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(1); https://www.thefreedictionary.com/dream

(2); https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/passion/201604/dreams-dont-come-true-they-are-true

(3); https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/284378#causes

(4); https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/stages-of-sleep#stages-of-sleep

(5); https://www.sleepcyclecenters.com/the-5-stages-of-sleep/

(6); https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-do-we-dream-a-sleep-expert-answers-5-questions/

(7); https://www.healthline.com/health/types-of-dreams#nightmares

(8); https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/communication-success/202010/7-fascinating-types-dreams

(9); https://cafeausoul.com/dreams/inspired-by-dreams/dream-expert-kari-hohne/types-dreams

(10); https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/excessive-daydreaming-symptom-of-mental-illness

(11); https://www.health.qld.gov.au/news-events/news/7-amazing-things-that-happen-to-your-body-while-you-sleep

(12) http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-3.4/breecher.html

(13) https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_your_brain_needs_to_dream

(14); https://www.healthline.com/health/why-dont-i-dream

(15); https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-memories-of-vivid-dreams/

(16); https://www.clinicaladvisor.com/home/the-waiting-room/the-importance-of-dreams/

(17); https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931873-300-weve-started-to-uncover-the-true-purpose-of-dreams/

(18); https://www.healthline.com/health/why-do-we-dream
(19); https://www.msdmanuals.com/home/brain,-spinal-cord,-and-nerve-disorders/autonomic-nervous-system-disorders/overview-of-the-autonomic-nervous-system
(20); https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain,-spinal-cord,-and-nerve-disorders/autonomic-nervous-system-disorders/overview-of-the-autonomic-nervous-system

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The nervous system controls everything we do including breathing, walking, thinking and feeling. This system is involved with receiving information and generating responses, and can be divided into different regions/systems.

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The central nervous system (CNS) consists of the brain and spinal cord, it works to control most of the functions of our body and mind including our thoughts, speech, memory and movements.

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The autonomic nervous system regulates certain body processes such as heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination, and sexual arousal. This system works automatically without a person's conscious effort and is the primary mechanism in control of fight or flight responses.

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The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is the division of the nervous system. More specifically, the PNS is divided into the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. This system’s primary role is to connect the central nervous system to the organs, limbs and skin.

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The somatic nervous system is a component of the PNS and is under voluntary control via the use of skeletal muscles as it transmits signals from the brain to the ends of organs.

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The brain is a part of the CNS and plays a major role in controlling our thoughts, memory, speech, the movements in our arms and legs and allowing many organs in our bodies to function. The major components of our brain consist of the occipital lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, frontal lobe, cerebrum, cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, thalamus, pituitary gland, pineal gland, amygdala, hippocampus and the midbrain.

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The spinal cord is also a part of the CNS and is a column of nerves that forms a vital link between the brain and the rest of the body. The spinal cord allows you to control your body's movements, without it you could not move any part of your body, and your organs could not function.

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Dreams are something that many individuals will experience throughout their lives. They are classified as a succession of images, emotions, ideas, videos, cognitive occurrences and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep.

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Dreams are studied through oneirology and are thought to convey real information and emotions telling you how you know and feel about certain occurrences. Since dreams can point an individual towards what they need for expression, growth, and the health of a relationship to a person, place or thing, dreamers also have reduced control over the visual images, content and activation of their memories created.

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There are essentially six different types of dreams humans experience; the standard sleep REM dream, day dream, lucid dream, nightmares, reoccurring dreams and false awakening dreams.

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A standard dream is the most common type of dream and research has proven that 65% of the elements in these dreams can be associated with experiences that happen while awake in our days or by what we’re thinking about before we go to sleep. A standard REM dream will vary depending on the individual but may contain similar features including; being predominantly visual with the images at the forefront of dreams rather then other senses such as smell or touch, dreaming in colour or black and white. Other things like your mood, events in the news, pain, violence, and religion may all also influence your dream’s subject. The less stressed someone is, the more pleasant the dream could be, these dreams could bring to light anxieties or things someone may be avoiding thinking about.

