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Dear Alli,
When this project was first introduced, I had no idea what I would have an interest on writing it on. I will be honest- I looked up ideas on a website! When I saw the topic of dreams on this website, I instantly knew it was something I wanted to learn more about. I think it's especially interesting given that everyone has dreams- so it is something that everyone can find interest in reading about. Once I started research, it was a little tough. We as a society still don't even know everything about dreaming. Articles mostly said the same things over and over. Then I started to look up different things such as "How do we dream" and then "why do we dream" or "what happens to our bodies as we dream" and that is when I started to find new information from each different site. When you mentioned padlet in class one day, I immediately knew it was what I wanted to use for my final project. It was so pleasing to look at and easy to follow- which I knew would be helpful when it came to organizing all of the different sub-topics. Between this class and my other classes, it was honestly hard to stay on par with due dates. If I'm being completely honest, research went on the backburner in my brain. I was so focused on speeches I had coming up, math tests, etc. that I fell behind on my research. Once I finally snapped into the right mindset, I actually enjoyed making this project. I enjoyed learning about dreams and I enjoyed picking the layout for this padlet. All in all, it actually ended up being one of my favorite final projects I've ever done. I love the look of it, and I love the topic that I picked. I'm very proud with how it all came out, and I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you
Bella Greene

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In conclusion, the concept of dreaming is baffling. Dreams can be so many different things. They can look like hallucinations that occur in our sleep, they can be images, thoughts and feelings. We can rely on them to solve our stress, we can use them to evolve and adapt into our real life situations, and we can use them as a mental housekeeping sweep. Many things about dreams are still unknown. As we grow with our technology- and our science/human body knowledge expands- we will just keep learning more and more over time.

Dreams are so exciting to think about. Each one of us- every one in the human race- experiences our own unique dreams. While our dreams may have the same basic concepts, they're all unique- just like snowflakes! Dreams are like our own little secret undercover lives that no one else will experience but ourselves.

Next time you wake up and remember your dream, try to think about what happened in the dream, and what you think might have caused that specific image or feeling. Think back to the day you had, the experiences you went through, your emotions throughout the day. I hope you find this concept as interesting as I do!

Thanks for reading!

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Roland, James. “Why Do We Dream? the Role of Dreams and Nightmares.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 22 Aug. 2017, https://www.healthline.com/health/why-do-we-dream.

“Dreams: Why We Dream &amp; How They Affect Sleep.” Sleep Foundation, 30 Oct. 2020, https://www.sleepfoundation.org/dreams.

Jason Ellis Professor of Sleep Science. “Why Do We Dream?” The Conversation, 14 Oct. 2021, https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-dream-135609.

Team, Brain and Spine. “Why Do We Dream? A Sleep Expert Answers 5 Questions.” Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, 29 Sept. 2020, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-do-we-dream-a-sleep-expert-answers-5-questions/#:~:text=Most%20dreaming%20occurs%20during%20REM,and%20the%20forebrain%20generates%20dreams.

“Schedule Your Appointment Online.” What Causes Dreams When We Are Sleeping? | Piedmont Healthcare, https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/why-do-we-dream-when-we-sleep.

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This picture shows us a visual of different stages of our sleep. We can see a visual of what happens to our bodies while we're in each different stage.

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What happens to our bodies during our dreams?

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What happens to our bodies during our dreams?

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During REM: "you lose muscle tone, you can’t regulate temperature, breathing and heart rate become irregular, pupils constrict" (Cleveland Clinic).

The relationship between space and time also changes when we dream. Time may seem to last forever — or pass by very quickly.

Meanwhile, REM sleep suppresses the neurotransmitters that usually keep us awake: histamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. Thus, we’re less conscious of our environment.

Amygdala- the most active part of our brain while we are dreaming

The Amygdala is associated with the fight or flight response, but REM shuts down movement of muscles and body- not allowing us to actually harm ourselves or others.

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This picture shows some of the most common dreams that people have. Do they have reasons behind why we might experience them?

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"It is assumed that dreams only happen in REM state but studies have shown that they can also happen outside of the REM state" (Ellis, The Conversation).

REM state: Rapid Eye Movement.

REM related dreams tend to be more fantastical, more colorful and creative. Here is where you may see your dreams that involve fantasy worlds, fantasy animals, etc.

Outside of REM dreams tend to be more characterized in black and white.

"Evolutionary things suggest that the purpose of dreams tends to be more for learning in a safe way how to deal with challenging and dangerous situations" (Ellis, The Conversation). This was super interesting to me to think of how evolution has involved dreaming- we as a human race experience dreams to help us evolve and adapt to our situations.

During times of stress and anxiety, we either dream more or remember our dreams more often.

Our sleep is more poor when we are stressed, leading us to remember dreams during a poor night's rest.

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"Most dreaming occurs during REM (rapid eye movement) which we cycle through periodically throughout the night"(Ellis, The conversation).

Experts believe that the brainstem generates REM sleep and the forebrain generates dreams

"When brainstem is injured, REM does not occur
When forebrain is injured, dreams do not occur" (Ellis, The Conversation).

Acetylcholine (which maintains brain activation) is more prominent, as is dopamine (which some researchers link to hallucinations). Dopamine may help to give dreams their surreal quality.

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This poem/piece of writing is kind of embracing the idea that our dreams happen for a reason. We are what we dream because our subconscious is still us.  

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"Dreaming can improve ways of building a strong memory- it can be associated with cognitive strong memories and information recall" (Sleep Foundation).

It can also help with processing emotion and our ability to engage with and rehearse emotions. Going back to the example of a long day in the work place, dreaming can relieve some of the heightened emotions after a long day.

It can be for mental housekeeping: dreaming could be used to “clean up” the mind.

It can be used as a sort of instant replay: recent events are reviewed and analyzed in dreams.

It could also just be incidental brain activity, and sometimes not important or intentional at all.

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Creative photo embodying the feeling of dreams. 

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To put it simply- "dreams are hallucinations that occur during certain stages of sleep" (Roland, Healthline).

They are images, thoughts, or feelings that occur during sleep. Dependent on each person, these images and thoughts can look like many different things to different people; it varies.

They are patterns of sensory information. The sensory information can play a big factor into why dreams can feel so real sometimes.

"They can be ways of confronting emotional traumas in our life, putting them into other perspectives, reminding us of them, etc." (Roland, Healthline). This can happen after a long day of emotional distress such as in the workplace- your brain was working overtime trying to cope with the stress and when you finally lay down to sleep, your brain thinks back over what happened or maybe even how it could have happened differently.