Why Do We Dream?

I had a strange dream last night. I dreamed I was playing football for a combination of my Alma Mater, Butner High School, and the high school I cover for the newspaper, Prosper High School. They are both the Eagles so I guess it could be really easy to combine them.

For some reason in my dream I am the stud of the football team — more than likely this is my subconscious telling me that I was and still am to some degree, a stud. I caught two touchdown passes in some type of championship game, which I can only assume was the Inter-Galactic Football

Championships of the World. I was going to be named MVP (Most Valuable Planetarian). Everybody knew who I was because I still worked for the paper (the job I have now) and I worked at the store (the job I had when I was 18).

Why do we dream? Why are dreams so important? What do they mean? Why do I sleep until noon?
These are all important questions. I will try to answer them in this communique.

First, why do we dream? I believe it has something to do with our subconscious minds running completely amok because it doesn't have important things to do like roll your eyes when somebody blows their nose at the dinner table.

According to an article in Psychology Today (read it here), Freud said "that whether we intend it or not, we're all poets. That's because on most nights, we dream. And dreams are lot like poetry, in that in both things, we express our internal life in similar ways."

And also like poetry, I don't understand my dreams about half the time.
Theories vary on why we dream and I honestly don't understand any of the theories except one: The Absence of Theory.

There's one theory about dreams that just says our dreams are just a bunch of random images produced by an unconscious mind. That could explain why sometimes I dream I'm dining in a fancy restaurant where everybody, including the wait staff and the pretentious chick sitting at the table by the window, farts. It's very random and doesn't have any impact on my life.

Why are dreams so important? There is one theory out there that dreams kind of help our brains "defragment" during the night. During the subconscious portion of the day, our mind works in sorting through some of the days information intake and sorts it in a while that is beneficial. I think this is another viable theory that might be possible. That's why every time I listen to political talk radio, I dream of that fancy restaurant. That way my brain can take that informational overload from all those blowhards on AM Radio and produce it to something my brain can sort through, a really bad smelling wind.

What do dreams mean? Maybe just maybe, our conscious minds are trying to figure out what the unconscious mind is doing. The conscious mind wants to be in the know, it wants to be in control.
When you go to sleep, you put the conscious mind at rest. When you wake up the next morning, it wants a full report of what happened in the middle of the night. The subconscious attends those meetings, but is very coy about what it "did" in the middle of the night.

Conscious mind: All right, it's time to report. Heart?
Heart: Pumped all night, sir.
Conscious mind: Lungs?
Lungs: Took in oxygen and got rid of carbon dioxide and other toxins.
Conscious mind: Perfect. Subconscious?
Subconscious: I did some stuff (stifled laugh).
Conscious mind: For example?
Subconscious: I … hehe … I made a bunch of mental photos of you in a really nice restaurant … hehe … and … hehe … everyone was …. hehe …
Conscious mind: Oh my God, just spit it out.
Subconscious: That's what she said … hehe.

And on and on it would go.

Anyway, I'm glad we do sleep and dream and recover from the previous day.

One final question:  Why do I sleep until noon?

Because if God wanted us to see the sunrise, he would've made it later in the day.