Do you think dreams have a meaning? or is it just random scenes your brain makes up? why did scenes in my dream constantly repeat for me?

My dreams usually have a meaning: “WAKE UP!!! YOU GOTTA PEE!!!”

It’s amazing how often the dream is me seaching an unfamiliar house trying to find the bathroom.

I have a lot of adventure dreams that sound similar in nature to your dreams. And, I have repeating motifs that usually occur once or twice a month. Sometimes, within my dream, I recognize the motif and that mental effort wakes me up. Other times, I recognize the motif and decide to mess with it (lucid dreaming). Those dreams can be a lot of fun and/or very strange.

@Grisson: I’ve talked to a number of people who (like us) have the occasional pee dream.

For the most part, I think they’re random. But sometimes not. I was fired from a job I had at a psych hospital… a bitter charge nurse on his way out because I ratted on him, but that’s another story. It was devastating, and I’m still, almost 2 years later, suffering because of it. Anyway, I keep having a dream that I snuck on the unit (it’s locked) and every single time, I get caught. Every time. That’s got to mean something.

One of the reasons that we must have sleep is because our minds use sleep time to “file away” our memories. At least they think that is part of the reason (physical rest aside). Maybe dreams are just bleed through or crosstalk, like you get in some circuits.

A few years back on Scientific America with Alan Alda they explored this a bit.

In one segment, there was a man who was in for brain surgery – he was awake for the procedure and he had volunteered (since his head was wide open anyway) for some research.

They would touch areas of his exposed brain with what looked like a drum stick attached to a wire (electrode?). As they touched certain areas he would say things like, “I smell apple pie”, or “I feel sad”, or his arm would move. On and on it went like this for hours and they would note his responses on a giant map of the brain they had on the adjacent wall.

What they determined was this: Memories of smells, sights, feelings, etc. are stored in the brain in separate places (like individual filing cabinets). So the memory of your 13th birthday party is broken up into different categories and filing cabinets.

Your conscious mind knows how to assemble these pieces into a (mostly) coherent memory.

Meanwhile, your subconscious mind (which is in the driver’s seat while you’re in REM sleep and dreaming) can access the “filing cabinets” but has no idea how to assemble them into a memory.

So it may take the smell from one event and mix it with the sights of another and the feelings of still another.

Hence the wackiness of our dreams.

@cprevite, that was pretty interesting. =D

I’ve been having a dream where I would be in my bed reading a book, then all of a sudden my windows would break open and a sworm of mosquito’s would come and tell me ” The mummys are coming, run while you still can! Dont let Cleopatra’s guards catch you!” Then I’d run, The guards would catch me, and eat my flesh, till I was bone, I kept on having this dream for about 4 days. Thats my dream. Then one day I stood awake all night looking at my window. Then I read a book, All of a sudden I heard bzzzzzz bzzzzzz. It was just a bee that made me have that dream. Im so weird.