“Why do we dream?” is the question Doris typed on the search engine, six months ago, trying to find a hint that would help her better understand her nightmares.

Why Do We Dream? – book cover

The result was an overwhelming landslide of more than seven hundred million answers appearing on her browser in less than 0.3 seconds. The answers ranged from science’s honest recognition of not knowing for certain, to fantastic theories venturing into the mystery of occultism.

That’s how our exploration of the realms of dreams began six months ago: with an attempt to understand how dreams work. Are dreams a series of random, nonsense images from our memory? If they are, our brains deploy way too much work for such a futile task.

If you are not new to Frugal Science, you have probably read any of the articles posted on the subject. The exploration consisted in a set of questions regarding the main inquiry “Why do we dream?”

Each time Doris and I stumbled upon a hint for solving the mystery new questions emerged, leading us to a new hint and another set of questions.  Some of the questions that directed our exploration were:

• Where do dreams come from?
• Why nightmares are easier to remember?
• Do dreams have any meaning?
• Are dreams a product of our minds?
• Do dreams come from our memories?
• Do dreams come from our subconscious?
• What are Theta Waves?
• What are Dream Stages?
• Why do blind people dream images?
• Do babies dream?

All those questions directed us to a common goal: trying to answer “Why do we dream?” And, since a new exploration is about to begin in Frugal Science, we thought it would be fair to close the exploration posting an attempt of answering that same question.

This attempt is what we called “The Dream Connection Assertion”. Doris preferred to call it “The Dream Connection Theory”, but for our proposal to qualify as a theory, it has to provide repeatable evidence, which we cannot offer yet.

Nevertheless, The Dream Connection Assertion follows a scientific format; it fits the Law of Parsimony and the Mathematical Theory of the Universe.

In our exploration, Doris and I found nine specific hints of major relevance to the subject of dreaming; nine pieces of a big puzzle that, when put together, made The Dream Connection Assertion appear almost by itself

In short, The Dream Connection Assertion provides an alternative explanation to why do we dream. To properly explain what the assertion proposes and how it works, it requires some time; so, Doris and I decided to compile a book with a cool and detailed explanation.

As today, we can proudly announce that the book is finished and it will be soon published.

We will not attempt a full explanation of why do we dream in this post – you’ll have to read the book; but, don’t worry: we we’ll assure a way for all Frugal Science readers to get a free copy -, instead we will propose a fun exercise.

This fun exercise consists in presenting you the nine pieces of the puzzle, to see if you can reach to the same conclusion that we did.

The nine pieces of the puzzle:

1. – The way our brains transform day to day experiences into long lasting memories by means of the limbic system (the hippocampus). A detailed explanation of the process and its relevance with dreams is posted here.

2. – The second piece is the way our brains put images in our dreams. You can find an explanation of the process here.

3. – The fact that our brains require a stimulus to start putting images in our dreams is the third piece of the puzzle and is posted here.

4. – We discovered that everybody dreams basically about the same themes and that was the fourth piece – Read more about it here.

5. – We also learned that some dreams may come from a common source – that’s posted here.

6. – The fact that babies dream twice as much as adults (and the reason for this) was another important hint. How scientist proved that babies dreamed can be found here.

7. – The strange physical features that appear in all of us while in a REM sleep is the hint number seven. You can find complete description of the features here and here.

8. – The next piece is the fact that we can’t run in dreams (there is not a posted article about the subject yet but is explained in detail in the book)

9. – The final piece of the puzzle is the “Iceberg Metaphor” (the generally spread idea that we use only a fraction of our mind’s potential)

Put all these pieces together and see what you can come up with. I wouldn’t be surprised if you find a better explanation than ours.

NOTE: If you found this article interesting, you should read our book “Why Do We Dream?”, where we propose a new mind-bending theory about where do dreams come from and the nature of dreams. Find the Amazon version here.

Why Do We Dream?

The Dream Connection Hypothesis

The amazing new hypothesis about the nature of dreams -  written without scientific jargon -, now available in Amazon.

 

 

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