As humans, we spend about one third of our lives sleeping.  Have you ever wondered why?

Though it's still considered a mystery to scientists and doctors, it's clear that it's not just something we do to recharge our batteries. It's actually just as vital to our life functions as getting enough food and staying hydrated. 

How Sleep Works

Sleep is the time when our brain is clearing out debris and cell waste like a dutiful housekeeper. It also exercising everything it experienced that day so we can form new neuropathways. This is how we remember what we learned at school and burn memories onto our “hard drive”.  Many structures in the brain have a hand in the function of sleep. For example, the brain stem is in charge of the transitional states between wakefulness and sleep. And if you ever wondered where our melatonin is made, it's in the pineal gland. And our whole body and all its other organs are also working overtime to regenerate. While we may consider sleep to be “doing nothing”, our brain and our body are both very much hard at work while we rest. 

So you can imagine that without the right amount of restorative quality sleep, our brains would become clogged up pretty quickly. Concentration becomes more difficult as we're bogged down by all of the garbage that didn't get cleaned up. And since our brain and nervous system need clean highways in order to help our body and organs function well, poor sleep that becomes chronic can be detrimental to our overall mental and physical well-being. Depression, weight struggles, blood pressure, the list goes on. If you struggle with sleep in general, it's always good to talk to a doctor to see about ruling out sleep disorders. Whether or not there's a clear diagnosis for your sleep troubles, there are sleep specialists who can help you learn good sleep hygiene and form a healthy routine for winding down. 

But what about the show our brain puts on for us when we sleep? Humans spend a few hours each night dreaming, but what exactly are dreams and why do they happen?

How Dreams Work

Dreaming is another part of the mystery of sleep. We usually dream the most vividly during the REM stage (Rapid Eye Movement), and though we may have almost half a dozen dreams per night, we don't usually remember them all. While there is still some debate on the purpose of dreams, experts believe we have them in order to process the emotions, thoughts, and events of the previous day, as well as to problem-solve and get rid of information we may not need anymore. If you've just studied for tomorrow's exam, it's going to work at retaining that information for you, while the finer details of all the slow cooker recipes you binge-watched online may get tossed. 

Most dreams might seem random and nonsensical, but many find that if they go to bed worried about something, they'll have a frustrating “stress dream” about the exact situation going completely wrong, as if the brain is trying to pre-visualize and work it out beforehand. It can be helpful to keep a dream journal to keep track of the images and themes you can remember from them. Some believe that the symbols in the dream have no meaning, while others like to practice at finding the meaning for themselves. 

Nightmares and vivid dreams can also be triggered by things like anxiety, stress, trauma, illnesses/sleep disorders, or even a new medication.  If the dreams are recurring and stressful to the point where it's affecting your well-being, you can always seek the help of a qualified mental health care professional to help you get to the bottom of what your brain is trying to work out. 

Dreams are mysterious and can feel so real that the bad ones haunt us. As hard as it is to think clearly when you wake up with a racing heart from troubling dreams, remember that nothing in your dream can hurt you. You are safe.