The Science of Dreams

One of my goals for 2024 is to intellectually stimulate my brain more. As a Psychology graduate (often regretful of not pursuing a PhD), an avid reader, and a communications professional, I am often looking for ways to combine my passions and am always hunting for new, thought-provoking experiences that bring a sense of meaning to my life. Like many other Londoners in their 20s, I too am looking for slightly more fulfilment than that provided by endless dinners out and drinks with friends, and so was delighted to stumble upon Seed Talks, an organisation offering an array of talks and events on topics that align perfectly to my own personal interests: Psychology, Science and Wellness being just three examples. I have attended a couple of these great talks – most of which take place in the evenings - in late 2023 and determined to start the year as I mean to go on, I secured a ticket for ‘the Science of Dreams’ on 10th January at Juju’s bar and stage, Shoreditch.

When wanting to discuss dreams, it’s impossible to do so without mentioning Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, two names that remain highly influential even today, both within this topic and of course in psychology as a subject matter more generally. Indeed, Professor Jason Ellis began his talk on ‘the Science of Dreams’ by touching on Freud’s theory that dreams exist to fulfil our repressed wishes, and Jung’s belief that we dream about the Self: interpreting our dreams help us to understand where we are in the world and how we relate to matters around us. You could argue that these theories mark the conception of the study of dreams, however given that research has advanced since then, we now are able to boast more comprehensive theories on dreams, supported by scientific studies and undeniable data.

Prof. Ellis started to give us a quick overview of sleep and we learned that rapid eye moment (REM) sleep constitutes only 25% of sleep and yet is the crucial component that researchers study. We sleep in stages - of which REM sleep is occurring intermittently - in 90-minute cycles. When someone is experiencing REM sleep, there is usually no muscle tension, there is fast eye movement, and the body is typically in a state of arousal, unless the dream is particularly frightening.

An entirely new area of knowledge for me was learning that dreams experienced when not in REM sleep are basic; they are black and white, concrete and tied firmly to your environment. Time goes more slowly here; you could have a short dream but over a longer period of actual time. Conversely, REM dreams are colourful, vivid, abstract, and often more fantastical in nature. Regardless, the pre-frontal cortex – an area of the brain which dictates memory, attention, perception, and rationality - remains largely inactive during sleep. Prof. Ellis explained that humans have approximately 3-6 dreams per night, 95% of which are entirely forgotten. This got me thinking, what about the 5% that we remember? What evolutionary benefit, if any, is there for being able to vividly recall a ridiculous dream?

While I was pontificating that one, Prof. Ellis presented a slide on the main theories of dreaming. Simplified down somewhat, they can be understood like this:

·      Activation synthesis hypothesis – states that a dream is the cerebral cortex processing nerve impulses being sent from the body to the brain.

·      Cognitive development – our dreams are simply thoughts that occur during a state of sleep and are a means for us to learn by repetition.

·      Memory consolidation – our dreams help us to incorporate new memories into the long-term memory.

·      Threat simulation theory – dreams allow us to try out new scenarios in our heads, which help determine the level of threat and understand how best we could respond.

·      Emotion deactivation theory – dreams regulate our emotions, leading to resolutions of emotional problems and promote the extinction of fearful memories.

·      Mood regulatory theory – like the above theory, this one suggests that dreams help our emotional selves to problem solve, and if successful, we will have no memory of the dream.

·      Feeling/priming theory – a combination of the cognitive and emotional theories which essentially suggests that dreaming gives us motivation to avoid aversive events and to approach gratifying ones.

The theory that resonates the most with me is the emotion deactivation theory, but that might just be because I’m hopeful that we’re all working out our problems via our dreams and emerging as clear-headed individuals each morning! Which theory do you think holds the most weight?

We learnt that a lack of REM sleep accentuates your mood the night before and therefore REM can be seen as one way to regulate our emotions in a healthy way. Researchers found that individuals with insomnia dream more negatively and their dreams are more focused on the self. What was even more interesting to me was the finding that if someone suppresses their thoughts, they are more likely to dream about that suppressed issue or person. Could this be the brain’s way of ensuring we at least try to process our demons?

A fascinating learning from this talk is that the most common dream content is teeth, a topic I could never have predicted! Also, the dreams we have around 4am are almost always negative (could this explain why waking up at this hour typically never feels like an emotionally positive experience?) and we can help to process our dreams by writing them down and reconceptualising them in the ‘normal’ world.

After the talk, and an insightful Q&A session with the audience, I approached Professor Ellis and asked him why it might be that I remember a lot of dreams. They are often outrageous and almost comical, and yet I’m able to peruse with a friend about one of these dreams a week or so later over coffee. It baffled me that an area of study so akin to the theory of evolution didn’t really have an explanation for the vivid recall of such abstract dreams. Prof. Ellis said he too is interested in this, and whilst there isn’t a firm answer yet, it is believed among many dream researchers that these dreams still do have evolutionary purpose; perhaps they remind us of what we fear the most and reinforce the need for us to avoid that stimulus or situation. Being able to recall the dream would therefore act as further reinforcement of our fight or flight response.

I was personally quite satisfied with this notion, and of course with the talk overall! It spurred me on to obtain some dream literature and continue my education on a topic that was largely left out during my years of study. My flatmate and I headed home on the tube feeling very fulfilled at how we chose to spend our Tuesday evening. If you’re debating popping along to a Seed talk, I would urge you to not even hesitate. They are fantastic: fun yet highly informative, while remaining engaging and accessible for all. The speakers are all incredibly charismatic and, as I touched on above, very happy to hang around afterwards for further discussion. I for one will be attending many, many more.

The Science of Dreams, organised by Seed Talks

Speaker: Professor Jason Ellis

Location: Juju’s bar and stage