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pathologicallycurious · 6 days ago

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Why do we dream?

Dreams have intrigued humanity for centuries, fuelling curiosity and inspiring scientific theories. Despite their fleeting, subjective nature, scientists have made significant progress in understanding the phenomenon, revealing that dreams might not be exclusive to humans.

Dreams occur when the brain processes sensory information during sleep. The most vivid dreams happen during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a phase when the brain is highly active, though the body remains temporarily paralysed. While REM sleep is most commonly linked to dreams, research shows that dreams can also occur during non-REM stages, though they tend to be less vivid.

During REM sleep, about 90 minutes into the sleep cycle, dreams often carry a surreal and emotional quality. This is due to heightened activity in the brain's emotional centres, such as the amygdala, while regions responsible for logical thinking are less active. This disconnection from logic helps explain why dreams can seem bizarre or fantastical. In contrast, non-REM dreams tend to be more subdued and less colourful.

Several theories have been proposed to explain why we dream. Evolutionary theory (Revonsuo 2000) suggests that dreams serve as a mental rehearsal for coping with challenges, preparing us for survival. The memory consolidation theory (Müller et al, 1900), on the other hand, argues that dreams are a by-product of the brain organising and consolidating memories from the day. Both theories agree that dreams often arise in response to stress, new experiences, or challenges, helping us process and adapt to our environments.

Interestingly, the phenomenon of dreaming is not unique to humans. Research has shown that animals experience dreams too, likely for similar reasons—to process experiences, reinforce learning, and adapt to their environments. This concept is supported by an experiment I conducted with my pet, Tiki, a conure, which ended up offering fascinating insight into animal dreams.

Investigating REM Sleep in Animals:

To investigate whether animals like birds dream, I conducted an experiment, which involved filming Tiki throughout the night to observe signs of REM sleep. Tiki, like many birds, has a remarkable ability to mimic sounds and actions he learns during the day. I had noticed something intriguing: while sleeping, Tiki repeated behaviours he'd recently learned.

As he fell asleep, Tiki tucked one foot into his belly and rocked back and forth rhythmically. Sleep cycles in birds are very different to humans, with repeated periods of eye opening and closing: In only a few minutes, a bird goes through one or more full cycles of REM and slow-wave sleep.

During this period, Tiki would often vocalise "peek-a-boo"— croaking the word consistently. It was a trick he'd been practising recently. He also repeated his own name, which he had learned from me calling him.

This prompted me to wonder whether Tiki was not just reliving his waking experiences, but also reinforcing learned behaviours during sleep? The consistency of these actions suggested that his brain might be "replaying" what he had learned, supporting theories of dreaming as a means of memory consolidation and rehearsal.

My observations aligned with broader scientific research into animal sleep. Birds like Tiki, it turns out, experience REM sleep, during which the brain is highly active. This suggests that their minds process memories, practise learned behaviours, and reinforce skills during this phase—much like how humans use dreams to consolidate memories and rehearse important experiences. The repetitive behaviours Tiki displayed during sleep were likely his brain's way of consolidating the learning he experienced throughout the day.

My study with Tiki ties into a broader body of research on animal sleep. A study by Ruhr University Bochum and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence investigated REM sleep in pigeons (pub. June 2023), using infrared cameras and fMRI scans to track brain activity. They found that during REM sleep, pigeons exhibited strong activity in regions of the brain responsible for visual processing and spatial navigation. This suggests that, like humans, pigeons might be dreaming of flying. Moreover, the amygdala—the emotional centre of the brain—was active during REM, hinting that birds may experience emotions during their dreams, much like the emotional quality of human dreams.

This finding supports our observations of Tiki. His repetitive behaviours, including vocalising "peek-a-boo," likely reflect his brain's effort to process and reinforce what he had learned. Furthermore, the activity of the amygdala in pigeons points to the possibility that birds, like humans, might dream not only about physical experiences but also about emotional events, suggesting that their dreams may have an emotional component as well.

Research into animal sleep has revealed fascinating parallels between the dreaming behaviours of animals and humans: dreams help animals process daily experiences and prepare for future challenges.

Studies on other animals, such as rats, have shown similar results. In one experiment, rats were trained to navigate a maze, and their brain activity was recorded (Kay et al, 2020). Later, while the rats were asleep, researchers found that brain activity during REM sleep closely mirrored the activity observed while they were awake, suggesting that the rats were dreaming about the maze they had learned to navigate. This reinforces the idea that dreams are a tool for memory consolidation and skill reinforcement.

Younger animals dream more often, likely to help them develop the neural pathways necessary for learning and growth.

Through both my study of Tiki and existing scientific research, it’s clear that dreams play a crucial role in the development, learning, and emotional processing of all creatures. Whether it’s a bird reinforcing its learned songs or a dog re-living its adventures, dreams help animals process their experiences, adapt to their environments, and prepare for challenges.

By understanding how dreams function in both humans and animals, we gain deeper insights into how the brain works, how memories are formed, and how creatures—human or animal—navigate their lives through the subconscious realm of dreams. Dreams are essential for learning, emotional processing, and adaptation for all living beings.

#psychology #sleep #REM sleep #Birds #Biology #dreams #dreaming #research #information #facts #scienceblr #the more you know

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