Like, I get that dreams are probably a way for the brain to sort and store its recent experiences, but why/how do we even remember those dreams? I can’t think of what purpose that could serve, other than to make me question my sanity.
We usually don’t.
As for why we do… The brain is a chunk of biology. You probably can’t just hit “shift+delete” on stuff.
Our brains do few things with perfect accuracy.
Scans have shown that dreams basically use the same parts of the brain as doing whatever is happening in the dream for real.
Waking up, especially abruptly, isn’t gonna “clear” your RAM so to speak. You’re gonna have access to the “state” your brain was in during sleep. And even then you have to make an effort for that stuff to end up in long-term memory, as the vast majority of the time dreams just kinda slip out of your mind without being retained.
Sometimes I wonder if this nightmare world is the dream and while I’m in this dream, I temporarily am unable to access the memories of the “real me” out there in the “real world”
Oh shit I just accidentally retold Inception
Brb gotta find my totem real quick…
I’ve had inception dreams several times, which does indeed make me question my sanity.
Additionaly, there is wide variance between individuals. Some folks can control dreams, making up the story as they go with deliberate decisions. I’ve had this several times. Also, some medications have significant effects on dreaming. Overall, the various states of consciousness and the functioning of memory are poorly understood.
I suggest you look into lucid dreaming, hypnosis and shared dreaming.
the brain is incredibly complex and only 1/15th of what we consider “conscious thought” is truly conscious.
When we sleep, some parts of our brains remain active. historically we think it did this to keep a eye on the external stimuli(senses) so we can react to predators.
but as we have evolved, our bodies and brains changed. we still try to process those sensory inputs, but we we sleep we stop receiving most of them, so our brain begins to fill in the blanks. as we do, our brain begins to recall trauma and pleasure, to try and process them. they are always ever present anyways, shaping how we experience reality. in this shapeless, sensory less space, its the primary drive of effectively internal hallucinations.
as we sleep, we process those emotions by expierencing, emotionally drive hallucinations by our brain.
how do we know this? it’s been documented via sensory deprivation experiments. the overlap with drugs such as LSD is uncanny and it led to a much deeper understanding of both psychology and dream studies.
this is also why we now know “phantom limb” disorders are a result of psychological effects, not physical ones. the brain is fully aware of the lack of tissue, our psyche is the one that refuses to accept it does not exist. this is why people born with missing or deformed limbs do not expierence the same.
all this said, dreams prevent us from going insane. without them, rest feels less fulfilling as our brain fails to relax. even a nightmare is better for the overall psyche, then endless silence.
What makes you think I haven’t? I’m not talking about why we dream.
“As for why we do” refers to “why do we remember dreams” not why they happen.
Too complex to cite figures like “1/15th”.
That’s the kind of thing, unlike what parts of the brain are active during sleep, we can’t even guess.
I don’t remember the vast majority of my dreams, just the basic idea of a handful from the last few decades. Not the details, just the concepts.
Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of one I know what was going on but then it fades within a few minutes.
When I was drinking heavily all the time I never dreamed and it was awesome.
I haven’t had alcohol in a very long time now and I don’t like how vivid dreams can be, most of the time.
Same. I’ve considered trying to learn lucid dreaming, but have never put the effort in.
I once spontaneously had a lucid dream. Not a pleasant experience. It’s like walking around a labirynth that shifts constantly. Even when you blink some details get altered. This results in complete desorientation with a hint of panic. There’s no such thing as going from one place to another. Around every corner there’s a different random semi-familiar location. Even looking around alters the environment.
Damn dude, that’s nuts!
We don’t usually remember them. We have dream fragments but don’t usually remember entire dreams. And you probably only remember one when you will have 5-7 full dreams a night. You can train yourself to remember if you dream journal ( I did this for a while in my teens) and gave it up.
Number one they weren’t all that interesting in aggregate. Just bizarre and disturbing (most dream content has a negative emotional quality to it). Second you can get really good at remembering them, and it was taking an hour every morning just to write them all down.
I had a dream where I was in an elevator of a… sort of twin tower type of building… then the elevator malfuntioned and a lot of FREAKY SHIT happened…
like it stopped between levels… so its just a wall and you cant get out…
sometimes its stops like half way into a floor…
sometimes the doors open only on one side…
sometimes the elevator starts moving while the doors are open…
like… wtf man
and sometimes it just starts FALLING down the shaft…
aaaaaah
I never woken up more anxious…
the most cursed elevator experience ever
I think like at one point I just went up the stairs… to the 2nd floor, cuz I had fear of heights, then I was like fuck it I’m taking the elevator, aint walking all the way up
I think one it pass the half way point, things go very cursed up there.
So I went to the half way point… 50th floor I think. Then I started exploring… I felt like there’s a ghost chasing me…
Idk why asleep-me keep trying to ride up and down the cursed elevators…
I think I just worry about elevators too much…
Every time I get in one, I anticipate something bad would happen.
Elevatorphobia?
Maybe an allegory to your waking life?
This is hell, but I cant be bothered to take the stairs…I guess I’ll manage.
I think it’s a bug. Brain is supposed to erase everything except sometimes it doesn’t work entirely. I’m sure you do remember cases where you had very vivid memories of the dream but they were gone few hours later.
other than to make me question my sanity.
I think it’s story time! ;)
I’ve seen things, man….
Personally I believe there’s more to dreams than pure biology, and similarly that there’s more to consciousness than the materialist/emergence line of thought. They are the mysteries within, like the inside of black holes are to astronomy.
