The Significance of Dreams in our Daily Life - Essay Example

In 1959, William Dement quoted in Newsweek that “Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives”. Indeed, in the harsh reality of daily living, people seek different forms of escape in different forms of entertainment, addictions, and spirituality. Among the most natural form of solace would be dreaming which is considered a universal experience; however, even the act of dreaming is perceived differently by many groups.

If one would consider the scientific standpoint, dreams are classified as mental activities during sleep that has a lot to do with rapid-eye-movement (REM). Studies conducted revealed that children dream more often than adults. It was also revealed that blood pressure elevates and heartbeat quickens while one is dreaming despite the fact that the body is in a resting state.  Research conducted by Solms reveals very interesting scientific literature on the occurrence of dreams. For one, Solms established that certain parts of the human brain are involved in the dream process, among them: the limbic system, the medial occipitotemporal cortex, the inferior parietal convexity, and the connections between mediobasal frontal cortex and brainstem and diencephalic-limbic structures.

Some parts of the brain such as the spinal and peripheral sensory-motor systems, primary (idiotypic) sensory-motor cortex, unimodal (homotypical) isocortex outside the visual sphere, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does not affect the dreaming process even if these are sustained injury or damage ( Solms, 237 ). Thus, was concluded that certain external injury or damage in important parts of the brain responsible for the so-called “dream process” can cause cessation of dreams. Of course, this is from a very empirical study that views the brain as an organ.

There is another field of science which is psychology, that counteracts this argument that dreams are processes or products of the brain's system. In usual experience, components of dreams are visual images, pictures, vivid scenery, situations, and even ideas that have not been expressed.