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Nightmares are vivid or intense dreams that bring out strong feelings of fear, terror, distress or anxiety. Nightmares can be caused by many things such as sleep deprivation, eating before bed, medication side effects, watching or reading something scary, sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, nightmare disorder, or narcolepsy or from mental health conditions such as anxiety disorders and PTSD. Nightmares may also be the result of unresolved anxieties, fears, or traumas from the past with the three most common nightmares involve death or dying, physical violence or being chased/hunted.

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Lucid dreams are one of the more interesting types of dreams that occur in the REM cycle where in this situation the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming as it takes place. A lucid dream allows the dreamer to control their actions as the dream takes place as if the individual is the lead actor in their own action/adventure/romantic/musical movie. 55% of individuals experience one of these dreams at least once in their lifetime and find that this dream state is an important initiation into mastering the power of thought and its ability to influence events.

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Daydreams are different then all other types of dreams due to the fact that they occur consciously. The impacted individual may feel like they aren’t fully awake or aware of their surroundings yet in the end, individuals are consciously awake. The average person spends 70-120 minutes a day daydreaming, research has shown that daydreaming about people you know can predict a positive well-being while daydreaming about people you aren’t close to can predict more loneliness and worse well-being. Daydreaming can also be seen as an indication that someone may be suffering from concentration difficulties; soemething that is seen in mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, and ADHD.

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Recurring dreams are specific story lines or themes that may repeat themselves over weeks, months and even years in their sleep. These dreams can be neutral recurring dreams or recurring nightmares, they are believed to occur when there is something in someone’s life that they have not acknowledged causing stress or due to an underlying mental health condition, substance use, or certain medication. Common recurring dreams include; confrontations, being attacked, falling, or being frozen with fear.

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False awakenings are known as a type of dream occurrence where a person believes that they have woken up but actually haven’t. They are vivid and convincing dreams that can occur alongside lucid dreams or sleep paralysis, individuals often dream that they are performing their daily morning routine such as cooking, cleaning, showering or eating.

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Some additional interesting facts about dreams include;

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Around 95 percent of dreams are forgotten by the time a person gets out of bed

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Dreaming can help you learn and develop long-term memories

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Blind people dream more with other sensory components compared to sighted people

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In a conducted study, around 80% of dream reports of participants with deafness gave no indication of their impairment, many spoke in their dreams, while others could hear and understand spoken language

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The most common dreams people report to have are, dreams about falling, dreams about being naked in public, dreams about being chased, dreams about dying, dreams about flying and dreams about pregnancy

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Dreams are directly connected to the nervous system as while they are produced during the REM stage in the sleep cycle, it is inside the temporal lobe where the hippocampus has the central role in our ability to remember, imagine and dream. Dreams are the reactions to random nervous system stimuli, these reactions are then interpreted as bizarre images and other sensory hallucinations as the whole brain remains active during dreams.

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This image displays our bodies reactions to nervous system stimuli

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As the nervous system allows dreams to occur during the REM cycle of sleep, key emotional and memory structures of the brain become reactivated allowing us to re-process upsetting memories in a safer, calmer environment. These structures originate in the central nervous system and include the limbic system in the mid-brain which deals with emotions in dreaming, the amygdala which is active during dreams through the association of fear, and the cortex which is responsible for the content of our dreams (i.e people we meet, if we fly). Less active parts of the central nervous system include the frontal lobes which allow us to be uncritical during dreams and believe that the events are real until we wake up.

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Dreams and the nervous system are also connected through events that the process of dreaming allows to occur. This includes how during the REM cycle of dreaming, the sympathetic nervous system which contains our adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones is given the chance to relax allowing your body to relax as well. The REM (dream) cycle also allows our muscles to temporarily paralyze and is linked to specific brain waves and neuronal activity.

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As previously stated, there are two different approaches to the study of dreams; the psychoanalytical and the neuroscience side, each has their own idea as to how dreams happen.

