Sweet dreams?

"Sweet dreams are made of this,

Whom am I to disagree?"

Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams

Dreams. We all have them. Some are good, some not so good, some confusing, and yes, some are nightmares. I have been fascinated with dreams for years. How for those few hours during the night when we enter REM sleep, our subconscious takes over. And often times, it is quite a ride.

Many times, when I awaken from a dream, I think, "where in the world did that come from?" Well, it came from me. Locked up in my subconscious. And for some reason, in my dreams, I am often times involved in a situation of some kind. It seems I spend the night, trying to help solve some insolvable problem. Often times in a place I traveled to which I can't get back from. These are not sweet dreams, nor are they nightmares. But most of them are exhausting.

Aldous Huxley was fascinated with the subconscious. He wrote about trying to explore his subconscious in his book Doors of Perception. I read this book back in the 1970's, trying to understand his insight on the subconscious. The problem was, he was looking at psychedelics to be the answer instead of trying to understand dreams. That book turned out to be a wrong way street in my quest for dream knowledge.

We have an indigenous man who lives down the street. He grew up in the Red Lake tribe, and at one time, would make "dream catchers" for sale. People would buy a dream catcher, and hang it by their bed, or the bed of a child. Legend would have it, that a dream catcher would "catch" any bad dreams before they got to who was sleeping by it. If they worked or not, I have no idea. But I have seen some which have very good handywork in them. Some are very attractive.

Not too long ago, I read an article on dreams, and why we have them. Dreams are important for brain health. To not have dreams is not good for us. Our bodies use REM sleep (according to this article), to "wash down our brain like a fire hose". Dreaming is when our brains cleanse themselves, so when we awaken, our brains are sharp and focused. But the article still did not explain the "why" and "how" of dreams.

I am probably not the first to wonder about dreams, nor will I be the last. Dreams are just one of those things which happen to us which we don't understand. Kind of like our autonomous nervous system. Thinking about what it is in our brains which keeps our heart beating 24 x 7 can drive one crazy. Like dreams, it is unexplainable. 

When AI gets to the stage of ASI (Super Intelligence), it is supposed to rival the human brain. Maybe - but there are mysteries galore in our brains which I doubt artificial science can ever touch. Until then, we will just keep dreaming, and every now and again, wake up wondering - Where in the world did that dream come from???