Dreams and dreaming...

[Hamashimura]

First of all...what are dreams?
A dream is the experience of a sequence of images, sounds, ideas, emotions, or other sensations during sleep...The events of dreams are often impossible or unlikely to occur in physical reality...
Second...why are we able to actually feel that what we're dreaming?
For example,breaking the leg in dream can often cause that pain for real...Falling in the pit,feeling that you're falling...it is real?
I had a dream that wolf's are tearing me apart-first I felt their fangs in my neck,then in legs...well,once I woke up,my whole body was in pain...
So,what are dreams for real,and why are they make us feel them?

From the side of pshychology(I was just studying it,that's why I decided to post this),Eugen Tarnow suggests that dreams are ever-present excitations of long-term memory, even during waking life. The strangeness of dreams is due to the format of long-term memory, reminiscent of Penfield & Rasmussen’s findings that electrical excitations of the cortex give rise to experiences similar to dreams. During waking life an executive function interprets long term memory consistent with reality checking...

Why are we concerned about our dreams?
Dreams have a long history both as a subject of conjecture and as a source of inspiration. Throughout their history, people have sought meaning in dreams. They have been described physiologically as a response to neural processes during sleep, psychologically as reflections of the subconscious, and spiritually as messages from God or predictions of the future...

Emotion in dreams...
Fear and anxiety are the most commonly expressed emotions in dreams. Anger ranks next. Fear, anger, and sadness occur twice as often as pleasant emotions. It is important to note that the feelings we experience in dreams are not symbols of something else but are reflections of our real feelings. Such feelings may not have been repressed during the day and as a result are coming out in your dreams...

Well,I was studying so I decided to post this...
Yes,I know that this may have been very pointless thread...
Still,what is your opinion on all of this,and what do you think dreams are...?

[Howling Star]

I find this very interesting I think it's strange a dream is a illusion. but we feel pain trough the mind. So I guess the answer is in the mind. If you get to know more let me know =p .

[Twig Ee]

Kinda like in the Matrix.

I had a dream I fell out of a plane and I remember the flying through the air sensation. I have many nightmares with clowns and ghosts.

[zyronet]

Its like.. At least experiencing [ is the right word?] with just using your mind to those unreal things that won't probably in real life.[ Once i had a dream that i was a friend of Cloud, and its so cool. >_<] But if its for those prediction stuff, sometimes i just try to ignore it.
If dreams are real, then.. It would be pretty exciting for me. Or scary at times like, what if you have a bad dream or nightmare, wouldn't that be terrifying?
But oh well.. Dreams are cool.

[Eris]

I think dreams have a purpose, to prepare you for scenarios you may encounter. It's sort of a simulator, where you can try out different solutions. Say you're caveman, and you're having a nightmare a Grue is about to eat you, you can try to attack it -- and get killed. Then you wake up. Then, when you go to sleep again, you will have the same dream, and run away... and survive (in your dream); that way you've developed a solution for Grue encounters.

[jechocochan]

Dreams are interesting aren't they.... I think ther are your subconcious telling you things. Second place goes to neurological things. Sensation in dreams is odd. I dreamed I got hit by a tidal wave. I could feel the water. Although when I dream it is very rare for any emotion to get attached.

It is weird when you dream something and then experience a feeling of deja vu when something like it happens....

[Eris]

t is weird when you dream something and then experience a feeling of deja vu when something like it happens....

Though, deja vu is irrelevant to dreams. It's just a short-circuit in the brain.

[riyo himura]

sometimes when i think too much of certain things during the day, i might dream of it at night. i dunno any scientific explanation and i think this topic is interesting. do tell more when u find out anything new.

[unspun]

personally I think the significance of dreams depends on the dream, and the situation beforehand. If you think of something all day and then dream about it, that's just the stimulation you've given your brain throughout the day. If you dream about something dangerous, over and over, and it has no relevance to anything in your daily life, (for instance, being chased by someone with an ax while at an amusement park) then maybe there could be something in your brain trying to warn you. Steer clear of amusement parks.

If you dream odd dreams, like you're naked in front of your parents, then those are subconcious fears and thoughts, (not necessarily that you don't want to be naked in front of your parents, I dunno what the subconcious meaning is, I'm not a dream doc). They say that if you dream about normal every day life then it's a sign of mania, and that dreaming of unicorns and fantasy things (not necessarily mythological fantasy, but stuff that definitely won't come true) then you're perfectly sane. I see the dead in my dreams. I've had quite a few people close to me die, but only one comes to me in my dreams. I'm not sure if he's really there, or if my mind is using him as a grievance tool.

