No one actually knows why people dream. Doctors have theories though. One theory that doctors have is: When you are at school, home, or somewhere, there are so many things that are going on that you don’t think about during the day, night, etc. When you sleep, in other words dream, you think about all of the things that have happened. Also, during the day or night, if you are worried or upset, or feeling something about someone, something, etc., it all comes out. You think/ dream about it when asleep.

When people ask doctors and/or scientists,” Does everyone dream?” Scientists and/or doctors say no. Some say that they are not sure. Some people don’t dream. They can skip the 1st stage of sleep: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Scientists and/or doctors don’t really know why some people can do this. But they can.

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Dreaming is a “mood regulatory system,” says Rosalind Cartwright, PhD, chairman of the psychology department at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She’s found that dreams help people work through the day’s emotional quandaries. “It’s like having a built-in therapist,” says Cartwright. While we sleep, dreams compare new emotional experience to old memories, creating plaid-like patterns of old images laid on top of new ones. As she puts it, “You may wake up and think, What was Uncle Harry doing in my dream? I haven’t seen him for 50 years. But the old and new images are emotionally related.” It’s the job of the conscious mind to figure out the relationship.

In fact, dream emotions can help real therapists treat patients undergoing traumatic life events. In a new study of 30 recently divorced adults, Cartwright tracked their dreams over a five-month period, measuring their feelings toward their ex-spouses. She discovered that those who were angriest at the spouse while dreaming had the best chance of successfully coping with divorce. “If their dreams were bland,” Cartwright says, “they hadn’t started to work through their emotions and deal with the divorce.” For therapists, this finding will help determine whether divorced men or women need counseling or have already dreamed their troubles away.

 What Dreams Can Do for You
Psychologists have long known that people can solve their problems at work and home by “sleeping on it.” The challenge has always been to train yourself to dream up the solutions. Deirdre Barrett, PhD, an assistant psychology professor at Harvard Medical School and editor of the journal Dreaming, advises individuals to ponder questions just before falling asleep (Should I take this job? Should I marry that guy?) and then let the subconscious provide the answers. “I’ve known artists looking for inspiration who simply dream up a future show of their art and wake up with plenty of new painting ideas,” says Barrett. “More and more people are learning these techniques to control their dreams.”

Some researchers believe that you can guide your dreams while you’re sleeping. In recent years, Stephen LaBerge, PhD, has pioneered a way of directing the sleeping mind through “lucid dreaming,” in which a sleeping person realizes he or she is dreaming while it is happening. Lucid dreamers can experience fantasy adventures — like flying to the moon, traveling through time or making love on a beach — while being fully aware that they’re dreaming. “It’s like a poor man’s Tahiti,” says LaBerge, a psychophysiologist who directs the Lucidity Institute in Palo Alto, California. “Just being in a lucid dream is a turn-on for people.”

According to LaBerge, lucid dreamers can use the experience for a variety of purposes: problem solving, developing creative ideas and healing. Patricia Keelin, a 55-year-old graphic cartographer from northern California, has used lucid dreaming for everything from talking to her long-dead father to gorging on sweets. “Chocolate always tastes better in a lucid dream because you don’t have to worry about the calories,” she says. A weak swimmer in her waking life, she often likes to go skin diving when she realizes she’s having a lucid dream, diving to the bottom of the dream ocean without worrying about breathing (or her swimming skills). “It’s exhilarating,” she says. “Lucid dreaming is great because it’s free and available to everybody.”

Well, not entirely free. Although everyone has the potential to dream lucidly, it rarely happens routinely without special training or temperament. The Lucidity Institute operates instructional workshops and retreats to spread the gospel. LaBerge has even developed a $500 device — called the NovaDreamer (novadreamer.com) — which helps individuals become participants in their dreams. Once the sleep-mask-like device recognizes the wearer is experiencing REM sleep characteristic of dreaming, it emits a flashing red light that is designed to seep into the person’s dream. “It’s like being at the opera and realizing the flashing lights at intermission mean the opera is about to start again,” says LaBerge. “The cue says that you’re dreaming so you can open yourself up to any kind of experience you want. After all, it’s your dream.”

Indeed, your dreams are like private movies where you are the star, director and writer all at once. And as the latest research indicates, you are also the most insightful movie critic — without the need of a couch. The best interpreter of your dreams is you.

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My assignment for the week is to document my dreams.