I had some weird ass dreams last night...I take Amitriptyline for fibro/sleep and I have fewer side effects to this than most other meds, but one is incredibly vivid dreams. Sometimes I remember some/most of them, usually not. They tend to be more like nightmares, with a recurring theme of being chased down or hunted, so honestly I'm fine not remembering.

But why do we dream? The short answer is, who the hell knows. There have been many studies and theories but at the end of the day, there's a whole lot we don't know about how/why the brain does what it does. 

The prevailing theory is that dreams help you process memories, skills and habits,  and is kind of a way to "rehearse" situations or challenges you face. Obviously, the brain takes some artistic liberty with that part. 

On a physiological level, we know a fair amount of what's happening in the brain while we're dreaming. Dreams occur during REM sleep (REM=rapid eye movement, a cycle of deep sleep where our eyes move back and forth really fast); brain waves are almost as active at this time as they are when we're awake. The experts think the brain stem affects sleep cycles and dreams originate in the forebrain, which is the part that processes conscious thoughts/perception, among other things. They've found that people with brain stem injury don't go into REM sleep and people with forebrain injury don't dream. This is still conjecture and other studies have shown that they might originate from imagination (which is drawn from several areas of the brain), than perception. So basically we're back to, who the hell knows.

We do know that dreams can be affected by psychiatric conditions like PTSD. Many of us know these nightmares, which are common when you're more stressed or triggered. 

As for why dreams can be so effing weird, it gets complicated. The experts suspect neurotransmitters are involved, since some are more pronounced or suppressed during different sleep cycles. Acetylcholine (maintains brain activation) and dopamine (can be linked to hallucinations) are present in higher levels during REM sleep, while histamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine are suppressed-those keep us awake and aware of our surroundings. Personally I don't know about this...I usually have the TV on overnight because I can't sleep in silence and can't get the radio stations I like here, and my dreams have involved characters in shows I know were on while I was sleeping that night. But, less awareness of the environment around us doesn't necessarily mean *no* awareness. 

You can find a ton of info online about interpretation of dreams and "what they mean". Most of it is BS. Freud had a lot to say about dreams and he was the first to publicly talk about their interpretation in the 50s, but no studies have ever substantiated what he said. This is further complicated by the fact that we don't always remember dreams at all,or just bits and pieces-basically you only remember them if you wake up during or right after.  Even people who "never dream", actually do, they just don't remember. 

With that, I need to get ready for a run...it's gotten cold (it's 25 degrees and we have a "wintry mix" coming overnight, ugh) and my motivation is lacking. Miki is perfectly emulating my mood right now, in what I call the "cattleball"

And I'll add this one of Noah in one of his favorite sleeping positions...don't ask me how he breathes like this because I don't know. 

And now I'm off to wish I could give myself a coffee IV...which is to say I technically could since I know how to place a catheter and all, but the coffee would probably melt the IV tubing..