Theories on the function & meaning of dreaming

Research undertaken by Dr Mark Stokes, cognitive neuroscientist at the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity has provided support for the theory that dreaming is a necessary function for organisation and making sense of our memories. Dreaming may be a key tool in memory consolidation which influences our future behaviour - a form of overnight therapy. This view is also shared by Dr Robert Stickgold, director of sleep and cognition at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

Stickgold states that when we dream we tend to do so in colour, with our dreams involving complex stories and strong emotions. Visual imagery predominates over auditory and somatosensory sensations, but there is still no consensus over how dream material is chosen, although we are getting closer to 'decoding' dreams. Japanese researchers have been able to use MRI scans to monitor the brain activity in the visual cortex of dreamers. Based on the dream reports of the participants, the researchers created imagery. It was discovered that the participants displayed similar patterns of brain activity when shown the visual images derived from their dream reports as when they were actually dreaming. This suggests that we can use non-invasive brain imaging methods to infer or decode what happens in the dream state and these new studies explain why dreams seem so real. Stokes says that dreaming activates the same types of brain systems associated with waking experiences, so although there is no visual input into dreams, it feels like you are actually experiencing the visual content of the dream. The patterns of brain activity observed in dreamers may be the mind at work, taking information from the memory, processing and making sense of it. 

Stokes claims that dreaming is a way of making new associations and connections, and formulating new ways of perceiving things, which are stored somewhere in a usable form, even if we do not remember our dreams. This is why dreams appear to be symbolic rather than literal in content. Allan Hobson refers to 'incomplete arrangements' - things which we invest a large amount of mental energy on, but have not reached closure on in our minds. This may explain why our dreams - on average - tend to be more negative than positive and often become more disjointed and unclear as they progress. Stickgold suggests that the dominant emotion is often anxiety as opposed to fear and that the negative content or tone of dreams may stem from the evolutionary nature of dreaming - in our dreams we are forced to confront that which threatens us, because it is biologically and mentally more important than dreaming about something positive, harmless or enjoyable. 

Theories as to why we accept the fantastical altered reality of our dreams are often derived from the work of Freud, who claimed that dreams play out a healing or emotional process, helping us resolve personal issues and conflicts. In order for this experience to be successful and 'real', the dreamer must believe in their dreams and in order for us to trust the dream narrative, the subconscious suppresses critical thinking and doubt. The dreamer is unable to employ logic to question to reality of the dream narrative. We dream in symbols (the 'language of dreams') and our dreams offer us a form of therapy or 'wish fulfilment' which requires belief in order for the healing or learning function to be successful. 

Dreams often include an essential narrative about unresolved issues in the life of the dreamer. Recurrent dreams may indicate that the dreamer has ignored an important message which will be repeated until it is understood and processed by the dreamer. Many anxiety-based dreams will repeat tasks which are incomplete in the dreamer's waking life - such as unresolved relationships or conflicts. These forms of recurrent dreams may repeat until the dreamer confronts and concludes the issue in their waking life, Sometimes, the recurrent anxiety-based dream may continue, even after the dreamer has addressed the issue in their waking life. Dream researchers suggest that recurrent dreams of this nature occur because the dreamer needs to process what is known as 'daily residue'. Although it may be tempting to treat 'daily residue' dreams as unimportant because they are less exciting or stimulating than other forms of dream, they are in fact very useful for the dreamer as they act as a tool for decompressing from daily events or clarifying necessary future behaviour or actions. Through our dreams we are able to rehearse or practice for future events.

In fact, new research conducted by researchers at Sorbonne University and Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris, France - Isabelle Arnulf et al, 'Will students pass a competitive exam that they failed in their dreams' (2014) Consciousness and Cognition 29, 36 - 47 - suggest that dreaming about failure and anxiety-provoking scenarios may have a positive effect on us. The researchers surveyed 719 medical school applicants on their dreams on the night preceding their entrance exam. It was discovered that 60.4% of students dreamed about the exam and the majority of these dreams were negative. 78% of dreamers dreamt that they were late for the exam or forgot the answers. After the results of the entrance exam were received, the researchers compared the outcome of the dream questionnaire to student performance and found that dreams about the exam on the night prior to taking it were linked to higher performance in the actual exam. Further, multiple dreams about the same exam were correlated with proportionally higher scores. This suggested to the researchers that negative anticipation of a stress-inducing event  is common, but this episodic stimulation leads to cognitive gain. Dr Dennis Rosen suggests that there is a certain logic to dreaming about failure, because the more anxiety you experience about a certain event, the more chance their is that you will prepare yourself to confront or tackle it. 

