Awake in a Dreamland

If you're a busy and driven individual, it's likely that you start your day by waking up, showering, getting dressed, and getting yourself to either work, school, or some meeting.  If you're a lazy, unmotivated individual, it's likely that you start your day by waking up, perhaps hitting the snooze button on your alarm (if you even have one), and going back to sleep until you feel energized enough to wake up again and realize half of the day has gone by and you still haven't even showered.  I'll admit I've had my fair share of both busy and lazy days, but I guess the point I'm trying to drive home is that no matter what type of individual you are, your day starts when you wake up, which means that it must have ended when you fell asleep the night before.  In other words, everyone needs sleep.

Sleep is divided into two phases, non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.  NREM sleep is divided even further into 4 different stages, each with different characteristics: Stage 1—irregular, jagged, low-voltage waves; Stage 2—bursts of 12-14Hz waves of brain activity that last half a second called sleep spindles and K-complexes, which are sharp waves associated with temporary inhibition of neuronal firing; Stages 3 and 4—slow-wave sleep (SWS) noted for decreases in heart rate, breathing rate, and brain activity, while slow, large-amplitude waves become more common across the two stages.  The term REM sleep was derived after the observation of rapid eye movements during this stage of sleep, which was uncharacteristic of the previous stages. Polysomnographs (a combination of EEG and eye-movement records) taken during REM sleep demonstrate irregular, low-voltage waves that indicate increased neuronal activity. Interestingly, REM sleep brain wave activity resembles the brain wave activity that occurs when you're awake. For this reason, scientists argue that most dreaming occurs during REM sleep. REM sleep is associated with more variable heart rates, blood pressures, and breathing rates than NREM Stages 2-4. Curiously, REM sleep is also associated with erections in males and vaginal moistening in females.

This video highlights many of the main physiological functions of sleep and also discusses several reasons for the existence of dreams:

There are many different arguments as to why we have dreams. Some will argue that dreams have played a significant role in creativity across cultures. Others have studied the cultural impressions of dreams as spiritual or supernatural manifestations. And still, many scientists contend with the notion that dreams arise from random brain activity during REM sleep, as depicted in the above video. It is important not to jump to a single conclusion this early in sleep and dream research, however. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that dreams serve many functions, and not just one. In addition, there are many people who report precognition of events during dreams that occur later in life, and I think this also needs further investigation. 

The woman in this video, self-proclaimed to be a psychic, discusses the possibility that dreams may function as foresight or precognition of future events:

If you search any words associated with precognition, dreams, or psychics on Youtube you will find many videos like the one above where people recount their own experiences, many of them fascinating and detailed, and some not much so.  Now, you will probably have to sit and wonder about whether or not you even buy into these ideas, as I did. But if you're feeling adventurous, take some of the following research I've compiled into consideration. 

Many people report having such precognitive experiences during meditation practices as well as dreams.  Some researchers have found that brain activity is actually different during meditation compared to brain activity while you're awake and other modes of meditation. Perhaps people who participate in meditation practices are more prone to such precognitive events than others because they can easily stimulate their brains to activate extrasensory perception (ESP). Even more striking is the finding by another group of researchers on the topic of precognition. Rattet and Bursik (2001) of Suffolk University in Boston found that people with an extraverted intuitive personality type were more likely to experience precognition, so perhaps even personality plays a role in the functions of dreams and the probability that you may acquire precognition through your dreams.

When it comes to scientific inquiry, I believe it is important to keep an open mind to alternative possibilities, even if they sound strange.  Scientists of the new age are beginning to find new ways to test precognition abilities with increasing reliability. Radin (2009) and Bierman & Scholte (2002) have found that brain activity increases just before an emotionally arousing image is presented to their subjects compared to the brain activity recorded prior to the presentation of neutral images. This phenomenon has been termed "presentism," which means that the subjects were able to sense the arousal associated with the emotionally-charged image before the image was presented. These are very interesting findings that are paving a new path for the future of scientific thought and inquiry about precognition and the variable functions that dreams may serve.

Finally, I would like to leave you with a short, yet insightful, poem I wrote about a year ago:

"The Dreamscape"
"Awake In a Dreamland"

Once upon a time,
I roamed God's plain
Of limitless fruit
For the veiled to eat in vain.

Once upon a time,
I believed we were free—
Free to reach;
Free to think;
Free to fly;
...
Free to sink.

Now I lay awake
From a paradise slumber
To realize
It was all just a dream
I was fated to surrender.

—Jose Alexander Zamudio (March 2011)

Sweet dreams! :)