Why do we dream while sleeping?

Each adult sleeps an average of 7-8 hours a day. Human sleep is divided into 2 major cycles, which are NREM and REM. The NREM cycle is divided into 4 sub-cycles: lull, light sleep, deep sleep and very deep sleep. Interspersed between these cycles is REM sleep, a period of rapid eye movement.
Each person's sleep dreams will appear during the REM sleep cycle. Dreams can be understood as hallucinations that occur during certain stages of sleep - the REM stage. It is like a short story that appears while we are asleep and quickly disappears. After we wake up, we can remember all or part of the dream or forget it all.

There are still no studies that clearly show the role of dreams during sleep. However, based on beliefs and theories, it is suggested that the roles of dreams are as follows:
Dreams like a therapist When asleep, the brain is more emotionally active than when awake. Therefore, dreaming while sleeping is a way to help you face your true feelings and thoughts that when awake we try to hide.
Dreams like combat or flight training The amygdala is the area of ​​the brain that is most active during dreaming and sleeping. Therefore, this may be a way to help prepare the brain to deal with threats when sleeping. Also, in our sleep dreams, if we are attacked, we still tend to resist.
Along with that, the brain stem sends nerve signals into REM sleep to help relax muscles. So we won't try to run or punch in our sleep.
Dream while sleeping like a "muse" If thoughts, thinking, logic or creativity are limited when awake, it will be different when sleeping. When you sleep, your brain will be free to be creative, so it will create happy, colorful dreams.
Dream as a memory assistant Dream helps us to store events that have happened, information we have just read and rearrange human emotions. At the same time, it helps to eliminate anxiety and depression that affect life and study.

Dreams are divided into 2 types: dreams with happy content and dreams with scary and sad content. Scary, sad dreams are also known as nightmares. After having a nightmare, we will wake up in a state of anxiety, fear, and even crying.
Nightmares can be caused by stress, anxiety or sometimes a reaction to certain medications. Everyone will have a few nightmares throughout their life. However, having frequent nightmares is a warning of a sleep disorder syndrome. Nightmares cause the following harm:
Fear of going to sleep; Dilating sleep patterns; Worrying about what happened in the nightmare and causing other psychological disturbances.

We met a lot of dreams. There are dreams that may repeat or have new content. There are nights when we have many dreams, but there are times when we have no dreams while sleeping. So why have dreams while sleeping? It is caused by the following factors:
Health conditions Fatigue or lack of sleep for a few nights can lead to parts of the brain being more active when falling into REM sleep. Therefore, rich, vivid, creative dreams will appear, and the likelihood of us recalling them is very high.
In pregnant women, due to increased hormone production, the brain's emotional processing will be changed. The likelihood of nightmares increases in both magnitude and frequency.
Body fatigue, anxiety, stress or sadness is also one of the causes of dreams when sleeping. Things that we often think about, worry about during the day will come into your dreams.
Food Things that affect the psyche will increase the likelihood of dreams when sleeping. So is the food.
When we eat an eye-catching, delicious food, it helps us to dream beautiful, joyful dreams. On the contrary, scary foods will give us nightmares later.
Daily activities A good night's sleep leads to better dreams. Therefore, daily exercise will help us sleep better. You can choose exercise exercises such as jogging, yoga, aerobics or volleyball... Gentle movement will help you to relax in mood, relax your mind... sleep and have good dreams.
So dreaming while sleeping is not bad. However, the occurrence of frequent nightmares is a sign of sleep disorder syndrome. Therefore, we need to change our living, working, and resting habits to have beautiful dreams.

Reference source: healthline.com