What Causes Dreams and Methods for Controlling Them

This section has nothing to do with pianos. It is included here because it sheds some light on how the brain works. I am not aware of any research into the causes of dreams and methods for controlling them as described below. If anyone knows of such a reference, please email me.

Have you ever had recurrent dreams and wondered what caused them? Or nightmarish dreams that you wish you could get rid of? I seem to have found answers to both these questions and in the process discovered some insight into how the brain works while we are asleep.

Most dream interpreters today are like palm readers. They strive to tell your future and ascribe magical powers or messages to dreams that would be wonderful if true but are unfortunately as realistic as séances or reading tea leaves. I have found that an interpretation of dreams based of physical evidence can tell us a lot about how our brains work. Here, I discuss four types of dreams that I have had and for which I have found physical explanations. In discussions with friends, I discovered that many others have similar dreams and, almost certainly, similar causes. In the final section, I discuss what these dreams tell us about how our brain works. I have come to the conclusion that this approach to dreams is a lot more rewarding than that of soothsayers and similar dream interpreters. The four dreams discussed below are: (1) falling, (2) inability to run, (3) being late to meetings, exams, or inability to find your destination, and (4) a long, complex dream specific to me, as described below. The first three, I believe, are fairly general dreams that many people have.