• Question: if someone had the dream every night for 5 nights do you think there could be a pattern or reason ? if so how would you work it out

    Asked by gabbie romany POTTERHEADS to Hannah, Joanna, Joe, Luis, Vincent on 16 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Hannah Grist

      Hannah Grist answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      That is a tricky question :-).

      We really don’t understand much about dreams at all. We think that a lot of dreams are your brain trying to file away all the things you have learned that day, and all the memories you want to keep. Sometimes we see that when we are sleeping as an odd mix of different things, which is why dreams can be really weird.

      If you had the same dream again and again, it is called a “recurring dream”. Lots of people have them, and there could be several reasons, depending on the dream. For example, you may have forgotten something, and part of your brain keeps on thinking about it, even if you don’t realise it when you are awake. Quite a few people have the same dream again and again when they are stressed, usually something embarrassing like going into school and finding you’ve forgotten all your clothes!

      Figuring out dreams is really hard, and there is no easy way to know why you have the same dream again and again (or if there is even a reason).

    • Photo: Joe Nunez-Mino

      Joe Nunez-Mino answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      As scientists we are only now beginning to get a glimpse as to the significance of dreams but I dont think we understand enough just yet. Dreaming is important since it seems to allow our brains to process our lives without us necessarily being awake so that it allows us to rest.

Comments