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[frenchkissed]

Display Name: LETHALPROTECTION
Profile Photo: Happy Married Couple(TM)

Explain Like I'm Five...

Dreams?
Like, what are dreams?
Why do we dream?
Do you think your dreams have meaning?
What was your last dream about?

Just trying to explain the little brain picture show to an alien with no concept of the human subconscious.

Comments

@samsa, text

[anthropophagite]

To simply put, dreams are images our brain puts together, with emotion and sensation, that usually happen involuntarily in the mind while we sleep. Dreams happen during the sleep phase when brain activity is high and resembles being awake.

Scientists say that dreams help to keep a healthy brain, emotionally and memory wise, because those are the areas of the brain that are active when we dream.

[frenchkissed]

( wow, this guy is eloquent. he should teach a class or something. )

And nightmares?

[anthropophagite]

It's basically the same, but rather with negative emotions and sensations.

text ↪ un: avenger

[jikukan]

（ it's something we CAN'T HAVE no that's too edgy even for him. ）

ask it what happens in its mind when it isn't actively conscious.

if it's always conscious, ask it what its mind is like when it's not thinking about anything in particular.

（ and then deconstruct it from there. obviously. sometimes he's got two braincells to rub together. like... on tuesdays. ）

[frenchkissed]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't think his brain ever turns off, really. It just always going on about blah-blah-brains, blah-blah-destroy-the-human-race.

Hold on.

( give him a moment to get silent and essentially mediate on the mind of an alien. )

It's really dark.
Shadowy.
Empty.
Lonely.
Cavernous...

A silent mind is like looking at your reflection in the darkest fucking pond in the middle of nowhere.

[jikukan]

（ i mean you basically just described his mind, so now sasuke's like, cool story fam, #alienlife. ）

dreams are stories your mind tells itself when you're asleep.

they can be good or bad

based on what scares you or made you happy.

or they can make no sense at all.

[frenchkissed]

So they don't mean anything to you?
They just sort of happen at random, no deeper reason for them?

[jikukan]

i didn't say that.

you wanted a simple explanation.

if you want to get into the existentialism of it all that's another matter entirely.

@strangemagic, text.

[rehandle]

I can run through the major neurological theories if that's any good.

[ He recognises this guy from the incident with the house. A little chat about dreams from his questionably anonymous, so far imageless side account is the least he can offer as thanks. ]

[frenchkissed]

I was thinking more in a... romantic sense?

You think dreams are JUST your neurons being all neurony? There's no deeper meaning? You've never Googled 'what does a dream about falling down the stairs mean' at 2AM?

[rehandle]

No, I can safely say I've never Googled that.

Neuroscience doesn't necessarily negate romantic interpretation. It's widely theorized that dreaming is our mind finding ways to process and consolidate our conscious and subconscious experiences and emotional drives. Given how many dimensions exist within any one universe, and how little we understand about the multiverse at large or our relationship to it, that's a lot of potential to draw from.

That said, taking a wild stab in the dark, I'd guess dreaming about falling down the stairs means you need to take a day off.

text » @callidus

[forasecond]

Dreams, in general, are meaningless imagery our minds conjure in a specific stage of sleep, based on event in the day, in the past, or thoughts you have of the future. They can be positive or negative, and a lot of people seek meaning in them because humans, as a general rule, prefer putting things in pretty boxes and don't like to accept that some things are just random and have no deeper meaning.

[His own dreams are more like nightmares, and it's mostly just the one, and he isn't keen to talk about it with strangers. Or even his family. Anyone, really.]