[2023 "Science Popularization China Youth Star Creation Competition"] Exploring the Mystery of Dreams: Knowing the Unknown Self

The author of the winning works of the 2023 "Science Popularization China Youth Star Creation Competition": Wang Wenrong

Consciousness is the awareness of a person when he is awake, such as seeing and hearing; unconsciousness refers to psychological activities and processes that the individual is not aware of, such as shaking legs and spinning a pen.

About one-third of a person's life is spent in sleep, and the most important mental phenomenon during sleep is dreams. Sleep and dreams go hand in hand. Dreams are a complex mental phenomenon that is essentially an unconscious activity. People can have various abilities in dreams, travel through different scenes, and even see different people and things. The origin of all this is mysterious and scientific.

——Written in front

It was late at night when I suddenly caught a glimpse of a few dazzling lights flashing across the dark sky outside the window.

The quiet night is shrouded, and the lake is rippling with hidden ripples.

The old man sat cross-legged at the long stone table by the lake, holding a cigar. He was wearing a straight suit, neat hair and beard, and his eyes were wise and deep.

There was also a middle-aged man sitting at the table, drinking and whispering with another person whose face could not be seen clearly.

"Am I sleepwalking?"

"Don't be afraid, child," the old man's eyes seemed to penetrate people's hearts, "You are wandering in your own dreams. This is an unconscious activity in deep sleep. Your cat is now lying on the pillow to accompany you to sleep. Real sleepwalking is when you are in a deep sleep state and move around in the real world, such as walking on the streets or roads at night, or in the kitchen or restaurant at home."

"So don't be nervous. We will meet somewhere in your brain." The old man casually took a puff of his cigar, and his peripheral vision seemed to be able to see my reserved little movements. "These two are experts in sleep and dream research. They can answer any questions you have."

"If I'm not mistaken, you are Sigmund Freud, the author of The Interpretation of Dreams!" I exclaimed. The image of the master is exactly the same as in the book. "You are Austrian, how can I understand your language?"

"Because it is in your dream, in your subconscious world. Dreams satisfy people's instinctive desires to a certain extent. All dreams are centered on the self. In every dream, you can find the self that the dreamer loves, and each dream expresses the self's wishes. If your pet is here, you will also understand its language. Dreams are the fulfillment of wishes."

"I really want to know how dreams are created by the brain?" I rubbed my hands together and asked tentatively.

"Hey, Mr. Dement," the master turned around and called out. A gentleman with a kind face and elegant demeanor appeared beside me at some point. "Mr. William Charles Dement is a sleep expert. He was the first person in the world to use electroencephalogram to study sleep. He also described the rapid eye movement stage of sleep, which is the stage when we are most likely to dream. He may be able to perfectly explain the formation of dreams."

Dement's originally calm eyes became very enthusiastic after he mentioned his area of ​​interest. He carefully described the process from falling asleep to dream formation:

"In simple terms, a person's sleep period consists of five distinct stages: the first stage is the falling asleep stage. When you begin to fall asleep, this period is equivalent to the usual dozing or drowsy stage, and the duration varies from person to person. The second stage is the light sleep stage. The brain waves in this stage are very irregular. The biggest feature of the EEG is the occasional appearance of this special spindle wave, with the amplitude first increasing from small to large, and then decreasing from large to small. If someone wakes you up at this time and says that you are snoring, you may feel that you are not asleep. The third stage is the moderate sleep stage. At this time, the brain wave frequency slows down significantly. At this stage, people's sleep gradually deepens, and all organs of the body begin to enter a state of comprehensive rest. The fourth stage is the deep sleep stage. At this stage, people's sleep is the deepest. The fifth stage is rapid eye movement sleep. Most dreams occur in rapid eye movement sleep. If you are woken up at this time, most people will say that they are dreaming and can remember the specific content of the dream before waking up relatively clearly."

From Dement's reverent expression, it can be seen that he is a loyal fan of the master and is very obsessed with research on sleep and dreams.

Freud looked at Dement with appreciation and said slowly: "Mr. Dement's research is authentic and scientific. I believe that dreams are potential impulses controlled by instinctive desires, and this impulse is often expressed through various wonderful unconscious processes. Dreams are a kind of spiritual activity full of meaning. Its driving force is always the desire to be satisfied. Because these desires are too strong to be completely suppressed, they will be vented as soon as there is a chance, and one of the most common and common forms of venting is dreams. In the sleep state, consciousness relaxes supervision and control over the unconscious, which allows the bound and suppressed desires to reach the conscious level, and it becomes possible to obtain satisfaction in dreams. But in most cases, the expression of desires in dreams is not naked, and often enters dreams in disguised and deformed forms."

Dement was listening carefully to his idol's story, and at this moment he said excitedly, "What the teacher said was really enlightening. My research also found that every night of sleep, our brain is still active, and brain waves show regular changes, starting from slow-wave sleep to rapid-wave sleep, which is a sleep cycle. Slow-wave sleep and rapid-wave sleep alternate and cycle throughout the night, and each night's sleep goes through 4-6 cycles. During rapid eye movement sleep, the brain is active and the muscles are relaxed, and dreams occur during this period. Normal dreaming is beneficial to relieving the body, restoring energy, stabilizing emotions, and protecting the brain. But some people often say that they 'dream all night', 'like watching a movie scene by scene', 'half asleep and half awake all night', which indicates that the number of sleep awakenings has increased abnormally, and the next day they often feel drowsy and dazed, and their attention and memory will decline. This may be due to a symptom of dreaming due to insomnia."

“That’s right, my classmates and I are often too nervous to sleep before exams. It’s so painful!” I couldn’t help but say, gradually becoming deeply attracted to this discussion.

He gave me a comforting look, "Insomnia is very harmful. It can weaken the autonomic nervous system, cause anxiety and depression, affect work and life, and even lead to obesity and accelerated aging. The frequent changes in society and the rapid iteration of things make people in it face various pressures every day. Everyone has experienced insomnia and dreaming problems to a greater or lesser extent. Many people have to rely on drugs to maintain seemingly healthy sleep. Although taking sleeping pills can temporarily relieve sleep problems, there is also the risk of aggravating insomnia. You know, insomnia is painful. After excluding physical and mental illnesses, we must change our wrong perception of sleep, not treat sleep as a task, have too high expectations for sleep, and strive to maintain a regular schedule. Maintain an average of 7-8 hours of healthy sleep time a day, avoid taking food, medicine, and beverages that can excite people before going to bed, and develop good sleep hygiene habits. The situation of you and your classmates may be improved to a certain extent."

Floyd patted me on the shoulder and gave this admirer an admiring look.

I learned a lot from the experience and continued to ask, "Masters, when I wake up in the morning, the dream I recall is still vivid, but during the day, the dream gradually fades away, leaving only some fragments, or even disappears completely. Why do dreams become forgotten after I wake up in the morning?"

Freud pondered for a while and said: "The forgetting of dreams is due to the fact that during sleep, this short-term memory of dreams cannot be converted into long-term memory. It is not surprising that dreams are easily forgotten. The content of dreams is too disturbing!"

Dement hastened to add: "During sleep, certain chemicals in the brain that are necessary for converting short-term memories into long-term memories are inhibited. Therefore, unless a dream is particularly vivid and you wake up in the middle of dreaming or immediately after dreaming, you will not remember the content of the dream. On the contrary, sometimes some dreams can be retained in memory with extraordinary lengths. For example, some people can still remember dreams that were dreamed more than 20 years ago. In dreams, the bottom of our spiritual life rises slowly, like clouds in the sky, floating in the spiritual space, and dissipates with the first breath of revived life. However, after waking up, the colorful sensory world attacks and immediately attracts people's full attention. Few dream scenes can resist this power. Therefore, in this regard, we add another factor. Before the impression of a new day arrives, the dream disappears, just as the brilliant stars give way to the brilliant sun."

As Dement spoke, he patted the person next to him whose face he couldn't see clearly, "This is Mr. Christopher Nolan, the master of dream creation."

"Oh!" I opened my mouth in surprise, "Inception!"

Nolan's face gradually became clear, he was playing with a small spinning top on the table. I wasn't sure if those deep and bright eyes were looking at me, but I heard a few lines from a movie: "When we dream, it always feels very real. Only when we wake up do we realize something is wrong. You never remember the beginning of a dream. You always find yourself in it suddenly."

"Come, experience it in your second level of dream." A crisp sound of finger snap was heard in my ears.

The sky was covered with heavy snow and the wind was biting cold. A few dim street lights were lit on the strange yet familiar streets. I stood alone at the bus stop, looking at the approaching figure, a woman holding a baby. When she passed by, my heart suddenly tightened. It was my mother holding me, a weak child, on the way to the hospital in a dark night with wind and snow. I called out to my mother loudly, but no sound came out. I wanted to run over to hug her, but my legs were too weak.

Looking at the gray sky, I was filled with disappointment and helplessness. When I woke up, there were still traces of tears on my face.

Nolan said with concern: "I'm sorry that the dream hurt you."

I wiped my face and said, "It's okay, Mr. Nolan. I haven't seen my mother for more than half a year since I went to school. This is the first time I've been away from her. I often dream about her and wake up crying."

The two masters next to him smiled, closed their eyes and listened quietly.

The moon's shadow ripples, and waves hit the shore.

Freud opened his eyes slightly and said gently: "Dreams are a complex mental phenomenon, which is essentially unconscious activity. This activity is mainly composed of two factors: one is the reaction of physiological activities to the brain and nervous system of a person in a sleeping state; the other is the manifestation of illogical procedures for various information when consciousness is suppressed. These two factors are intertwined to form dreams."

"Although the study of dreams has entered a more scientific and rational stage, it does not mean that we have answered all the questions about dreams," Dement said. "Maybe there are some questions that we will never be able to explain, but it is destined to be a very fascinating field."

Nolan gently placed a spinning top in my hand.

"Dreams must have some kind of meaning, even if it is an obscure meaning." Freud's low voice echoed faintly and faded away.

The moon is overhead, the stars are dim, the chirping of insects is fading, and the night is deep.

I quickly stood up to say goodbye, and when I turned around, he was gone. This conversation tonight seemed like a dream to me, but every word went into my heart.

The hidden smoke of the cigar and the sound vaguely echoing in my ears make it difficult to distinguish between dreams and reality.

All that was left was the spinning top spinning steadily on the stone table, with no sign of stopping.