by Lidice Gonzalez

Created on: March 05, 2010   Last Updated: March 06, 2010

No matter how skeptical you are about the meaning of dreams, or even skeptical about the no meaning of dreams, for that matter, you very probably have at least one dream that triggered the very burning question of: Why did I dream that?

And... wait, Why do we dream?

Is it because of a secret and mysterious meaning that I now have to get? Is it a signal? Is it fortune telling? Is it just a chemical phenomenon of the magnificent human brain? Is it all of the above?

For one part, it is all of the above. And beyond. Allow me to start from scratch and be with me: there are several stages of sleeping, and the most active part of our sleep is the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of our sleep, which is where most of our dreams occur. Dreaming is absolutely, without a doubt, an impressively potent display of the self subsisting capabilities of our brain. What do I mean by this?

Self subsisting as in just sit back and relax, or close your eyes and nap. What the Rapid Eye Movement stage of our sleep does is "process" all of the information caught by our senses and our thinking. It is, to be put in radical terms, therapeutic. And I say radical for the fact that many specialists get really conservative often times when discussing the reason behind dreaming: just chemistry, just processing. But It is simple. Consider therapeutic for the following: could you imagine not reorganizing and assimilating the huge amount of information impressed in our brain day by day! We would go nuts! The brain, however, does it on its own. Even more with TV where we have literally no time to cognitively process what's going on, and it is more a matter of sensorial perception and even subliminal appreciation.

E.g: If a name brand was trying to tell you/sell subliminally, believe me: your dreams will let  you know, and if you are able to remember; believe me: you would have won a battle when figured out. Now, am I saying that it is only a processing machine of images, concepts and sensations. No, and absolutely no. It is, in a great deal, a door for the Latin NOSCE TE IPSUM, or KNOW THYSELF. A window for your knowledge of your own state of mind.

 In a wide array of levels.

From a starting point, it may be that you dreamed of all of your teeth falling out and down: possible meaning for the dream, you probably have a severe case of teeth grinding. But hey now, is it only that direct and corresponding?

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