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On the psychoanalytical side, it is believed that dreams work as a form of psychotherapy, represent unconscious desires and wishes, consolidate and process information gathered during the day, and interpret random signals from the brain and body during sleep. It is also believed that dreams have the function of reflecting unconscious mental actions in a psychoanalytical way, helping develop cognitive capabilities, and create a psychological space where complex notions can be brought together by the dreaming ego.

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On the neuroscience (biological) side, it is believed that the brainstem generates REM sleep allowing the forebrain to generate dreams. There are a total of 5 sleep stages in the human sleep cycle;

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Stage 1: This first stage of non-REM sleep occurs at the very beginning of when you fall asleep and typically lasts only a few minutes

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Stage 2: This stage of non-REM sleep lasts about 25 minutes and is the period of light sleep before you enter deep sleep

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Stage 3: In this stage of non-REM sleep, the brain waves begin to slow down with few bursts of activity, the muscles relax and the breathing slows, allowing you to enter a deep sleep.

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Stage 4: In this stage of non-REM sleep, an ever deeper state of sleep is reached as the brain waves further slow and tissue repair begins to occur.

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Stage 5: The rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage. The REM cycle is the primary dreaming stage of sleep, it is in this stage that eyes begin to move rapidly behind the lids, breathing becomes shallow and rapid, heart rate increases, blood pressure rises and the muscles become paralyzed. This stage occurs with active brainwaves to stimulate sections of the brain needed for memory and learning and it is when people awaken during REM sleep that they are able to remember and describe bizarre and illogical dreams.

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One of the most pondered questions regarding dreams is why do we forget them? And why don’t some people don’t seem to dream?

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It is not precisely known why we tend to forget our dreams after waking up but, research studies have been able to produce a few theories. It is believed that our forgetfulness in regards to dreams is due to neurochemical conditions that occur in the brain during the REM cycle as well as if someone consistently doesn't get enough sleep, the amount of REM sleep they experience will drop, making it harder for them to remember their dreams the following day. Studies have shown that most individuals over the age of 10 dream between 4 to 6 times a night but forget 50% of their content 5 minutes after waking up and increasing to 90% 5 minutes after.

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There are some suggestions to help individuals not forget their dreams such as waking up naturally without an alarm, focusing on the dream as much as possible, writing down the dream as you wake up, and making recording dreams a routine.

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Due to the common forgetfulness of dreams, there is no way to know for certain if an individual is actually unable to dream. Since our ability to make memories is impaired during the REM sleep, it is understandable why humans are so prone to forgetting dreams. Sleep disorders such as sleep insomnia can prevent you from entering the REM cycle and increase the risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and anxiety. People may also not be able to dream and enter the REM cycle because of factors such as alcohol abuse, tobacco usage, stress, caffeine and medication side effects.

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Dreams can be very important for our neurological health as well as our mental health, they have many beneficial factors to them.

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It is believed that one of the purposes of dreams is that they can help you store memories and things which you have learned, as well as sort through complicated thoughts or feelings. All of these allow us to cope with situations in an healthy way and overall keep us mentally and emotionally healthy. Since dreams are produced in the REM cycle, a REM sleep behaviour disorder produces a higher risk of developing neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease in which impacted individuals are unable to dream.

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This following image displays how a neurological disorder would appear

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Patterns of brain activity in the day are also known to be replayed in sleep through dreams, allowing people to consolidate memories during sleep and emotionally process issues. No dreams/REM sleep would also impact the electrical activity in our brain and the brainwaves humans generate in REM sleep such as theta waves, this would impact the central nervous system as a whole. Overall without dreams, individuals would not be able to learn and process emotional issues while we sleep causing mental health issue risks as well as neurological health disorders.

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Within the scientific study of oneirology, there are both neuroscientific and psychoanalytical approaches to dream analysis. While the psychoanalytical approach concentrates on placing the dreams in context of the relationships/history of the dreamer and the meaning of dreams, the neuroscience (biology) approach revolves around the structures involved in dream organization, narration and production.