In your dreams

I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough. -M.C. Escher

I read an article in Scientific American on whether or not there is an adaptive purpose for dreaming. The theories are pretty straight forward - simulation of threat scenarios, problem solving, and "brain conditioning".

I like this analogy: “For all we know, dreaming might be a kind of screen saver in which it doesn’t really matter what the content is as long as certain parts of the brain are active.”

We're so personally connected to our dreams, they affect us physically and emotionally - I bet some people don't like the screen saver idea. I imagine that the possibility that the actual content of our dreams is irrelevant would freak some people out.

I'd never considered dreaming as a 'costly signal' thing, where you're conveying (to a predator? competitor?) something like "I'm so strong that I can waste energy doing something apparently useless like dreaming, so don't waste your time messing with me." - that's kind of cool:

"McNamara argues that dreaming can best be understood also as a type of costly signal. He points out that REM sleep is associated with increased mortality, particularly with respect to the irregular activity of the cardiovascular system. He also notes that human males “waste” a lot of otherwise good penile erections during REM sleep. Also, many of the awkward, embarrassing, anxiety-producing experiences from our more negative dreams tend to filter into our waking life, leaving a sort of lingering emotional residue that puts us at an adaptive disadvantage by compromising our everyday social interactions. The bottom line, according to McNamara, is that if we can “afford” to have REM sleep and still be players in the reproductive game, then we’re essentially communicating to others (presumably, others who are watching us sleeping or infer that we’ve done so) that we’re in possession of high-quality genes."

Stop wasting those penile-erections, guys.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.
-Henry David Thoreau

I persistently have two common dream types - flying dreams (which are exhilarating), and chase dreams - someone/something pursuing me and I'd either escape or find some way to disable whatever/whomever it was. I had a vivid dream of being chased by a robber - somehow I knocked him out and, in order to ensure his incapacitation, broke both his legs by jumping on his shins - creepily vivid.

Those 'action/adventure' dreams are fun, almost like movies. But that same dream with one of my kids in it? NOT fun, whole different flavor. I had dreams about strangers in the house, about losing one of my kids, or about them being in danger that left me shaking and full of adrenaline. I have a recurring one about BEARS getting in between my youngest son and I. He's 6'5" now and nearly grown up, but in my dreams he's little.

There's a place I vacationed growing up, a remote-ish beach in Michigan that I dream of all the time, usually I'm trying to get there.

I love the dreams you don't want to wake up from - the one's where you're flying, arms spread, over open water (in mine, I fly like a dragonfly does) - or those, uh, you know other dreams that leave us with warm, lingering sensations.

Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. -Terry Pratchett

Song of the Day, a lullaby Satellite