Jody Mena
2396
Answered
at 7:04pm on February 21st, 2009
Dreaming occurs during REM sleep, the part of the sleep cycle where the body, after a period of drastically decreased internal activity, shifts into a state of hyperactive function - the heart rate increases, the endocrine system starts pumping adrenaline and other chemicals into the blood, the internal organs start working overtime, the muscles twitch and contract as the brain comes alive with electrical impulses, (including the eyes, which move rapidly back and forth under the lid. That is why it's called REM - rapid-eye-movement)
During REM, the brain is a fireball of electrical activty, memory, thought, logic, imagination and sensation all crossing wires at once. This is from whence dreams originate.
Why we dream what we do is largely a mystery, though it is highly likely that we dream about things that we have thought about a lot, or recently - this is believed because it is possible to influence dreams through suggestion. A dream that repeats it self continually may stem from something that is recurrent in your life or something in your memory that is troubling you.
A dream about flying may mean different things to different people. The sensation of flying or falling during a dream may in reality be a vago-vagal response to REM sleep. If such a dream occurs when you are first falling asleep it may be a survival response of your endocrine system - the brain mistakes the normal descent into sleep for dying, and so floods your system with adrenaline in an attempt to keep you alive, which is what causes that heart-pounding jolt that feels like falling suddenly from a great distance.
Wet dreams are also a product of the endocrine system. When the body becomes active during REM sleep, sex hormones are secreted in high quantities, especially during puberty. This, with increased blood flow, is what causes an erection during sleep. An erotic dream may also be triggered by elevated sex hormones, and the brain may stimulate the body to orgasm as though the dream were real. If a person hasn't had sex for a while, they may be sexually frustrated or have sex on the brain and it may be that his or her hormone levels are already elevated so that when the hormone levels are increased during REM, it may increase the likelihood of a wet dream.
Most people actually have hundreds of dreams each night, but only remember one or two, and then only if they wake during or just at the end of the REM cycle. Dreams are still largely a mystery to science, so it is up to each person to interpert their dreams as they will until we know more.