Another issue I can't explain, is realistic dreams. The ones where you can taste the food you're eating, feel the pain if something hurts you, nothing goes in slow motion, and basically you really feel as if you're there. I have those dreams quite a bit, and it sometimes makes me think I live in some alternate universe ^.^

[Serenith Youkai]

For me I think dreams are either based on the things you've thought about all day-such as unspun pointed out, or the things you've wanted or didn't want to happen. Like you could want a computer and only think about that once all day, but then you have a dream your mother got you one. Then again you may not even have to think about it, it could be just a subconcious desire and then you dream about having-or getting it.

As for the dreams that scare you though, I suppose those are only the fears you wish never to happen. Thinking about them sometime in your day may cause then, but as to why you'd dream about them without thinking about 'em I wouldn't really say, could be subconcious too.

Realistic Dream? Like tasting the food for instance, since more than likely we have already tasted it our mind remembers the reaction we got out of it. How to explain it...like tasting something spicy in real life, our memory coulf remember the way you could have gotten pleasure out of the taste, but how it also made you cringe because of the actual spicyness. Now in dream mode you're eating the same thing, but this time you're not actually tasting it, only getting your own reation that you would in real life. But since dreams aren't real, and you don't always realize your dreaming, you actually think you can taste it. Maybe I'm being to confusing, have you ever thought of a food in real life, that you have eaten, and could almost (if not) taste it? Well that is what I beleive to be the cause of "tasting" things in dreams. How that wasn't to confusing... &#172;_&#172;

As for being hurt in a dream, then waking up to feel it in reality, that might be your own mind making it hurt. Uhm that wasn't a very good explination...Like watching someone get punched in reality, ever get the feeling you just got punched? Me, for instance, I'm a gymnast and whenever I see another gymnast, fall on their head, land on their stomach on accident, or one of the worse things ever-split the beam (shiver), I fel as though it's happened to me. I'll cringe whenever I see it since I know how pain, in general feels, and since sometimes it had happened to me. Now it may just be me, but maybe that's like what's happening in a dream when you get hurt. You feel the pain so much, that you think it's real, and in turn your mind makes you feel the pain. So when you wake up feeling like you broke your arm, it may just be since you thought it was so real so true it had to be, so you felt it.

Okay, okay I'm done hope that wasn't as confusing as it sounds...I might just be crazy anyways lol. =^_^=

[╬Karami Mew~Meow]

I'll reply shortly, for now. There is a book that tells you what your dream means. I did have a book like that, but it's somewhere else. Like if you dream of a snake, or anything like that, it tells you what will happen. Dreams is also like a clue to your future sometimes.

[keoko]

i had a dream where i was being attacked buy this dark figure with a giant knife in my backyard. i had super jumping powers (that was the cool part) but he ended up cornering me a sliced my leg off. i felt not exactly pain but i felt something like my cells had been ripped apart.

i had another dream where i was ichigo from bleach (really weird!) then i turned into one of those zoras from the legend of zelda. the thing is just that day i had been playing twilight princess and reading bleach! i also met the old man from Blade (the vampire movie) id just watched it on tv!

my final dream is more pleasent where i fought a giant robot on a broom and i actually felt myself flying.

in conclusion i have weird dreams

[Future_Defense]

In general I have a hard time remembering the majority of my dreams. However, about realistic dreams: This is just a mind over matter thing. If your brain thinks it's happening, you will feel a sensation similar to the real thing. However, I have never felt outright pain, just a sort of odd (I can't really describe it) feeling like somethings wrong.

[GaiSensei]

Dreams can be a wonderful escape from reality... unless it's a nightmare xD

Today I dreamt I was chased by cops o_o;;;. Pretty cool, kinda adventurous... I've gotta stop sleeping so much -.-;

As long as you're studying this, look up "lucid dreaming" (controlling the outcome of your own dreams). I've done it before and it's pretty cool ;]
or watch The Science of Sleep.

[Masali]

I love dreams. Especially lucid dreams where I'm having a awesome dream and I realise "Hey! I'm dreaming!" and I just start doing all kinds of cool, great things.

[Princess Cupcake]

Lucid dreaming sucks. I always have these dreams where I get something I've always wanted and then I realize that I'm dreaming and it destroys the happiness. Then I'm all disappointed that it never really happened.

[izzy14backstabber]

i always dream about vampires.. it's a nightmare.. i don't know why??

[yamikokogunneko08]

dreams are apart of our subconcious...like evrybody else says they usually contain things that we subconciously desire and for nightmares what we fear and the whole thing about actually feel what happens in the dream it has to do witht he brain...if you truely think you are in danger or are being hurt and you dont realized you are dreaming then your brain thinks it is real pain and sends signals to where every you are getting hurt in your dream but if you wake up before anything too bad happens the pain will eventually go away...my psychology class had a big discussion about this topic as well and the teacher got so fed up with us asking a lot of questions about it he printed out the rest of the notes for us and moved to the next chapter just to get us to leave him alone

i can say that i have very realistic dreams, not in the sense that its everyday things, but all kinds of things happen and it feels so real...ive even had dreams that seem like memories but the strange thing is i, my self, didnt know any of the people in the dream but the me in the dream seemed to be connected to them like i had known them forever...but hey, i have all kinds of weird dreams that at first kept thinking all i would dream were nightmares, then i had actual nighmares and they were way worse

[keoko]

I love dreams. Especially lucid dreams where I'm having a awesome dream and I realise "Hey! I'm dreaming!" and I just start doing all kinds of cool, great things.

lucky! when i find out im dreaming i wake up! well not really i usually take control of the story but can never change the setting characters or the situation im in its ususally a frightening one so i attemp to save myself and set things right then suddenly wake up. i rarly have dreams but i guess thats because i go to bed at like 11 or 12. i studied an entire thing on why we have dreams in my science class but i cant explain it all and i forgot some details.

[dreamStar]

Dreams are just what your subconcious thinks up and decides to feed you while you're asleep. Your inner thoughts and emotions, the ones you feel, but don't really acknowledge or think about consciously.
On the other hand, I have some pretty weird dreams which can't be explained by that theory so either it's wrong, or I'm really weird. (Probably the second one.) I don't really remember my dreams, but the ones that I do are all crystal clear. And dreams ARE NOT in black and white. I dunno why people keep saying that. I don't have dreams about falling, or running down long corridors. The ones I remember are usually a long sequence of events and end up being like a day in my life, or kinda like a short movie. It's weird, and at times freaky.
Sometimes, I'm having an ordinary day, and then I get the whole déja vu thing. I get the feeling that I've been here before, but in my dreams. It may be a trick my mind pulls on me, but it sure is a believable one.

[╬Karami Mew~Meow]

Sometimes, my dreams are cartoons. Sometimes, it's so freaky.

[~ShinigamiMaxwell~]

I seem to have really crazy dreams that I can't wake up from. And it's like sometimes the stuff that happens in the dream I have done or end up doing later. Like I had this crazy dream I was in the military and we were fighting some huge monster and everyone around me was dying or laying/crawling on the ground (I was crawling). Oddly enough, I got sick that day and I couldn't feel my legs or stand up very long. Lol, I'd say it's God's way of telling us things, but my grandma says God has nothing to do with dreams, the Devil does.

[akiko_kalla]

I think most of the time dreams are our brain's way of sorting out information, emotions, and reactions. To the extent that reality is what you make of it, they are real as they happen but only to the dreamer. If you want to get deep into philosophy, reality as we know it does not exist for your reality is different from mine. In that sense reality and dreams are not so different from each other aside from one happens in your subconscious while one happens more in your conscious brain. People can work out issues within dreams that they may not be able to in real life, however the opposite can be true. To me, dreams are usually just our brain's way of making sense of things in our lives while our conscious mind rests. I have had dreams that were more, but I don't really consider those dreams and I definitely did not wake from them feeling rested.

[Antares]

personally I think the significance of dreams depends on the dream, and the situation beforehand. If you think of something all day and then dream about it, that's just the stimulation you've given your brain throughout the day. If you dream about something dangerous, over and over, and it has no relevance to anything in your daily life, (for instance, being chased by someone with an ax while at an amusement park) then maybe there could be something in your brain trying to warn you. Steer clear of amusement parks.

I agree, but sometimes dreams are not that clear so you can't know if the real danger is really the amusement park. It's also very curious when, after having a dream, we now how to pick the one that truly matters without thinking about if it's real or fantasy. lol I find this thread kind of funny because I tend to analyse my dreams and, believe or not, I'm never wrong with the kind of message my subconcius is trying to tell me.