry about these things subconsciously, which is why I’m on time places and I fill my tires with air more than the average human being.  Maybe my dreams are meant to deal with those worries and thoughts because my conscious brain doesn’t want to?  Or can’t?  And it in turn makes me deal with them more in real life?  I guess that could make sense.  I’d just prefer my brain chose some bigger issues to work on, rather then punctuality and tire pressure.

Maybe dreams are really just random fragments of information the brain has stored in its deepest crevices and they get threaded into bizarre storylines while you sleep.  That seems to be the most consistent explanation because most of my dreams are just really strange, nonsensical, hodge-podges of previous experiences, people I know, and past, present and future events.  Maybe dreams are just random firings of our neurons and maybe they do have deeper meaning.  Who knows.

I’d love to relay some more of the odd dreams I have, but you might actually think I’m crazy if you read some of them.  Maybe I’ll save those for another post.  The only thing I can really say about dreams is that I’m glad I have them, I just wish I could figure out how to control them because then I could stop worrying about my tires so much.

Leave a comment if you have some great dream insight, experiences, or can relate to something I said.  I’d love to hear about them.