"Dreams are answers to questions that we have yet to ask." --- The X-Files
This quotation may be very close to the truth. Everyone dreams several times every night. Some people may claim that they don't dream. They do dream, but they don't remember.
Dream theorists suggest numerous explanations about what causes dreams. Sigmund Freud believed that dreams preserved sleep. Carl Jung thought dreams made up for parts of the psyche undeveloped by daytime activities.
More recent theories suggest dreams clear the subconscious of the rubbish accumulated during waking hours. Others claim that, as the opening quote suggests, dreams are a subconscious effort to solve problems the sleeper may not even be aware of.
There are five stages of sleep ranging from stage one, a very light sleep, deeper and deeper into stage four, a deep, restorative sleep. The final phase is stage five, or REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. If you were to watch someone during this phase of sleep, you could see the movement of the eyes beneath the closed eyelids. It's during this REM sleep that dreams occur. So do nightmares.
