Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, words, thoughts or sensations during sleep,
usually involuntarily. The scientific discipline of dream research is oneirology.
Dreaming is associated with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a lighter form of sleep that occurs during the later portion of the sleep cycle, characterized by rapid horizontal eye movements, stimulation of the pons, increased respiratory and heart rate, and temporary paralysis of the body. The analysis of dreams and their cause by psychoanalysts are defective. They maintain that the cause of dream creation lies in the suppressed
desires of the dreamer. Can they create dreams as they like by suppressing desires? No, they cannot do that. They say that desires stimulate or help the dream creation. But they do not know what supplies the material out of which they are made and what turns the desires into actual expression, enabling the dreamer see his own suppressed desires materialized and appearing to him as real. The desires only supply the impulse. The mind creates the dream out of the materials supplied by the experiences of the waking state. Why do we dream? Various answers have been given to this question. Dreams are nothing but a reflection of our waking experience in a new form. The medical view is that dreams are due to some organic disturbances somewhere in the body, but more particularly in the stomach. According to Sigmund Freud all dreams without any exception are wish-fulfilment. The physical stimulus alone is not responsible for the production of dreams. The dream mechanism is very intricate. The wishes are of an immoral nature. They are revolting to the moral self, which exercises a control on their appearance. Therefore, the wishes appear in disguised forms to evade the moral censor. Very few dreams present the wishes as they really are. Dreams are partial gratification of the wishes. They relieve the mental tension and thus enable us to enjoy repose. They are safety valves to strong impulsions. You will know your animal-self in dream. Although we don't know exactly why we dream, many studies have confirmed that we go through definite stages of sleep every night, and that we progressively move through four distinct types of non-dreaming (non rapid eye movement NREM) sleep. Each cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes, and the stages graduate as far as how deep the sleep is. In the first half of the night, we generally cycle between stages 3 and 4, which are the stages at which the deepest sleep occurs. Stages 1 and 2, along with much more rapid eye movement (REM) activity tends to occur more in the second half of the night. REM activity is currently thought to be the stage of sleep where dreaming occurs, and many studies have been done in which subjects have been awakened at varying stages of sleep, resulting in a large percentage reporting dreams when awakened during REM sleep, and a very small percentage reporting dreams when awakened from NREM sleep. It does indeed appear that REM sleep and dreaming are basically synonymous. So now that we have the boring physiological stuff out of the way, we can get into the interesting parts of dreaming, such as what dreams mean, and the different types of dreams. One thing to remember as you try to sort out what individual dreams mean is that your dream is about YOU. You may have a supporting cast in the dream, but it is still about you - and only you. For instance, if you dream that your spouse is cheating, that dream doesn't necessarily mean that it is really happening. What it does mean is that you feel that something is amiss, and it is manifesting in your dreams. Of course, dreams can also give us insight into real things happening in our lives, and maybe even foretell the future at times, but analysis has to be done on each individual dream without interference from the ego to determine whether or you have really seen your future, or whether you are just worried about some aspect of your life. The reactions to dreams differ according to mental disposition, temperament and diet of the person.Whatever appears in the dream world is the reproduction of the waking world. It is not only the reproduction of the objects seen, experienced or dealt with in the present life, but it may be the reproduction of objects seen, experienced or dealt with in any former life in the present world. Therefore the dream world cannot be said to be independent of the waking world. The objects that are seen in the state of wakefulness are always seen outside the body. It is, therefore, external to the dreamer, while the dream world is always internal to the dreamer. The real truth is that nobody sleeps, dreams or wakes up, because there is no reality in these states.