What Causes Dreams?

The cause of dreams is not known concretely. However, there are a series of theories that many psychologists present about the origin of dreams and, more importantly, the cause of them. Each theorist is unique and, until recently, few were based on science because there wasn't much neurological understanding. With the arrival of science, though, entirely different theories appeared about the different types of dreams.

Freud on Dreams

Sigmund Freud is known for saying that dreams were "the royal road to the unconscious." He felt that one could figure out what the unconscious really wanted by tracing the dreams. Freud would suggest that a dream was your unconscious expressing its wants to the conscious. It is in the unconscious that all desires, passions and needs are expressed.

Therefore, Freud would suggest that when an individual had a dream, it was the unconscious' attempt at getting something. However, this didn't have to be pleasurable because there are many people who desire punishment. Dreams were all about wish fulfillment.

Jung on Dreams

Carl Jung shared a similar opinion to Freud on the importance of dreams in the connection to the unconscious. However, he did not subscribe to the belief that dreams were the unconscious' attempt at getting a wish fulfilled. Instead, Jung believed dreams were images that revealed information about the person. The dreams revealed something on who they were, what sort of relationship they had and situations that were in their life.

According to Jung, the dreams that one had were a type of personal guide to ensure successful growth. Jung felt that the best way to understand these dreams was to simply talk about them. By discussing the dreams outloud, the mind would be able to decipher them and piece them together. This would allow the individual to better appreciate the message being conveyed in the dream.

The Science of Dreams

Some modern scientists suggest that dreams are nothing more than images that are displayed caused by random electric activity in the brain. According to these scientists, the brain does "house cleaning." The house cleaning is where the brain organizes all the different stimuli it experienced throughout the day and puts them away into "storage units." While this is going on, random images appear. It is because of this that a lot of images that might appear in dreams are ones that were seen very recently, whether it be that same day or a few days prior.