Critical Analysis of Dreams as Problem-solving Mechanism

An average person spends up to about six years of our lives dreaming and often our dreams make no sense or we cannot remember them the next day. That’s why researchers were so intrigued by what goes on when we fall asleep. The discovery of REM sleep was important for many reasons, but one was that it allowed researchers to get a better idea about the content of people’s dreams. Before we knew that people dream mostly during a special stage of sleep, researchers had to rely mostly on people reporting their dreams when they woke up in the morning. But once REM sleep was discovered, sleep researchers could wake people up during REM. Four theories were created and out of the four theories as to why we dream there are only two that are the most valid. The two being the brainstem activation theory and the Dreams as problem-solving mechanisms otherwise known as the information processing theory. The brainstem activation theory suggests that dreams are caused by the psychological processes of the brain and dreams are created by changes in neural activity that activates the brain stem during random REM sleep. This theory is a very valid reason as to why we dream due to many studies that have taken place and gathered data clearly showing brain activity during the REM stage of sleep. While as the information processing theory proposes that our dreams help us sort out and process the day’s events and fix them into our memories. This theory is also valid considering our dreams are often very random and contain large amounts of symbols that later on can reflect into your reality.

Researchers always knew The brain was anything but quiet during sleep and therefore the brain stem activation theory Added an important dimension to our understanding of why we dream and stressed the importance of the neurological activity during sleep. Researchers found that high levels of activity in the brain stem are necessary for dreaming to take place. The shifting and activation of nerves in the brainstem triggers brain activity that activates memories they came to surface during periods of the Light REM sleep. The brain synthesizes and interprets the internal activity and attempts to create meanings from signals that result in dreaming. The data that was collected by these researchers proved that the brainstem activation theory is a very valid reason as to why we dream overall while the problem-solving theory explains and interprets the meanings of our dreams. Everyone has random dreams that make no sense whatsoever and problem-solving Theory breaks up our dreams into things we can understand. Our brains are so bent upon the quest for ’meaning’ that it attributes and even creates meaning where there is little or no data it has been asked to process which is where the forebrain comes in. The forebrain attempts to place meaning on small symbols to make sense of what is happening or did happen. Our dreams often reflect emotional preoccupations of waking life such as relationships, sex, work, and health. The images in our dreams are symbols for things in our lives we may not be consciously aware of therefore proposing that our dreams are helping sort out and process the day’s events, fixing them into our memories. Without realizing it our brains repack and shovel what we do every day into our brains. We often unconsciously think about them right before we go to sleep and that’s how our dreams formulate. They form from the random activities and emotions of your day. Your dreams can even be formulated from past experiences which can often be PTSD related as well.

When researchers were experimenting with dreams their discoveries of REM sleep and NREM sleep were huge factors as to why these theories are valid. In order for the brainstem activation theory to be accurate, the researchers had to experiment with participants. In that process, they found out that in order to dream we have to have high levels of activity in the brain so nerves in the brain stem can trigger brain activity which activates our memories in the first place. Without this research being done psychologists and doctors would not be able to understand what is happening in the brain physically and psychologically. Since the brainstem activation theory suggests that our dreams are caused by the psychological processes of the brain and that dreams are created by changes in the neural activity that activates the brainstem during rem sleep we can prove this to be quite a valid theory. The brainstem theory was formulated upon data collected over many years and though nothing is one hundred percent accurate, the results gathered have proved to be accurate at the time. Though the brainstem activation theory otherwise known as the activation-synthesis theory seems to be valid it does have a few weaknesses. The Activation-synthesis theory has enjoyed a good deal of scientific acceptance, but the research evidence found for it is somewhat mixed. The theory says relatively little about why our dreams are the way they are. In any case, according to the activation-synthesis theory, “dreams are essentially a useless by-product of other brain processes that are occurring as we sleep.” The information processing theory, on the other hand, counteracts the brainstem activation theory and gives an explanation as to what our dreams mean

Essentially our dreams reflect people’s unconscious thoughts and desires.

Certain circuits in the brain become activated during REM sleep, and then higher areas of the brain try to interpret this activity and find meaning in it. The patterns that are firing don’t really mean anything, but the brain tries to make sense out of them anyway. Therefore the brainstem activation theory stating that dreams are caused by the psychological process of the brain is accurate as the research and evidence collected proves it valid. The problem-solving theory is valid because we don’t always know the significance of symbols in our dreams and knowing that the problem-solving theory revolves around our dreams sorting out our day’s events proves this theory to be more accurate than the brain plasticity theory and the psychoanalytic theory. The other twp theories basically state that dreams are either censored and symbolic versions of what’s really going on in our unconscious or it suggests that dreaming may promote neural development which is a less believable theory.typically when we are trying to learn and increase our knowledge we are awake and seeing things being done therefore learning and developing our brains, but the brain plasticity theory suggests that during our sleep our neurons are developing which is simply not as logical and the brainstem theory and problem-solving theory. Overall