Scientific explanations of dreaming, or as Hobson calls it, ‘a formal analysis of dreams’, suggest that although we all have different dreams, the general properties of the dream are virtually identical. For example: emotional; perceptual or visual vividness; bizarre logic and cognition; and difficulty in recall.
The science of dreaming is based on aspects of physiology, neuro-biology, cognition and information processing. From this perspective, dreaming is no more than spontaneous, self-activation of the mind-brain during sleep. We dream because our brains are activated during sleep.
Science has its part to play in the understanding dreams, but it is currently limited to descriptions and predictions of how the brain will behave during sleep and dreaming. And the current scientific research suggests that dreaming exists in order to test our brain circuits. Science however would not consider the meaning of the dream to be important; rather the dream is seen as meaningless, nonsensical and random.
