The world of dreams has always attracted us because almost anything can happen in it We have no voluntary control About what we see in them. But in fact, curiously enough, there are some things that are almost impossible to dream of.
Dr. Kelly Bulkeley, dream researcher and director of the Dream Database, explains in a report published by the journal Daily Mail “When we dream, our minds are working A more flexible wayemotional and relational.
“The other side of the coin is that we tend to – Decreased ability to dream due to decreased concentration “Short-term concentration is required to read, count, and operate the computer,” he continues. That’s why there are some things that never appear on our dream trips.
Mobile phone
Although the mobile phone is almost an essential item in our daily life, as we spend long hours with it, it is Extremely rare We dream that we use it.
According to science, this is because of phones Not suitable for the job For which dreams evolved. The “threat simulation hypothesis” suggests that dreams are an evolutionary defense mechanism that helps us process threats we may encounter in the real world.
Dr. Deirdre Barrett, Harvard psychologist and author Sleep committee“Only content that relates to modern life,” he explains They tend to be underrepresented In dreams.”
Instead, “content that would have been more relevant to humans during the post-World War II period.” 95% of its development“When they lived in tribes on the savannah, that is overrepresented in the dreams of modern humans.”
Humans tend to dream a lot Storms and the escape of wild animals And snakes because evolution has programmed us to care about these things in order to survive. On the other hand, cell phones are not part of our dreams because they have only been with us for a small portion of our evolutionary history.
Written texts
If you think about it, it is very It is unusual to dream that we are reading written texts. When written documents appear in dreams, they are usually abstract symbols or nonsense.
Although some people remember being able to understand what this text said, instances of reading the actual text in dreams are not the same Extremely rare. Scientists believe that this is related to the basic physiological processes that accompany dreams.
“Brain areas involved in language, even in general, are less active during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the stage in which most dreams occur, and those specifically associated with text and reading. They are even less active“Barrett says.
This means that our brain is not processing The finer details of the written textWhich results in distorted symbols or distorted text pages that dreamers sometimes see. Interestingly, some writers, especially poets, sometimes claim to be able to read small portions of text in their dreams. Researchers believe this may be because the parts of the brain that deal with language are more active even during sleep.
Numbers and mathematical operations
If you’ve ever had a nightmare where you take a math test and find that the paper is missing full of incomprehensible scribbles, This is normal.
Like the written word, numbers, such as mathematical equations or clock numbers, rarely appear in dreams. When this happens, dreamers often tell Your dreams are distortedbecomes illegible or changes when looking away.
According to dream experts, this is actually a necessary consequence of the way dreams are structured. Dreams, unlike our waking life experience, They are not based on the real details of the world around us.
The doctor Benjamin Bird “One useful way to think about it is that waking perception is stabilized by continuous and detailed input of information from the outside world,” says the cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Texas.
On the other hand, in dreams, the brain generates the scene mainly from up to down, With little or no external information.
“So, the more specific details, e.g Written text, numbers or device interfaces, They tend to be unstable or shift when reviewed later. “It’s not that our dreams don’t necessarily contain numbers, it’s that they lack the stability to present them coherently,” Baird says.
Aromas and flavours
If you’ve ever dreamed of enjoying a delicious meal, think carefully about what you’ve actually experienced. You may have dreamed of seeing food on the table or watching others eating, but it’s almost certainly true Never dreamed of its flavor.
Some researchers have suggested that this may be because the brain circuits that control smell evolved in the very distant past. This could mean that Olfactory information does not overlap With signals from the visual and auditory networks, and to a lesser extent they are included in dreams.
However, it may also be because most people simply do not care about smells and tastes as much as we do with sight and sound. “We have senses of smell and taste every day,” Dr. Bulkeley says. But we never dream of it. because?“The answer is that they usually don’t have much to add to the subconscious dramatic stories we tell ourselves while sleeping.”
Your own photo
Although we experience most dreams in the first person, it is very rare for us to dream of our own image. Reflected in a mirror for example. Dr. Barrett explains that if we dream that we are looking at ourselves with one look, it is possible that we see ourselves as distorted or disfigured.
Barrett adds: “You may see a completely different person in the mirror. This may surprise you; in other cases, You don’t even question it.”
Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this happens, but it may be related to the disease The instability inherent in dreams.
Just as we cannot imagine words on a page without any real-world information, Represents all our facial features It may be too complex for our dreaming brains to process.
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