what causes dreams?

Dimethyltryptamine

Several speculative and as yet untested hypotheses suggest that endogenous DMT, produced in the human brain, is involved in certain psychological and neurological states. As DMT is naturally produced in small amounts in the brains and other tissues of humans, and other mammals[2], some believe it plays a role in promoting the visual effects of natural dreaming, near-death experiences and other mystical states. A biochemical mechanism for this was proposed by the medical researcher JC Callaway, who suggested in 1988 that DMT might be connected with visual dream phenomena, where brain DMT levels are periodically elevated to induce visual dreaming and possibly other natural states of mind. [8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyltryptamine

Jenaveve Jolie videos

thanks interesting data

ADG

Yeah, but not really the correct data lol

My dreams are normally soooooooo fucked up.


It's probably the drug's though...

I believe that first there was an evolutionary purpose to sleep. That we evolved to remain quiet and somewhat paralyzed in the dark of night to stay safe from night predators. Through the safety of sleep, children survived to grow to adults and procreate. And during this sleep time, somehow the dream process evolved to function as a daily memory cleanup process because it was useful to adapting to our changing surroundings and threats.

So I agree with Crick and Mitchinson's theory that a dream is caused by a daily cleanup of our brain's neural network. Like an ongoing debugging and defragmentation of memory in a PC. A time to erase spurious memories, take in new data experienced that day and make connections if needed to older saved memories and so on. Freud and Jung had theories of why we dream but really I don't think they we're addressing a cause so much as imposing a man made interpretation that would serve to further there interests in developing the study of psychology at the time.

Dreams are often a response to our daily thoughts, activities and sensations. They are often, then, a reflection of what has consumed our minds in the preceding day or two.

Dreams are apparently a necessary part of our being. Experiments have been done in which adult subjects were given drugs that progressively eliminated their rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It is during REM that dreams occur. The depriving of the ability to dream resulted in marked personality changes in such subjects. They became increasingly abrasive and anxious and found it difficult to concentrate. It was also shown that the younger a person is, the more important dreams are to their well being.

Scientific studies have resulted in some universally accepted conclusions about dreams. Firstly, it is apparent that everyone dreams, even those who would deny it. Dreaming is as natural as breathing. Babies dream much more than adults. Infants, in fact, spend about 70 percent of their sleep time dreaming. In comparison, adults spend just 24 percent of their sleep time in the dream state. It appears that animals also dream.

Researchers have long known that sleep can be divided into stages. Initially we are in a light sleep stage. From there we progressively enter into a deeper sleep until we reach what is known as the Stage IV sleep state. From here we enter into a lighter stage before moving into the REM stage. REM sleep is accompanied by darting movements of the eyes, even though they are closed. It is as if the eyes were watching a movie playing on the closed eyelids. During REM the brain is operating as if the body were awake. It is during REM that dreams occur.


It generally takes the sleeper about 90 minutes to pass through all of the stages of sleep. Once the REM stage is completed, the process starts again. During the first cycle, REM lasts for only about five minutes. This, however, gradually increases until during the final cycle, a person in the REM stage for up to fifty minutes. So, in a normal night’s sleep a person will spend between ninety and one hundred and twenty minutes in the REM dream state.

Dreams are very easily forgotten. In fact, we generally only remember the last one we have each night. Realising that we all dream so often, however, can give us a little balance when it comes to looking at the meaning behind our dreams. A dream is not a special occurrence with a special meaning. It is something that everyone does many times every night. Of course there are many people who would interpret your dreams for you. The greatest argument against their effectiveness, however, is the fact that there is huge discrepancy among these ‘experts’ as to the interpretation of dreams. One expert tells you that your dream means this, while another gives an entirely different interpretation. Another problem with professional dream interpretation is that psychotherapists from different cultures ascribe different meanings to dream symbolisms based on what they are familiar with. This, again, has led to wildly different interpretations of the same dream.

A tendency among dream analysts of recent times has been to teach people to interpret their own dreams. It is felt that each person is aware of his own thoughts, feelings and experiences and is, therefore, in the very best position to know what his dreams actually mean. This, however, leaves the interpretation of the dream open to our own bias. In other words we can make the dream fit into any interpretation that we wish.

The general scientific consensus is that dreams are a necessary way for our subconscious mind to exercise itself. They warn about attaching undue significance to any interpretation of dreams. We are advised not to take our dreams too seriously, but rather to enjoy them for what they are – an essential part of our sleep process.

What's your theory then?
These people seem to think there's some truth to the DMT one:

National Center for Biotechnology Information

A proposed mechanism for the visions of dream sleep.

Callaway JC.

School of Pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco 94143.

The visions of dream sleep are suggested to occur through a dream mechanism which implicates tryptamine derivatives as endogenous paychedelics. The hallucinations that occur in some schizophrenic syndromes are also proposed to occur through a similar, though desynchronized, mechanism. These compounds occur in the human pineal gland and are regarded as neurotransmitters or neuroregulators. A protocol for experimental verification is suggested.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/en...t_uids=3412201

Dreams are the way your unconcious communicates with your concious mind...

what foods you eat.

1 word: experiences

During a typical lifespan, a human spends a total of about six years dreaming.[1] (which is about 2 hours each night[2]) It is unknown where in the brain dreams originate — if there is such a single location — or why dreams occur at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams

Dreams are just a reflection and collection of your unconscious thoughts, fears, and desires.