Different people have different explanations. For example, we in China like to say, "We think during the day and dream at night", which means that the content in our consciousness becomes the material of dreams during the day. Some psychologists believe that dreams reflect unconsciousness or desire. Others are superstitious and think that dreams are predictions of the future.
In the author's view, to interpret dreams, we should start with the logic of nerves in the final analysis.
How do neuroscientists interpret dreams?
They use scientific instruments to detect people's brain waves during sleep. People who do experiments can wear special hats to sleep and let scientists observe the changes of EEG during dreaming. Scientists have found that when dreaming, there are a series of nerve activities, among which a part of the nerve called pons is very active, which will transmit nerve impulses to the occipital lobe in the back part of the brain. In the author's view, this chain is the key to dream interpretation.
Let's talk about pons, which is located in the brain stem and is a part of the center of human life. When people are awake, the brain has to process a lot of information, and the activity of pons is like a weak background sound compared with this information. But after falling asleep, other brain regions go to rest, but this restless life center makes noises from time to time.
Let's talk about the occipital lobe. A pillow is a pillow. The occipital lobe is located near the back of the brain. When lying flat, resting with a pillow is this posture.
What is this area mainly responsible for?
It is responsible for processing visual signals from the eyes, which are the visual areas in the human brain. As long as you open your eyes, the visual area begins to work, and people fall asleep and can have a rest. But as I said just now, the sports meeting of pons spread to the visual area of occipital lobe from time to time. Occipital lobe can't tell whether these signals come from pons or eyes. All they do is accept them in order and process them into visual images. Thus, a vivid dream was born.
Not only that, the brain will also use memory to fill in dreams with what it sees and hears, and use other senses to build a dream world. But the brain area responsible for rationality is still resting, so no matter how absurd the content of the dream is, it is difficult to feel it in the dream. Hearing this, you will understand that dreams often reflect reality, because the materials in memory will be used in dreams. However, dreams can't predict the future anyway, because dreams are ultimately the reaction of nerve activity in the brain.