It is necessary to dream a certain amount every day

When it comes to dreaming, this is really an ordinary thing that can no longer be ordinary, it can be said that men, women and children do not dream. Whether or not you realized this morning that you were in a dream, you are in and out of five or six dreams every night, this is a scientific fact, but some people feel that they had a dream last night, and some people may say that I rarely dream 365 days a year. And whether you like it or not, just like sunset and dark, you still have to return to the dream tonight. So, do dreams interfere with sleep?

Many dream researchers believe that dreaming, just like in the dark, although we think a group of dark, in fact, it is not so, because the full moon, will also bring a piece of light in the dark night, these flickering light, not just like the night of the dream? We are in this vague night, through the beautiful moonlight, looking far away, you will find that there is a vague, intermittent scene, this and we are in the dream to see whether the situation has the same feeling? From this point of view alone, dreaming is necessary.

In fact, from a biological point of view, the experience of dreaming does not evolve from any psychological factors. Many researchers have found that all warm-blooded animals dream (rapid eye movement), while all cold-blooded animals do not dream (rapid eye movement without). This simple observation led researchers to speculate: Could dreaming be related to the process of thermoregulation in warm-blooded animals?

Research in recent years has shown that when our body temperature drops at night, the dreaming phase helps keep our brains warm by increasing neural activity in the brain. When we sleep, our body temperature drops by 1.5 ° C, so researchers speculate that this is one of the ways sleep can restore our energy, because our bodies can relax instead of trying to maintain their own temperature.

Louis West, in his book The Psychology of Dreams and the New Biology of Dreaming, captures a contemporary controversy: 'I believe that dreaming reflects a function rather than provides it.' Dreams are because the 'sole action' or 'work' of biology passes through our consciousness, not the work itself. Dreams are the result of the ninety minute cycle, not its cause.' In other words, our experience of dreaming does not actually provide any major function in itself, but is merely a by-product of some major function.

Snyder also believes that the third and fourth (second half) slow-wave sleep of non-REM sleep is to save physical strength and restore fatigue; However, he also pointed out that REM sleep is more obvious in the lower level of mammals, and REM sleep is the most significant in the development of fetuses and fetal animals, and gradually decreases after birth. He speculates that REM sleep performs alertness tasks during sleep, periodically keeping the brain alert and preparing humans and animals for aggression.

Two examples illustrate the problem. One is that although there is no clear self-consciousness as the master in sleep, self-consciousness is not completely eliminated in fact, but we do not know where it is and how to survive, but as long as someone calls the name of the sleeper, the sleeper will answer. Then some people will ask, this may be related to the strength of the sound, in fact, it is not so, in the sleep of the mother will not be awakened by the storm, but it is easy to be awakened by a weak cry of the child. Every one of us has had the experience: the sound of calling someone's name many times does not wake you up, but the same voice calls your name, you can suddenly wake up from sleep and answer the call. Psychologist Burdach pointed out: 'When a person is sleeping, he often wakes up immediately when he hears someone call his name, but he often still sleeps according to other sounds', and believes that 'in sleep, the mind can still distinguish different feelings.'

Another example is that we all have this experience: 'Tomorrow must get up at 6:00!' In the case of lack of confidence, we often set the alarm clock, let the bell ring at 6 o 'clock, in order to get up on time, but in fact, the next day before the bell rings, wake up less than 6 o 'clock, there are many people who have this experience. Some people have had such an experience: listening to the radio at a constant time of 5:30 to 7:30 every day, and each dream is mostly related to the content of the radio, at that time, it is very strange, in fact, this is the result of memory. All these show that people in sleep, dream in the vigilance plays an important role. This is not some magical mystery, but a biological instinct in the long process of human evolution. The subconscious activity of man, even in dreams, must reserve a warning point for conscious activity.

It can be dangerous if the brain does not get sensory stimulation for a long time, and the role of REM sleep is to periodically provide stimulation to the brain, improve its excitement level, and thus regulate the stability of the internal environment. Scientists have found that some cells in the human brain do not play a role when awake, but after sleeping, these cells are 'exercise' and present an excited state to perfect their function, so people have dreams. Dreaming can exercise the function of the brain, the more dreaming creatures in the world, the more developed the brain. The dream cells of these exercises are the basis for the generation of warning points. Dreams do not exist to provide a primary function or a release channel for instinctive energy; It is a representation of the secondary phenomena of that fundamental cycle. We don't know much about this cycle, but it may be important for the maintenance of sleep at night, as well as for the maintenance of daytime alertness.

Another theory is that because we experience our dreams unconsciously and our memory of dreams is very poor, it follows that consciousness is not so important to dreaming function. Some studies show that the dreams in the first and second sleep of each night mainly reproduce the content of daytime activities; In the third and fourth sleep, many dreams reproduce past experiences, even childhood experiences; The dreams of the fifth sleep contain both memories of recent events and memories of past events.

This result clearly shows that there is indeed a mental 'continuity' between waking conscious activity and dreaming activity during sleep. This continuity is a bridge from waking to dreaming, and thus becomes the leading cause of the introduction of dreaming. This is just like at night, most of us need to rest, but for the continuity of the next day's work, in many fronts, night workers, such as power stations, railway operations, hospitals and other industries on duty, a small number of people's work, is to ensure the continuity of the next day's work, otherwise, if the night to rest, Then we won't be able to run continuously the next day. Due to the continuous improvement of human brain development and the continuous evolution of thinking, human dreams in addition to the continuation of biological instinct characteristics, developed brain cells will also produce spiritual energy and creativity.

Dreams play an important role in regulating the relaxation rhythm of mental activity. The Chinese like to say 'one piece at a time'. The original meaning of 'Zhang' is to tighten the bow string so that the bow is open, and the original meaning of 'chi' is to let the string relax after releasing the arrow. The bow string is relaxed and alternated repeatedly, which can vividly represent the universal rhythm of things. The physiological system of the human body stays awake during the day, opens various sensory organs, receives and processes various information. At night, it enters the state of sleep, closes various sensory organs, and relatively maintains the internal closure. This 'relaxation' reflects the rhythm of physiological activity. The mental system of the human body is dominated by conscious activities during the day and subconscious activities at night. This 'relaxation' reflects the rhythm of mental activity.

Originally, the rhythm of physiological activity is the premise of the rhythm of mental activity, but the rhythm of mental activity will affect and regulate the rhythm of physiological activity in turn. The mechanism is that the relaxation rhythm of dreaming as the mental rhythm and the relaxation rhythm of sleep as the physiological rhythm are roughly synchronized and harmonized, and thus help to regulate the physiological rhythm of the human body.

This idea is based on human's biological instinct, and gradually evolved into a part of human mental activity under the premise that dreaming is the role of night alert. This evolution is a reflection of the increasing development of the human brain, which is only the characteristic and reflection of the human being's ability to transcend biological instincts.

In this light, dreaming is not only necessary, but may be an important part of human development. Therefore, the physiologist Munter of the University of Chicago commented on dreams: 'It is necessary to dream a certain amount every day.'