Just Thoughts and Nothing Else

Dreaming is a word that we use to describe what our mind does when we fall asleep.  I'm sure there is a thousand technical terms for all that goes on while we sleep, but I'm not too technical about anything so therefore it really doesn't matter to me!  I do like being explained the technical aspects of things but only by someone who really knows and understands every aspect of the term!  I want no guessing, no surmising, no I think so's, I always want facts!  So when I don't have facts, I just talk about my feelings on something and no one has to believe that I am right, just that I interpret only what I believe to be the answers.
Sometimes we dream of beautiful, wonderful things and sometimes we dream of things that some people say we should try to interpret their meanings.  Are they an insight to what's happening in our lives?  Are they a warning of our futures and what is yet to come?  Sometimes I believe that they are a way to escape what ever turmoil is going on in our lives on a daily basis.
 Some people will tell you their dreams and they are pretty scary if you ask me, but as they explain them to you things start to emerge that you wonder how can they be so real in what they've seen.?  How is it that they are vibrant with color, detailed completely even with faces, places, and objects?  Then there are others that don't remember a single dream that they have.
Why do we need to understand them at all?  Maybe they've frightened our children, or they've frightened us?
Maybe we just want to know why, how and where?  Maybe we just hope that we can learn from them and make all good things in them, possible!  Maybe we think they are warnings to help us avoid bad things in our lives?  Are there really dream interpreters that really know what they mean, and if so, what makes them experts on what people are actually dreaming about?

Then there are the "Dreamers" as some people like to call them.  You know the ones, that sit and think about their futures, their plans, their hopes and aspirations of what is to come....The ones that believe that all of their dreams will come true and if they don't, it was because someone else crushed their dreams for one reason or another!  It couldn't possibly be because they were dreaming unrealistically about a person, place or thing in their lives that didn't have a biscuit of a chance of coming true in the first place!

Here is the scientific approach to dreaming; 

Interest in dreams is as old as mankind himself. Mankind’s oldest book the Bible is full of them, with the first recorded dream occurring around 1900 B.C.E. The Greeks, Romans and Babylonians all put great hope in dreams, especially on the eve of battle. They believed that through dreams their Gods would direct them to victory. Today the interest in dreams and their interpretation is no less profound. In the early 20th Century Sigmund Freud referred to dreams as ‘the royal road to the unconscious.’ He gave his own interpretations of dreams on the basis of our repressed desires, especially the sexual urge. Today it is generally held that Freud’s interpretation of dreams was overly simplified. But why do we dream in the first place?
Dreams are often a response to our daily thoughts, activities and sensations. They are often, then, a reflection of what has consumed our minds in the preceding day or two. Dreams are apparently a necessary part of our being. Experiments have been done in which adult subjects were given drugs that progressively eliminated their rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. It is during REM that dreams occur. The depriving of the ability to dream resulted in marked personality changes in such subjects. They became increasingly abrasive and anxious and found it difficult to concentrate. It was also shown that the younger a person is, the more important dreams are to their well being.
Scientific studies have resulted in some universally accepted conclusions about dreams. Firstly, it is apparent that everyone dreams, even those who would deny it. Dreaming is as natural as breathing. Babies dream much more than adults. Infants, in fact, spend about 70 percent of their sleep time dreaming. In comparison, adults spend just 24 percent of their sleep time in the dream state. It appears that animals also dream.
Researchers have long known that sleep can be divided into stages. Initially we are in a light sleep stage. From there we progressively enter into a deeper sleep until we reach what is known as the Stage IV sleep state. From here we enter into a lighter stage before moving into the REM stage. REM sleep is accompanied by darting movements of the eyes, even though they are closed. It is as if the eyes were watching a movie playing on the closed eyelids. During REM the brain is operating as if the body were awake. It is during REM that dreams occur.
It generally takes the sleeper about 90 minutes to pass through all of the stages of sleep. Once the REM stage is completed, the process starts again. During the first cycle, REM lasts for only about five minutes. This, however, gradually increases until during the final cycle, a person in the REM stage for up to fifty minutes. So, in a normal night’s sleep a person will spend between ninety and one hundred and twenty minutes in the REM dream state. Dreams are very easily forgotten. In fact, we generally only remember the last one we have each night. Realising that we all dream so often, however, can give us a little balance when it comes to looking at the meaning behind our dreams. A dream is not a special occurrence with a special meaning. It is something that everyone does many times every night. Of course there are many people who would interpret your dreams for you. The greatest argument against their effectiveness, however, is the fact that there is huge discrepancy among these ‘experts’ as to the interpretation of dreams. One expert tells you that your dream means this, while another gives an entirely different interpretation. Another problem with professional dream interpretation is that psychotherapists from different cultures ascribe different meanings to dream symbolisms based on what they are familiar with. This, again, has led to wildly different interpretations of the same dream.
A tendency among dream analysts of recent times has been to teach people to interpret their own dreams. It is felt that each person is aware of his own thoughts, feelings and experiences and is, therefore, in the very best position to know what his dreams actually mean. This, however, leaves the interpretation of the dream open to our own bias. In other words we can make the dream fit into any interpretation that we wish.
The general scientific consensus is that dreams are a necessary way for our subconscious mind to exercise itself. They warn about attaching undue significance to any interpretation of dreams. We are advised not to take our dreams too seriously, but rather to enjoy them for what they are – an essential part of our sleep process.

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