Arnulf has conducted other intriguing studies into the function of dreaming. In 2009, she published a study, 'Dreamlike mentations during sleepwalking and sleep terrors in adults' (2009) Sleep, which suggested that sleepwalkers may be acting out parts of a bad dream or nightmare. This finding was a surprise because it had previously been thought that dreams could not occur during sleepwalking or night terrors. In 2011, Arnulf et al found that dreams could contain vivid experiences of events the dreamer is unable to experience in waking-life. In 'Walking dreams in congenital and acquired paraplegia' (2011) Conscious Cognition 20(4), 1425 - 1432, the authors suggested that subjects who were born with a paraplegic condition experienced dreams where they could walk, run, dance or play sports. Arnulf explained that 'mirror neurons' which are activated when you watch someone perform an activity may be reactivated during sleep. In a separate study, Arnulf et al, 'Evidence for the re-enactment of a recently learned behaviour during sleepwalking' (2011) PLoS One 6(3), it was discovered that we often re-enact new skills or actions that we have learned during the day in our dreams. This may be so that we can practice and consolidate our learning or apply it to new situations which may confront us in the future.

Dreams help cognitive processes and problem-solving, by giving the dreamer free reign to confront a range of scenarios which may not be available or safe in waking life. The dreamer's mind is able to examine all possible scenarios and everyday barriers are removed so that new ideas and responses can emerge freely. Dreams encourage us to feel and embrace emotions which we may not be able to do in our everyday experiences, because our rationality gets in the way, or to consciously acknowledge them in waking life might be harmful to us. 

Hobson challenges the notion that dreams have a symbolic meaning for the dreamer, instead arguing that dreams are no more than makeshift stories which stem from brain activity - the dreamer attempts to make sense of a collection of random images by putting them into a narrative form, which explains why the results can be nonsensical, illogical or bizarre. Because areas of the brain that sustain working memory are inhibited during the dreaming process, logical reasoning is compromised and the dreamer will accept the dream scenario and shifts in time and space as real. This is a common view of some neuroscientists, who claim that dreams are nothing more than a mish-mash of  the brain's 'machine-code' which we shouldn't try to comprehend; However, these ideas ignore several decades of scientific research which has identified many strong patterns in dream content and providing a relatively clear view as to the meaningful aspects of dreaming. It is therefore intellectually ignorant to suggest that there is no persuasive scientific evidence about the nature of dream content.

For example, David Foulkes identified that, while dreams may be strange and wonderful, they often involve realistic portrayals of familiar people, places and activities, all of which may be quite mundane in nature. Additionally, dreams may often involve honest, accurate reflections of the dreamer's thoughts, waking responses and emotional concerns, with the things we care about most (or spend most time thinking or worrying about) in our everyday lives occurring more frequently in our dreams. This idea is supported by G William Domhoff's 'continuity hypothesis'. Also, the repetitive, graphic content of nightmares experienced by sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often change throughout the course of the healing process, evolving into more ordinary nightmares with a diffuse range of dream imagery. 

In Trauma and Dreams (1996), Deirdre Barrett suggest that this is because  as time passes and PTSD symptoms improve, the dream content begins to make the trauma more symbolic and interweaves it with concerns from the dreamer's everyday life. It is not only sufferers of PTSD who experience recurrent nightmares - in fact these experiences may present excellent opportunities for self-reflection and growth, whether or not they have been inspired by trauma or an event in the dreamer's waking life. Indeed, there are ways of using recurrent, disempowering dreams for the health and well-being of the dreamer - enabling them to confront their fear, heal emotional wounds and gain lucidity. 

Therefore, it is safe to say that contemporary dream research has shown that dreams are creatively structured from a network of emotional and cognitive processes which also operate during periods of waking consciousness and have meaningful and evolutionary connections to our health and development. To suggest that there is no meaning behind dreaming demonstrates an abject failure to engage with a rich abundance of empirical and anecdotal evidence gathered during half a century of scientific and psychological dream research.

