What these Dreams Teach Us about our Brain

These four examples suggest that most dreams have some concrete physical origin. I have never seen this type of explanation presented before, yet it all seems reasonable. As far as I know, the falling dream is quite universal -- many have this dream. For me, it was the falling knee; for someone else, it might be an arm or leg slipping off the edge of the bed.

The above results provide a plethora of possibilities for speculating about how the brain works. Here are some ideas. During sleep, most of the brain is turned off, so it is no surprise that the brain is easily fooled. It appears that the higher functions are more completely turned off, so that the reasoning ability is impaired the most. It may be that fear is the emotion that is turned off last as you fall asleep and turned on first as you awake, perhaps for survival purposes. If an enemy attacks during sleep, fear is the first emotion that needs to be awakened. This suggests that the majority of dreams might tend to be nightmarish. But of course, it may be different from person to person and some people may have mostly pleasant dreams, depending on the person's disposition. In my case, the evidence suggests that the dreams that I have solved occur just before I wake up. This suggests that most dreams occur during that brief period of time between deep sleep and awakening. While there are sleep walkers who can control strong muscles during sleep, the above indicates that the effort to move muscles during a dream does not translate well into actual motion. Yet example (4) above indicates that there is plenty of motion during sleep, in addition to the normal motions needed to reposition the body periodically in order to prevent extended blood loss from pressure points, etc. Thus body movement during sleep is a perfectly normal process, in response to pain that develops after staying in one position for too long. A minority of people appear to be able to sleep all night in essentially one position; such people must have some method for supplying oxygen, etc., to pressure points so that sores do not develop (perhaps they shift imperceptibly to one side or the other to temporarily relieve the pressure).

I believe that I have given here some convincing examples of how dreams can be interpreted concretely based on reality rather than the false supernatural powers historically associated with dream interpretation. This approach seems to provide insight into how the brain works during sleep. One possible use of dreams that can be tied to reality is that they might become useful diagnostic tools for disorders such as sleep apnea. They might tell you a lot about your movements during sleep, and how you might change things so that you can get better sleep.