The Strange Science of Why We Dream

One of the things I've noticed about dreaming, when you're in a dream, no matter how bizarre it is, it seems perfectly rational, but if you wake up and remember that dream, you're more likely to go WTF?.

My brain after good dream:forgets My brain after bad dream: a core memory

When my great grandmother passed, I had a dream about her and I literally woke up with tears in my eyes. That kind of freaked me out but it felt so real and just hearing her voice felt so real. I’ve never experienced something like that before. I’ve had plenty of dreams but nothing like that. Great video btw EDIT: Thank for all the comments. I really wasn't expecting much attention from it, but it feels really reassuring knowing I'm not alone in this experience. Also, to anyone who has lost someone or even a pet, I sincerely hope you are feeling better.

In lucid dreams you become aware of time. In normal dreams, you have no awareness of time. Whenever I experience a lucid dream, I become aware that I’m about to wake up and have a limited amount of time left in the dream state.

Much respect to the cameraman for entering your dream to record this video, truly a dedicated member of the team.

When I was in high school there was this geometry problem that I couldn't solve. I dreamed about the solution and answer and after waking up, I did it exactly as I saw it and got it correct!

I often dream of people that I don't recognise, and wonder if my brain is really good at creating very realistic people or if they are someone I saw somewhere but didn't consciously register. I also dream of amazing architecture that also doesn't exist anywhere, these dreams leave me wishing that I was able to capture a detailed "screen shot" as after I wake up the details slowly fade and I can't draw well enough to do them justice.

As someone who’s very in touch with their dreams, lucid dreaming, remembering them etc, I think at least for myself that dreams allow your brain to practice learned things (foreign languages, driving, a task at work for example) and also sometimes it can have an inherit meaning that only you can understand, maybe it resurfaces feelings you’ve pushed down, and I think it’s a healthy and important practice, a window to your mind and soul.

If I could record my dreams, I'd have countless movies and TV shows.

I once dreamt I had a group of friends that I hung out with over several nights. Once I stopped the dreams, I missed them like crazy for a few weeks and still do a little bit 20 years later. Crazy.

I can vouch for the Tetris thing. There was a point where I was hella addicted to Tetris 99, and for a while whenever I was in that in-between state where I was just about to fall asleep, I’d be seeing those blocks falling.

I never realized that so many people experience sleep paralysis - it's crazy how vivid and frightening those experiences can be. It's comforting to know I'm not alone, though, and this video gave me some helpful tips for dealing with it

When I was taking antidepressants, I would have really interesting dreams. Every night after falling asleep, it was like entering a parallel life, a life that was as chronological and continuous as my real life, only it happened in my dreams. I was a student, I had family, I knew where my dorm room was and the way to the shopping centre, I knew which place had the best pizza and when to catch public transport. But none of it was real. It was all just a massive, immersive, continuous dream, and I lost that world - and that life - once I came off the antidepressants.

I had a really similar experience to the tetris experiment. I played some games of tetris with my friends and when I was a sleep I was constantly picturing playing a game of tetris, I swear I could even picture the exact pieces fitting together and the lines clearing.

One theory I've had about dreaming is that it's something like a diagnostic run through the brain's functions to gauge overall health, reinforce connectivity, and so on. It probably has a significant impact on our overall plasticity. I've always wondered what we'd find in experiments if we could disable REM and measure things like neural connectivity and activation, regeneration, and so on.

Thank you so much for putting so many skits of what you’re talking about! Sometimes it’s hard for me to just listen to someone talk and the skits help me to understand it better! Thanks for all the knowledge 💯

Once, our VCR was having tracking issues, but it had no manual controls listed on the device or remote. That night i dreamt of fixing it using the channel up and down buttons, and sure enough, when I woke up and tried them they worked. While playing a tape the channel buttons doubled as tracking control. Not solving a world mystery, but still gave me some interesting insight into how my brain works.

Among other things, I'm amazed at how complex dreams can be. Sometimes the storytelling in my dreams are especially convincing, lifelike and coherent, when I can't even write a simple story sober.

I've been told I don't get enough oxygen when I sleep due to my irregular upper respiratory structure, which is why I black out when I close my eyes and make it very hard to wake up (I go through 5 alarms); I feel most rested with 12-14 hrs of sleep, has been that way all my life. But on the rare occasion I do dream, and usually an elaborate "movie". A week ago I was driving from the UK to Mauritania and got held up by rebels in Western Sahara. Another time I was Mario and saved Princess Peach before flying away on a crocodile. My dreams usually feel about 3 to 4 hours, and I've confirmed with one that was 4.5hrs

I write my dreams down since a few years, and I also write some interpretations. I'm often able to remember very much. Details, story, emotions, even thoughts. I remember my dreams often every day. I collected great stories, and I think I could compensate my very large lack of creativity and imagination with that ability and hobby. Dreams are very important and interesting for me. It's almost like I live two lives: One in our reality and one in the dream world. I feel a bit like Alice in Wunderland, which is also my favorite movie/fairytale of my childhood. I was so obsessed with this movie since I'm able to remember and my mother was so annoyed by that haha