Why Do We Dream?

Dreaming, decluttering, self-regulation, and a catharsis

Dreams are by-products of a healthy mind. It’s the haphazard way in which our brain consolidates experiences and memories. It also links to creative faculties such as the imagination and practical problem-solving.

We might be tempted to dismiss dreams as rubbish. Dream interpretation as new age garbage. But I’d like to think of it as a science. Here’s why.

Dreaming activates the hippocampus

The hippocampus is a part of the brain that plays a dominant role in memories, imagination, and also, dream processing. Vivid dreams are evidence of human minds replicating reality in an entirely imaginary exercise. Isn’t that fascinating? Just like any other physiological process, there usually is a purpose it's designed for. Dreams are an essential part of brain physiology — decluttering and consolidating are essential for healthy brain circuitry.

Dreams are healthy, hallucinations aren’t

Dream states can be quite vivid. Perceptions and sensations can also be altered.

I like to think that healthy brains dream, while diseased ones hallucinate. As a dermatologist, I’m referring specifically to conditions I have personally treated.

Delusional parasitosis is when an otherwise psychologically healthy individual begins to encounter vivid sensations of what must be described (clinically) as imaginary. Bugs crawling on the skin, eggs of parasites left in crevices of the body….The most fascinating aspect I find is that this condition is regarded by dermatologists and psychiatrists as monosymptomatic. Meaning, sufferers have no other psychological impairment or disturbances apart from this single delusion the etiology of which frankly remains a mystery.

The key here is to recognise when the healthy brain can distinguish between phenomena or experiences in the dream state vs reality and when it cannot. I deduce that our brains must allow dreaming as a healthy physiological process. One wonders if it is nature’s catharsis, perhaps.

Why we dream…it may have something to do with our brain’s coping mechanisms

Self-regulation is the hallmark of intelligent processes — at the very least that’s how I like to view the human body as a physician. When it comes to the mind, experiences past, memories suppressed — these are relegated to the realm of the subconscious, all of which seem to serve little purpose.

By the way, how better does one engage the subconscious…then when one’s mind is “asleep”?

The subconscious isn’t just trendy, it’s possibly a practical approach to the study of pseudoscientific phenomena. Intuition is dismissed by the scientists, or maybe not. The sense that something just isn’t right, someone who doesn’t feel right — intuition again doesn’t seem scientific, but most people will recall a time when their gut feeling turned out right.

When it comes to the brain, relegating function to the anatomical structure is myopic

Functional MRI studies have linked the process of dreaming to the hippocampus, which is traditionally understood as where memories are stored. Yet research has also pointed out that even in the face of traumatic brain injury, individuals continue to dream.

When it comes to mental health, big pharma-led funding has focussed on neurochemical mediators and pharmacological treatments that target biochemical receptors. Possibly because these are “tangible” and by default, profitable. Measuring biomarkers, serum levels, for instance, can’t readily be dismissed as quack medicine.

But we haven’t really cracked the code as to what allows healthy brains to distinguish the real world from the imagined. Dreams may give us a clue (it’s also likely less profitable than pharmacologic therapy).

How dreams are constructed by the brain

Fragmented, haphazard, and fascinating — that’s how we often describe our dreams. Dreaming is such a personal experience and yet common to all. What role do memories play? In our waking moments, is it possible to frame our daily experiences so that it encourages the hippocampus to process them in a manner efficient for a healthy psyche?

Can we design our dreams as a form of therapy? Further questioning along this line may take us closer to the discovery of novel therapeutic options for healing psychological disorders. Becoming a better dreamer, asleep or awake may just hold the key to harnessing the imagination for inside-out transformation.

On my podcast Dermatologist Talks: Science of Beauty, I cover research on the brain-skin connection and neuroaesthetic phenomena. Listen to the episode Surreal Dreams–the Secret to a Beautiful Mind here.

Dr. Teo Wan Lin is a board-certified dermatologist from Singapore and founder of Dr.TWL Dermaceuticals, a specialist cosmeceutical skincare line. As an academic, she has published several research papers in top dermatology journals like the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology and the International Journal of Dermatology. She is the host of the leading beauty podcast Dermatologist Talks: Science of Beauty which has collaborated with industry giants like L’Oreal Paris, Amore-Pacific, and LVMH, and is also the author of several books on skincare, haircare, and beauty.

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