Foulkes, who dedicated much of his career to the study of childhood dreaming, suggests that dreams represent active stories in which the dreamer is the main actor, with 'true dreaming' of this type first occurring between the ages of 7 - 9 years. He suggested that this relatively late onset of 'true dreaming' coincides with an equally late development of the child's waking self-reflective awareness - i.e. consciousness. Child development psychologist, Jean Piaget describes how a child's acceptance of dreams as completely real gradually fades from total belief in the dream to a realisation that the dream is nothing more than a story inside their mind. It may be that we start life believing that our dreams are real because we are born dreaming. Newborn babies spend approximately 8 hours a day in REM sleep, the state considered most favourable for ordinary dreaming. This means that the dream state is our first seemingly 'real' and natural experience of the world, before we learn to make sense of the waking world around us.

An introduction to dream characters

Dream characters (often abbreviated as 'DC') are the characters - human or animal - which appear in a dream. Some theories of dream interpretation suggest that dream characters always represent an aspect of the dreamer's self. Dream characters often take on the persona of someone known to the dreamer, such as family members, friends, pets or celebrities, although their characteristics, mannerisms, behaviour and actions may mirror those of the dreamer rather than the actual person on whom the dream character is based. Dream characters therefore, are visual manifestations of the dreamer's personality, although the characteristics of the dream character is likely to be influenced strongly by the dreamer's waking experiences of their real-life counterparts, although it is common for dream characters to exhibit odd behaviours or thwart the dreamer's attempts to engage meaningfully with them. Dream characters may therefore be seen as a form of 'dream sign'. One of the most interesting phenomenons I have experienced - and read about from the dream records of others - is the response of dream characters when confronted by lucid dreamers who question the existence of the dream character outside of the dream. When a dream character is informed that they are a fabrication, created in the dream and therefore under the control of the dreamer's mind, there is a tendency for the dream character to become hostile and defensive at the prospect. Dream characters may demonstrate extreme traits - high intelligence or immense ignorance - depending on the purpose they serve within the dream. Often, when in dialogue with dream characters, the dreamer finds the conversation to be nonsensical, incoherent or frustrating. 

Dream characters often represent a quest for identity or self-acceptance. When a familiar person appears in a dream, it can be interpreted as compensating for qualities the dreamer lacks, or as a reflection upon past experiences. The dream character may also reflect disparate parts of the dreamer's identity which are yet to be integrated as a whole.

Often in dreams, the dreamer experiences a dream character whose presence can be detected, but whom is invisible - usually positioned beside or close by the dreamer, but just outside their range of vision. Some interpretations suggest that these illusive, unseen dream characters represent the dreamer's intuition or a secret aspect of their personality or identity which is not usually revealed to the waking world. It is common that these types of dream characters act as a 'guide' for the dreamer and thus perform the role of 'spiritual guide'.

Family members are important dream characters as they are typically the persons with whom the dreamer is closest to in their waking lives. In many dreams, the dreamer is able to witness interactions with their family member dream characters which reflects attitudes, conflicts or feelings. Family member dream characters also reveal the values and emotions which influence the dreamer's notions of self-worth. Dreams involving family member dream characters are likely to reveal how patterns created by familial relationships still influence the feelings and choices of the dreamer. Dream character fathers tend to represent patriarchy, masculinity and the self within the wider world, whilst dream character mothers represent femininity, emotions and nurturing qualities. Siblings - with whom the dreamer shares common experiences typically represent how the dreamer has coped with domestic dysfunction, or childhood wounds which still have some foothold in the dreamer's psyche. A study by Paul & Schredl, 'Male-female Ratio in Waking Life Contacts and Dream Characters' (2012) International Journal of Dream Research 5(2) tested the hypothesis that there is discrepancy between gender ratios in the dreams of males and females, with males more likely to dream of other males and females showing no such difference. The authors found that other variables, such as relationship status, were likely to affect results.

Dream character enemies (or 'hostile dream characters') represent the fears of the dreamer. In Dream Theory,they are referred to as 'Shadows' - a repressed or denied aspect of the self which exists in the subconscious mind, threatening the dreamer's psychic well-being or balance. The dreamer is being forced to confront their 'Shadow' within the dream in order to achieve fulfilment or resolve some form of repressed internal conflict. Some dream characters appear as a 'Lover Archetype', which Dream Theory suggests is a composite of traits and qualities of a 'complement' - i.e. a reflection of the dreamer's other side - masculinity or femininity - and represents a unity of person. 

Minor dream characters may also be important in terms of the messages they convey to the dreamer, which may be through some form of action or enactment, accompanying object or dress. Many minor dream characters are actually archetypes which symbolise an inherent psychological trait or imprinted characteristic of the dreamer. 

