Dreams have their purpose

We are all familiar with dreams. We see various kinds of dreams everyday. Some are pleasant and refreshing. Some terrify us so much that we cry out in sleep. Some leave us totally perplexed. Many questions arise in our mind regarding dreams, about their nature, cause and utility.
The visual experiences that a person has during sleep are termed as dreams. Dreams are seen in imagaes and there is a continuity in various images that are seen. That is , one image leads to the other, somewhat as in a movie. As a rule dreams are seen more often when a person is not in deep sleep, the optimum period being a few hours before waking. This is why people see more dreams in the last phase of the night. Nightmares are seen more often than pleasant dreams. Very often our dreams seem so real that we mistake for actual happenings.
The material of most dreams is drawn from past experiences of the person. Those incidents which have occure in the recent past and which have affected us strongly are re-enacted in our dreams.
There was a student who used to dream every night that he was going to the station. A psychiatrist who was consulted explained that this was because the student had sat for a very difficult examination several times but always been unsuccessful. This had greatly upset him and triggered off the dreams.
Very often two or more experience similiar dreams at the same time. This happens when the people concerned have been subjucted to the experience of the same kind. For example, if there has been a death of a much loved person in the family, then many of the family members dream about the dead relative at the same time. Similarly, victims of natural calamities like floods or famines and war who have gone through the same horrifying experiences very often dream alike.
The external stimulations that affect a person who is sleeping exert a strong inflence on his dreamd. It has been observed during experiments that if water is sprinkled on a sleeping person without waking him, he sees dreams of being drenched in rain. Similarly, if you prick a sleeping person, he goes and dreams of sword fights, battles, operations and such things. It has been our experince that when we are hungry or thirsty in sleep, we dream of costly feasts or of drinking very large quantities of water.
Another cause of dreams is the unsolved problems of the day. Those problems that keep us occupied during most of the day induce dreams related to them. In these dreams we try to solve these problems. Surprisingly, very often we find their solutions in our dreams. If we go to sleep after reading an absorbing book, we are very likely to dream about it. Unfulfilled desires and neccesities also induce dreams. The child who has been forbidden to eat chocolates makes up for it by dreaming about eating them.
Like most things in life dreams too have their purpose. Dreams help a person in maintaining his mental stability. In the body numerous physiological an mental changes keep occuring. These creat lot of strain. Dreams remove the strain and maintain optimum mental equilibrium. Through dreams a person fulfills his surpressed desires, which he cannot fulfill in real life. Another utility of dreams is that they help in strengthening and prolonging memory. Dreams also help in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness