3 ms·
I like to think of dreams as our brains' leisure time, an opportunity for them to do whatever they want to do, unencumbered by the demands of sensory processing
by jawns 3y ago
I like to think of dreams as our brains' leisure time, an opportunity for them to do whatever they want to do, unencumbered by the demands of sensory processing or conscious thought.
However, that doesn't mean our brains necessarily take it easy. Indeed, I've noticed what I would consider considerable cognitive load in certain dreams.
Here's a great example. I recently had a dream in which I was at a party, playing a game with some friends. We had to come up with a silly name for a person, given their profession. I was assigned "dentist," and so I thought through some possibilities: Paul A. Tooth, Paula Tooth, Paul M. Out, Paul M. Allout, etc.
Then another person at the party, who was assigned "obstetrician," announced the silly name they had come up with, and I chuckled at it.
What's fascinating to me is that until they announced the name, I had no perception of the critical thinking necessary to construct it -- even though it was my own brain that was creating it! Somehow, as I was perceiving myself thinking up silly dentist names, another part of my brain was simultaneously thinking up silly obstetrician names, but I could only perceive the thinking about dentists.
Isn't it fascinating that our brains can pull that off?
- topherclay 3y agoIt's interesting that you included the funny dentist names that you came up with but you didn't include the funny obstetrician name (that you also came up with).
- jawns 3y agoI thought it would be amusing to see if anyone could guess it.
- Sosh101 3y agoPerhaps another "Paul M. Out"
- appplication 3y agoBertha Lots
- gsinclair 3y agoIt is indeed amazing. I’m don’t generally remember dreams in much detail, but have sometimes been amazed to recall that part of my dream was reading a newspaper or magazine article. Like, close up. So my brain was manufacturing copy _and_ doing typesetting, all in real time!
- IAmGraydon 3y agoThe part of your brain that can interpret writing and language is not active in dreams, so it’s not possible. What happens when you “read” in dreams is you sort of go through the motions and already know what’s on the page, so your brain is skipping the part where the text is processed by the visual cortex, language center, etc.
- Sosh101 3y agoPerhaps the dream is just pressing the buttons that make you think you are looking at a fully realised magazine article.
- Sosh101 3y agoI'm not seriously proposing this, but what if the "subconscious" (whatever came up with your obstetrician names without you perceiving it) is actually another consciousness, "locked in". Perhaps there is another story here, where a dream was had about a party, and the observer felt they were coming up with humorous names for an obstetrician.
- notamy 3y agoSomething similar to this idea is actually called internal family systems, and is a useful concept for certain types of dissociative disorders afaik. You may not be as far off as you think, but I don’t know if there’s conclusive evidence for this viewpoint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Family_Systems_Model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Family_Systems_Model
- jvanderbot 3y agoYou should look up the split brain experiments. It sure seems like there are non verbal parts of the mind that have their own thoughts on everything.
- x86x87 3y agoIn reality, the "conscious" part of the processing that happens in the brain is just a [small] part. There is so much more that is going on. The way I think about it is that the brain is a massively, self organizing processing unit where consciousness/attention runs on just one thread (try consciously thinking about two things at once :) ). Most of the processing, including vital operations that are needed to keep up alive (eg breathing, heart operation, the myriad of hormonal regulation feedback loops, memory organization and consolidation) are happening under the hood and we don't have access to that part.
- venk12 3y agoThis is such a fascinating aspect of the brain. It feels as if there is some kind of "latent/subconscious" thinking involved and the 'conscious' thought only rises to the surface when the trigger arises. I've had a similar feelings of awe about our own brain during dreams at times. I could talk in a different language, come up with tunes I have never heard before, create visual art in my head etc. The same extends to some of.my psychedelic trips. There could be a possible connection here. Would love to see more BCI experiments on both fronts.