The human mind, a powerful and enigmatic cosmos lying amidst the unexplainable phenomenon, since the dawn of mankind, man has been searching for the answer to one of many questions: Why do we dream? And the process dreams play in the advancement of human cognitive process. Dreams have aroused the interest of many since time immemorial. The use of dreams has been a toll for prediction and can be traced back into ancient times where dreams were considered as messages from their Gods. The Egyptians had built dream temples, where anyone could come and pray to receive dreams from the many so called dream Gods that the Egyptians worshipped. The Greeks were also practicing this method of attaining dreams from their Gods, most notably from Zeus then Hypnos (ruler of sleep and Morpheus (ruler of dreams). 

The first question that rattles the minds of individuals is that what is a dream? Fundamentally a dream is the imagination of oneself, a self-proclamation of an individual which takes place in the form of images, emotion, vivid memories or even confusing situations. In a nutshell a dream is a man's sub-conscious mind and his spiritual senses becoming very much awakened.

Why do we dream then? Can’t we give our brains the rest it deserves whilst sleeping? A possible answer to this could be to insert new materials into the brain which subsequently should reduce the emotional excitement and adapt to help us manage stress. Not convinced with this idea? Then let us look at this in more detail, whilst many theories have been put forward by notable psychologists, scientist and researchers no one can truly say that their theory is correct. This is because dreams vary from person to person given the nature of sleep thus why no single theory predominates as it is difficult to describe a single meaning of a dream. Several theories have tried to explain why we dream and amidst them one of which was that: whilst sleeping random electrical impulses along neurons drew imagery seen during your lifetime experiences stored in the memory. Another theory stated that our mind is trying to conjure up a story with the millions of different imagery man sees and every time a new story develops. One of the most important theories that have stood for almost 30 years is of Freud’s theory, in which he suggested that dreams signify a continuing wish along with the former day’s activities, and that every dream signifies a child’s childhood. No one theory is right or wrong as we must analyse all theories together and come up with a sound basis for decision.

During sleep we go through five sleep stages, the first being light sleep, the second being slighter deeper sleep and stages three to five represent the sleep deepening entering rapid eye movement (REM). REM is a normal phase of sleep which is categorized by the random movements of the eyes and it is during this stage that the brain activity slows right down. Many people fulfil their desires, dreams and overcome many disadvantages through sleep by dreaming lucidly and it is this type of dream that occurs in Rem stage. Lucid dreaming is when you can feel that you are dreaming and you are able to control what happens in that dream. An example of  this is by a mean of a disabled dreaming they can walk, the poor dreaming that they are rich and a person dreaming that he could win the Young Muslim Writers Award; he will control his dream as such that he can see he has won the competition.

Today we know that dreams are not prompted by psychological factors, such as suppressed needs or desires, but rather by a purely biological process - REM sleep. Modern neurophysiological theory has suggested that dreaming is caused by gathering all the information, chemical reactions and electrical impulses a process which can be given the name of synthesis dreams which are internally generated.

Whatever the topic or debate, running in the forefront of the topical issue is the notion of religion and the question seems to be does it play an important role in dreams? To answer this question we need to widen our study of dreams. It can be seen that many non-religious cases of dreams have occurred outside the realm of religion solving astounding problems revolutionising science. Dreams have helped famous scientists who have been baffled to solve problems, yet the power of dreams has helped them overcome their obstacles. Such notable examples are of a German chemist Friedrich August Kekule who had a dream where he saw a snake put a tail in his mouth, to a normal person that would not make any sense at all but to Kekule this showed him the right direction to his problem to which he interpreted this dream to mean that in a benzene molecule (C6H6) the carbon atoms bond together to form a ring, a revolutionary discovery in organic chemistry.

Another person who solved his frustrating problem was Elias Howe who discovered in his dream that he needs to consider placing the eye of the needle in its point so that the mechanism of sewing can be established. An explanation that can be given to why these people found their solutions to their problems can be that when the conscious mind has been exercised pondering over complexed problems before going to sleep, those problems and thought processes are relocated to the sub conscious mind.  Still analysing the data that was fed into the brain whilst awake and giving an output process.

Both of these accounts on analysis can show that whilst you are sleeping your brain is still photographically trying to solve the problems via electrical impulses and chemical reactions. It is not for sure that you will solve the answer to your problem instantly sometimes it takes one night sometimes many months and sometimes many years. Perceptions gained through experiences plays a vital role in the types of dreams we have, thus the reason why we cannot determine the true nature of dreams and why people have different dreams.

Dreams are a self-sub exploration of the mind and a path for unlocking the power to understand our dreams to unify the body, mind and spirit. Dreams have finally come out the darkness and into the light of the day. Sweet Dreams.