Leveraging Dreams: Paradox or Possibility?

Most of us use the term “dreams” to describe something we aspire to. 

Scientists refer to dreams as a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep. 

This seemingly absurd contradiction isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound.  Dreams are instrumental in integrating our experiences, thoughts, and memories and may have more potential to open our minds to possibilities and epiphanies.  

This self-contradictory nature of what we refer to as “dreams” defines what we know as a paradox.  A proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.  I would like to suggest that dreams are an untapped resource of the mind that we can leverage to elevate our quality of life, work, and play.

Dreams have been venerated since ancient times.  They can inspire, mystify, and wake you shaking with the acid taste of fear.  Poems and movies, thrillers and legacies have arisen from them.  Dreams are an enigma; mysterious, puzzling, and hard to understand.  

But what are dreams really?  

The scariest part is that we really don’t know.  And why do we need to know?  Human nature is more comfortable with certainty.  But the truth is, comfort does not stretch us to new heights. It does not give us freedom to fly higher. 

Certainty is important for the human mind to satisfy its most basic drive to survive, but it doesn’t have to tether us completely.   It can be a foundation for our ladders; a piton supporting our climb upward that anchors our safety harness just far enough to save us from death should we slip.

So let us explore what we do know about dreams, so we have the courage and desire to let them transport us to new heights.  

Medical News Today tells us that we dream three to six times every night, even if we don’t remember them.  95% of dreams are forgotten by the time you put your feet on the floor. Even blind individuals dream, but have a more sensory rich experience than a sighted person. They feel, taste, hear, and move through them. Paraplegics walk, run, and swim although they had never done so in real life.  The deaf speak, hear, and understand spoken language.

Dreams, scientists conclude, are an innate ability that generates life experiences, or even more likely a reflection of our mirror neurons, our “monkey see-monkey do” abilities.  Regardless of the reason, dreams allow us to transcend our physical limitations.  

I am going to go out on a limb here and make a suggestion.

If dreams help us to experience things that we cannot normally do, perhaps it can be a tool to actually do what we dream of.  

Perhaps instead of thinking of them as a paradox, they are instead a path to possibility.

So let’s investigate.  

From what we do know, researchers only have some best guesses, because scientists are notoriously skeptical and unwilling to commit to any ideas without mountains of evidence.

So they cautiously speculate that dreams serve our memories. We process once again what we have learned during the day, moving it into long term memory. Harvard psychiatrist,  Edward F. Pace-Schott* considers this a storytelling instinct which we know is a powerful learning method for the human brain.

“The story itself weaves these mnemonic items together in a manner far more novel than a simple assemblage or collage, producing an experience having a life-like timeframe and life-like (if often bizarre and impossible) causality (Pace-Schott, 2007; Hobson, 2009). It is as if one is immersed in another “reality” entirely of one's own non-volitional, making (see Rechtschaffen, 1978). “

Who knew scientists could be so poetic? My guess is that this scientist dreams often! 

But, that aside, he suggests that these “constructive activities of the brain represent a “hard-wired” tendency to represent reality in the form of narrative.”  

One reason would be to inform and make sense of the information in order to consolidate memories and experiences. Another would be to prepare for possible future threats.  This is called threat simulation theory and has been studied in the dreams of traumatized children.  It is an ancient biological defense mechanism that serves to simulate threatening events to practice a safe response in their dreams. This is why we have dreams of Freddy Kruger after watching a horror movie!

In a study by NIH, dreams have an adaptive value, since they contribute to the reprocessing of the information acquired in wakefulness and the control of the emotions.

This suggests that dreams participate in the development of cognitive capabilities.

So in normal language that means you get smarter!  You study and reprocess the information you got during the day and get better at controlling your emotions at the same time! [Generation and functions of dreams]  REM sleep helps you adapt to become a much more zen individual, to learn and to remember!

A study in the American Journal of Psychology takes it a step further.  These scientists conclude that dreaming is a “unique state of consciousness that incorporates 3 temporal dimensions: experience of the present, processing of the past, and preparation for the future.”  

Whoa, right? There are some serious time warp explorations happening!  This is a transcendent state that we can access every day!  Naturally, and for free!

The dreaming ego is the brave ego.

This is a psychological space where we can face overwhelming, contradictory, or highly complex notions that we just can’t deal with during the day. These are the things that we avoid, deny, or claim just “ain’t true”. This is where you can safely process these things to get back into mental balance and equilibrium. 

Dreaming cements memory.

We also know from pairing sonography and brain scans that we learn and develop long-term memories in dream states. The neurons that were activated during the day light up again during our dream states.  Pair that with the knowledge that nerves that fire together wire together, and we don’t need to fall asleep on our textbooks to absorb that knowledge fully.  We simply need to get enough quality sleep.

Why on earth would we want to deny ourselves the advantages of quality sleep?

Because what we do know is that the mysterious mind dreams when given the chance.  And whether that takes me to the darkest corners of memory and trauma or the summit of my climb during the former day, my mind is working miraculous things while in the cloak of REM sleep.  I personally have learned to embrace them with a new perspective. 

Dreams heal, dreams create, dreams give you practice runs on how to face threats, dreams problem solve and generate unbelievable creativity if given the opportunity.  AND dreams do not follow the rules of physics. 

How wonderful a gift dreams can be if we harness them in our favor.

If you want to learn more about how to foster your miraculous mind, subscribe to the Agile Intellect email list to get it delivered directly to your inbox!  

In the meantime,

Sweet Dreams!