Inside Health Weekly

Happy Friday!
We all know that if you get a little bit too obsessed with your favorite series, place, or crush, they tend to pop up in your dreams. It feels random, but it’s not. Today, let’s dive into the science behind dreams and what they actually mean from a neuroscience POV.

Let’s dive into it!

2. RECOMMENDATIONS

First: Take it easy. Remember that If you keep dreaming about them, it’s probably just a sign you’ve been thinking about them a lot.

Second: Check out our picks of episodes, conversations, and media that break down the mechanics of dreams. From memory & learning to sleep & rest, the behaviors that shape your dreams go way deeper than you’d think.

• Ologies with Allie - Dreams 

• Inner Cosmos: Stanford Neuroscientist David Eagleman 

• Jay Shetty Podcast: If you dream like this, don’t ignore it.

2. SCIENCE STORY

Turns out, the same way people play games while flirting is similar to what our brains do when we dream— it plays games with us. This especially happens when it comes to memory and learning. Here’s the breakdown:

💌 Hard to Get → Memory Consolidation

• Just like when you play hard (or impossible) to get. Your brain does the same thing at night. It sorts through all your memories, deciding which ones to keep close and which ones to leave on read

🔥 Tease to Please → Emotional Processing

• Some people flirt by complimenting. Others? By bullying. A little roast, a tiny insult, and suddenly it’s romance. Dreams work the same way: your brain replays emotional stuff (both good and bad) to keep your feelings buzzing while working them out behind the scenes.

🧩 Smart Talk → Creativity & Problem Solving

• When you flirt with smart talk, the game is all about quick connections: clever jokes, random references, maybe even flexing a stat or two. Your brain plays the same game in dreams: stitching memories into chaotic-but-genius storylines, handing you the solution you couldn’t crack while awake.

🪞 Mirror Moves → Memory Integration

• Have you ever caught yourself mirroring your crush without thinking? Laughing when they laugh? Repeating phrases, they say? That’s your brain’s way of building a connection. Funny enough, it does something similar at night. It “mirrors” your waking experiences in dreams. By replaying and weaving new info into old memories, it syncs everything together so the important stuff actually sticks.

⚡ Mixed Signal Shuffle → Random Neural Firing

• Hot, then cold… sound familiar? Dreams are filled with random plot twists because neurons fire unpredictably at night. Your brain then tries to stitch the chaos into a story, which is why dreams feel confusing but captivating.

3. SCIENCE BREAKDOWN

How Our Brains Store Info

In many ways, our memories are what shape us into who we are. You must’ve wondered once in your life- how do I remember the time I embarrassed myself in front of my crush? How was I able to memorize the quadratic formula then, but now I have zero clue? (If you know it, props to you.)

As a complex process we all carry out, let’s first break it down into 4 parts:

1. The Gathering stage.

   • Literally, gathering info from your environment. What you see, what you smell, hear, taste— all entering your brain as you read this.

2. The Encoding stage.

   • Now that you’ve read this, your brain must take it in and encode it into a language it can interpret. Think of this similarly to the code of a computer— from this code, it will eventually spit out interpretable messages, AKA memories.

3. The Storage stage.

   • After encoding, your brain needs a way to keep the information safe for later. This is like hitting “Save As” on your computer. But instead of a file, your brain creates a new neural pathway—a chain of neurons “holding hands” to preserve the memory.

4. The Retrieval stage.

   • Finally, when you need that information again, your brain can “open the file.” By activating those pathways, it brings the memory back into awareness—just like clicking into a saved document.

How Dreaming Plays a Role in Forming Memories

We often think of dreams as random fantasies, but research shows they may serve a deeper purpose: helping us consolidate memories and regulate emotions.

Dreaming strengthens neural connections in the brain, reinforcing what we’ve learned and providing resilience against everyday stressors. This discovery is huge because dreams are one of the most mysterious aspects of the human experience.

This, plus other research, opens the doors for better mental health care. By better understanding how dreams support memory and emotional processing, researchers may be able to develop therapeutic strategies for individuals at higher risk of anxiety and depression.

4. FAQ

Why do we dream?

→ Simple answer: we don’t know. We theorize that dreaming may serve as a way to consolidate our memories, resolve our feelings from the stress we just experienced… or they may just be our brain’s random rumble & jumble, since they don’t “shut down” when we sleep. Research continues to answer this question.

Why do I sometimes dream and other times do not? 

→ If you’re getting 7–9 hours of sleep but don’t recall dreaming, you’re likely just not remembering them. Dreams occur during REM sleep, and they’re harder to recall if you don’t wake up right after this stage. With consistent, healthy sleep, you may simply be sleeping well past your REM cycles—so no need to worry.

Are my nightmares trying to tell me something?

→ It depends. If you have frequent nightmares, regions in your brain involved in fear—such as the amygdala—may be hypersensitive and overreactive. This hypersensitivity is often linked to chronic stress and anxiety. As a result, nightmares can be understood as your brain’s way of processing overwhelming emotional stress.

5. DO THIS, NOT THAT

Want to ACE that next test?

Below are some take-home tips, backed by research, that will improve your study habits and save your GPA.

(Spoiler alert: they are less stressful than you might think!)

6. COMPANY SPOTLIGHT

In the AI era, seeing your dreams should be standard. So why can’t you remember them when you try to debrief in the morning, and why isn’t there a solution?

Now there is. Inside Health introduces Dream Recorder, a computer algorithm in progress that aims to capture your dreams so you can revisit them when you wake.

The goal: Decode how your brain works while you sleep and turn memory’s mysteries into something you can actually replay.

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That’s everything for now! Thanks for hanging out with Inside Health this week. Understanding how you function starts with education, and you’re already doing the work just by being here.

Until Next Week - The Inside Health Team