Dream theorists often refer to integration - the process by which the dreamer (consciously within a lucid dream, or subconsciously in a normal dream state) 'integrates' or merges with another dream character (or object). Below is an example of integration during a lucid dream, recorded by Ralph Penderak of Badendorf, Germany:

I'm in the fields on the back of my house. I'm jumping backwards, and the jumps are getting longer and longer. How is that? I must be dreaming! Everything fades to grey, like so often in the moment that I become lucid. This time I won't give in to physical awaking so easily, but I start singing and dancing, with slowly rotating turns around my axis. After a few seconds I see my son and my dog (a Dalmatian) standing by a small tree. At first I don't want to go there, but then I realize that this is a good chance for interaction. I remember that mostly everybody just disappears from dream scene once I become lucid. So, I go there and start playing with my dog, at first orbiting each other slowly, then faster and faster, until we are one whirl with no more borders between us. We melt into each other in ecstasy. When we calm down, I see my skin is now white fur with black dots. I awake physically. Ecstasy lingers and makes my day.

Although dream characters typically represent an element of the dreamer's personality, some may be more ready and willing to integrate themselves or merge with the dreamer than others. This may be a sign to the dreamer that they are (or should be) incorporating the traits of the dream character into their waking lives. For example, integrating with an athlete may be a sign that the dreamer should be, or is, integrating physical fitness into their lives, while integrating with an artist may refer to the need to embrace creativity or imagination. Dreams may therefore be perceived as an opportunity to unite fragmented personality traits into a whole, or take on characteristics and qualities which are not presently incorporated. Paul Tholey (1937 - 1998), the German Gestalt psychologist, argued that his Conciliatory Method could be used to unify himself with his dream characters, thereby transforming them from 'lower order' to 'higher order' creatures and enabling him to make greater sense of the dream experience. Tholey described the experience as in the following way:

I became lucid, while being chased by a tiger, and wanted to flee. I then pulled myself back together, stood my ground, and asked, 'Who are you?' The tiger was taken aback but transformed into my father and answered, "I am your father and will now tell you what you are to do!"In contrast to my earlier dreams, I did not attempt to beat him but tried to get involved in a dialogue with him. I told him that he could not order me around. I rejected his threats and insults. On the other hand, I had to admit that some of my father's criticism was justified, and I decided to change my behavior accordingly. At that moment my father became friendly, and we shook hands. I asked him if he could help me, and he encouraged me to go my own way alone. My father then seemed to slip into my own body, and I remained alone in the dream.

The counterpoint to integration of dream characters is 'disintegration' which has negative, detrimental connotations, associated with fragmentation and weakening of the person. This may not be the case - maybe the trait linked with the dream character is less than positive or healthy, and therefore disintegration represents the shedding of adverse characteristics or behaviours, for the benefit of the dreamer. The splitting off of the negative trait might present itself to the dreamer as a separate dream character who emerges from nowhere - as if they divorced themselves from the dreamer's body, becoming an entity in their own right. 

Dream researchers concentrating on the topic of dream characters question whether dream characters have their own consciousness. In one study conducted by P Tholey, Consciousness and Abilities of Dream Characters Observed During Lucid Dreaming' (1989) Perceptual & Motor Skills 68(2), 567 - 578, nine male lucid dreamers were asked to set specific tasks (write/draw, identify unknown words, make rhymes or do arithmetic) for dream characters 'met' during a lucid dream. Performance of the tasks by lucid dream characters was successful, although their skill at solving arithmetic problems was found to be poor. Tholey's study did not contradict the assumption that dream characters have their own form of consciousness in a specific sense and the author was able to conclude that dreamers should attempt to communicate with their dream characters as if they were rational beings. The mathematical ability of dream characters was further explored in a study by Stumbrys, Erlacher & Schmidt, 'Lucid Dream Mathematics: An Explorative Online Study of Arithmetic Abilities of Dream Characters (2011) International Journal of Dream Research 4(1) in which it was found that dream characters tend to be extremely poor at mathematics with only a third of answers being correct and more chance of the dream character correctly performing multiplication and division sums as opposed to addition or subtraction. Male dream characters in male dreamers' experiences were found to possess better arithmetic skills, showing a significant gender difference. The consciousness of dream characters has been the subject of discrete areas of dream research, and forms a distinct and complex topic of study in itself. I will write a separate article exploring this concept at a later stage, in addition to further pieces on dream characters and lucid dreaming.