The Evolution of Dreams

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You wake up in prison, suddenly attacked by a person you met in class with an imperial bastard sword; you then plunge into neck-high water while abruptly being lectured by a man resembling Neil deGrasse Tyson about how to avoid being stabbed by fellow class-mates; and all you can think about is that you are late for work. Does this sound familiar? Dreams are a universal experience; they can haunt our nights and send us shooting upwards from our sleep, eyes open and arms trembling. However surreal or absurd our dreams may be, we still question “why does it happen”? Our first speculation is that the dream occurred simply because of something we observed while conscious. Indeed, this may provide explanation of the intangible elements; however, the content of our dreams are just a superficial cover for the actual niche of our dreams. The real purposes of our dreams are extravagantly more beautiful than the aberrational parts we perceive as nonsense. The real purpose of our dreams is to actually improve our survival by enhancing memorization and creativity.

According to Sleep and Dreams, dreams were thought to be spiritual guidance by Gods or spirits, dating back to 3100 BC. Usually prophesied, dreams became a sort of warning or spiritual guideline for cultures in Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and Egypt, and were usually adopted into culture by kings who had received a supposed insight into the future. Often, a god was involved in carrying out part of a dream. For example, the Mesopotamians believed that the dream-god carried those who slept to places they’ve seen before. The conjectures always varied, but a god was always present until the 1900s. When Sigmund Freud, published the book The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud hypothesized that ...

... middle of paper ...

...e human subconscious and continue to improve our survival.

Works Cited

Ananthaswarmy, Anil. “The Body of Your Dreams”. NewScientist 13 Aug. 2011: 8-9. Print.

Morewedge, Carey K., and Michael I. Norton. "When Dreaming is Believing: the (Motivated) Interpretation of Dreams." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96.2 (2009): 249+. General OneFile. Web. 13 Sep. 2011.

"Sleep & dreams." Science Weekly 25 Oct. 2002: 1+. General OneFile. Web. 13 Sep. 2011.

Sparrow, Gregory Scott, and Mark Thurston. “The Five Star Method: A Relational Dream Work Methodology.” Journal of Creativity in Mental Health 5.2 (2010): 204-215. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 13 Sep. 2011.

Stickgold, R., J. A. Hobson, and R. Fosse. "Sleep, Learning, and Dreams: Off-line Memory Reprocessing." Science 294.5544 (2001): 1052-7. OmniFile Full Text Mega. Web. 13 Sep. 2011.

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