The late John Lennon of Beatles fame while echoing his utopian sentiments of a peaceful world had once sung, “You may say that I’m a dreamer.” Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of India had remarked, “Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.” Edgar Cayce, an American psychic opined that, “Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.” Since time immemorial, human beings’ innate nature has always been characterized by his ever growing curiosity to delve deeper into the hitherto unexplored and uncharted surreal domain of dreams that not only baffle him, but continue to fascinate him even in his real world. Human beings’ innate trait of snooping has involuntarily lured him into the mesmerizing, magical, mystical, enthralling, baffling and yet fascinating world of surrealism. It is this very subtle tryst with the world of surrealism, that has egged him on to austerely ruminate over a plethora of unfathomable facets that have been woven around the orb of dreams or even beyond it.

Before delving deeper and immersing our pushy imagination to take intrusive pot-shots at the mystical world of surrealism, a brief brush with the consecrated history of dreams vis-à-vis its indispensability as a theme of foreboding at different stages of human civilization becomes all the more obligatory. Dream interpretations date back to as early as 3000-4000 BC, where they were documented on clay tablets. In the Greek and Roman eras, dreams were seen in a religious context and were really direct messages from the Gods or from the dead. During the Roman era, some dreams were submitted to the senate for analysis and elucidation. During the Hellenistic period, the main focus of dreams was centred on its ability to heal. In Egypt, priests also acted as dream interpreters.

Dreaming can be seen as an actual place where the spirit and soul leaves every night to go and visit. The Chinese believed that the soul leaves the body to go into this world. However, if they are suddenly awakened, their soul may fail to return to the body. For this reason, even today, some Chinese are wary of alarm clocks. In the early 19th century, dreams were dismissed as stemming from anxiety, a household noise, or even indigestion. Tracing back to these ancient cultures, people always had an inclination to interpret dreams. The holy Bible alone has over seven hundred references to dreams. Later on in the 19th century, Sigmund Freud revived the importance of dreams, its significance and need for interpretation. He revolutionized the study of dreams.

Dreams are generally referred to those ‘nightly shows’ that our brains play for us. A dream is a mental activity of a series of images, thoughts, emotions and sensations occurring involuntarily during certain stages of sleep. Most dreams occur in conjunction with rapid eye movements (REM), hence, they are said to occur during REM-sleep, a period typically taking up 20-25% of sleep time. Infants are believed to dream during about 50% of their sleep time. Sleep researchers have divided sleep time into some stages. These stages of sleep occur in sequence and then go backward to first stage and REM-sleep about 90 minutes later. This cycle recurs throughout the night with the REM period typically getting longer at each recurrence. Typically, a person will have four or five REM periods a night, ranging from 5 to 45 minutes each in duration. The REM-dream state is a neurologically and physiologically active state.

Our dreams combine verbal, visual and emotional stimuli into a sometimes broken, nonsensical but often entertaining story line. We can sometimes even solve problems in our sleep. But many experts disagree on exactly what the purpose of our dreams might be. Are they strictly random brain impulses, or are our brains actually working through issues from our daily life while we sleep, as a sort of coping mechanism? Should we even bother to interpret our dreams? Many say yes, that we have a great deal to learn from our dreams. Everyone has dreams, but we don’t always recall what we dreamed about. In fact, we might think we didn’t even dream one night, but we dream every time we sleep deeply.

We dream about many different things. When we go to sleep, our brain begins to take bits and pieces of memories and puts them together into a dream. Some dreams are funny or silly, while others can be scary. Most dreams do not make a lot of sense, because our brain just took little pieces from a bunch of different memories. Most people dream in colour, but some have dreams in black and white or shades of brown. Some people believe dreams have an inherent and deep meaning. Others opine that dreams are just mere jumbles of scattered thoughts. Some even believe dreams can predict the future, but studies have never proven that to be true, mainly because it is difficult to study dreams in a laboratory.

Do we dream in order to sleep or do we sleep in order to dream? Although that question hitherto remains debatable, researchers agree that there is a certain purpose and importance to dreaming. Dreaming in fact plays a very significant role in our well-being and health. Research has shown that people who are deprived from entering the dream phase of sleep, i.e. REM stage, exhibit symptoms of irritability and anxiety. Dreaming is a necessity. Dreams often contain significant information for us, putting light on what has happened in our lives, or what is happening and providing insights about our future.

The broader realm of dreams could further be dissected into a few more subcategory of offshoots; most notably among them are daydreams and nightmares. Daydreams are often viewed as light-hearted in nature and are no more than silly fantasies or wishful thinking. It is often disregarded as a neglected facet of dream study and is normally overlooked as fleeting and wandering thoughts. Daydreaming generally occurs when one is semi-awake and it is the spontaneous imagining or recalling of various images or experiences in the past or future. Positive daydreaming is healthy and serves as a temporary escape from the demands of reality.

Nightmares or bad and scary dreams, are often thought to be caused by stress, traumatic events or worries in the dreamer’s life. Almost everyone has nightmares sometimes. Many people can force themselves to wake up when they have a bad dream. A nightmare is predominantly characterized by its frightening and emotional content. People tend to wake up in fear in the midst of a nightmare. Because of its frightening nature, people tend to remember their nightmares and its vivid details. They have a bigger impact upon our waking mind and its images tend to stay with us throughout the day.

The enigmatic realm of dreams, are in fact an obfuscating paradox; an enigma safely ensconced and cocooned within an enigma. Perhaps it is this baffling façade of the world of surrealism that has lured many an inquisitive minds to delve deeper into its myriad subtle aspects or even beyond it. Scary nightmares and light-hearted daydreams apart, dreams are like an alternative escape route from our daily stress and help us recharge, revitalize and refresh ourselves for a bright new day. The genesis of happy dreams, however, lies in the germination of happy thoughts. Happy thoughts, after all, bring happy dreams! Dream on!

Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmed