By: Chloe Rocha

What causes people to dream? There is a theory that dreaming helps you consolidate and analyze your thoughts. According to HealthClevelandClinic.org some people see dreams as a way to “rehearse” various different situations and challenges that a person can experience during the daytime.

Dreams occur during the REM (rapid eye movement) cycle. During the night you cycle through this stage periodically. Studies show that someone’s brain waves during their REM cycles are almost as active as they are when they are awake. The forebrain is what generates the dreams but the brain stem is what generates REM sleep. If your brain stem is damaged then you will experience dreams but not go into REM sleep. But if it is flipped the other way, and your forebrain is damaged, then you won’t dream but you will go into REM sleep.

It is believed by experts that dreams can stem more from your imagination than from perspective. People living with post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to experience nightmares when they are sleeping.

Most people dream every single night but they often don’t remember it every time. This is because you will be more likely to remember your dreams if you are awakened during, or just after, the dream. If you write down what you remember of your dream as soon as you wake up, that can help you start to remember them.

There is no good way to study dreams in people, simply because of the fact that the memory of the dream can fade so quickly. However, scientists believe that the relationship between space and time changes when you dream. During a dream, time may seem to last for a very long time or pass very quickly.

The neurotransmitters, or brain chemicals, is something that can have to do with the reasoning behind why dreams can be so strange sometimes. During REM sleep some neurotransmitters can be more pronounced while others are suppressed.