Why is My Brain Making That Sound?
At least this time, I don't hate the song.
I woke up this morning with a song running through my head. It was "Burning Down the House" by the Talking Heads. In my defense, I have no idea why that song. I doubt I've thought of it in years. Maybe even decades. It's a fun one but not one of my favorites. I assume that it was background music in a dream I had just before I woke up. Can't remember though. The dream itself is gone. Annoyingly, the song is still running around in my brain, 11 hours later.
Once, I read a book about the science of dreams1. A real book by a real scientist. Not one of those “How Dream Science Can Help You Gain Control of Your Inner Life” kinds of things. I have another one that I'm part way through about the neuroscience of dreaming. Fascinating subject. A bit vague, though. The science, I mean. That term could also be applied to my understanding of just about anything, too. But if I didn't at least fake some level of understanding, I would only be able to write, "I’m so confused!" And that would get boring fast.
One of the things that I found in the book about the science of dreams was that we don't only dream during REM sleep2. That was something that was believed for a long time but it turns out to be a myth. No, really. Just because we forget dreams doesn't mean we didn't have them. You know how you wanted to be an astronaut when you were 5? Not that kind of dream.
Anyway, dreams can apparently take place during any part of sleep. At all. They’re just really hard to remember during the non-REM parts. My theory is that the brain is always doing brain things, whether we're paying attention to it or not. When you're sitting with your mouth hanging open, watching some amazingly bad movie on streaming and your mind is a complete blank, your brain is still doing something. Probably something you won't like. But something.
Likewise, when you're sleeping, it’s because you’re brain is still functioning. The type of waves that an EEG detects changes but it never stop making waves. Electrical ones. Don't distract me with bad jokes. It's too easy. Your EEG doesn't go flat, meaning there is no activity going on in your brain, until you're dead. When you're asleep, it's still going. Think of it like a hamster running on a wheel. Sometimes the wheel goes faster. Sometimes it goes slower. Sometimes it reverses direction or makes an irritating little squeaky noise. But it never stops! Until the hamster drops dead from exhaustion. Maybe that's not the best possible metaphor but you kind of get the idea, right?
There are a couple other myths about dreaming that I've noticed. One I've heard is that people only dream in black and white. I know that one's a myth because I dream in color. Maybe it's only the people who say that you can’t dream in color who don't dream in color. That's probably how a lot of myths about sleep and dreams and thinking get started. "I don't ever dream about fruit. If you dream about fruit, you die. Either that or you can't ever eat it again or you'll die, which is okay because I don't eat that stuff anyway." Nope. That's just silly. I don't remember ever having dreamed about fruit but I'm sure it could happen and it won't do any harm.
Another one that I saw on a TV show called Evil, is that when you see writing in a dream, you can't read it. It's just gibberish. I don't remember ever having read anything in a dream. A map, once. That kept changing, though, as things do in dreams. Since I have no experience to draw on and don't remember what it said about this in any of those books, I asked ChatGPT. With its usual careful consideration of the facts, ChatGPT said, "It depends." (paraphrased) But no one really knows what it depends on. I guess some people have been able to read in dreams but not everybody, or not every time.
It doesn’t seem like the dream scientists are straining themselves to figure this one out. My advice is that if you see text in a dream, ask ChatGPT to read it to you. Or the monster that's chasing you. Or the great uncle you haven't seen since he died 20 years ago and who you can't figure out why you would be dreaming about him. Somebody. It's a dream. Just go with it.
As I sometimes do, albeit badly, I did a little research to finish out this article. I mean real research, not just asking ChatGPT. What I found wasn't exactly a surprise. Did I mention that this is a subject I read about quite a bit? Anyway, no one knows exactly why we dream. There are theories. The world is full of theories! Not one of the so-called scientific theories considers the possibility that Aunt Petunia really is trying to tell us something when we dream about her. Personally, I think that's a hole in the science.
One theory is that dreaming is how we “consolidate” memories. I don’t think that one makes any sense, though because my memories of “Burning Down the House” should have been completely consolidated (whatever that means) many years ago. Another theory is that dreaming provides some kind of evolutionary advantage. I find that hard to believe just because everything, at least everything with a brain, seems to dream. I'm pretty sure that's why my dog's tail wags when she's asleep, anyway. So I'm sticking with my theory: The brain just does what it does. The conditions change when we go to sleep but it's still a brain and it still needs to think about something.
Why on Earth THAT song though?
Hey! Did you see my mention last time about starting to do some videos? I haven't done a new one since then. I have a couple ideas, though, so I should crank one out any day now. Go over to youtube and/or rumble (links below and on the Technoscreed home page) and subscribe so you can find out when the new one comes up. The first one I did was just an excerpt from a column but the plan from now on is to do different stuff. Maybe related, but different3.
Here's that prompt: "A cartoon-style image capturing a chaotic and humorous scene. A person, in classic pajamas and a sleepwalking pose with arms extended, ambles past a small house at night. In the background, animated firemen are bustling around, using a large hose to douse flames engulfing an old-fashioned wooden outhouse. The scene is filled with exaggerated expressions and movements, emphasizing the bizarre and funny situation. Bright colors highlight the fire and the firemen's efforts, while the sleepwalker remains blissfully unaware in their own monochrome nightwear."
Dream Science: Exploring the Forms of Consciousness by J. F. Pagel
REM means Rapid Eye Movement. It's the lightest stage of sleep. You know there are stages, right?
Why are there so few footnotes? I usually have to trim a few to keep them from getting out of control!