Why Do We Dream? 

*“You can actually see this happening.. if you watch people sleep.. like I usually do.”*

I've always considered dreams as free movies.

11 years later and dreams are no less mysterious than they were then

12 years and this still holds up to current standards. Vsauce really was ahead of their time

Our dreams are just ads loading the next day

Unconcious brain: *organising stuff* Concious brain: bro wtf

I'm a musician and I have written my best songs in dreams, half remembering them first thing in the morning, as I'm in and out of consciousness, but by the time I wake up fully, it has slipped away. I am fascinated by dreams! Great video ❤

I haven't had any lucid dreams before, but I've had a few 4th wall breaking ones. In one dream, I was at school and a dangerous dog was on the loose. A teacher asked me to take care of the problem, and I said something like, "Oh it's no big deal, this'll all be over when I wake up". I woke up shortly afterwards

When I was having a nap my dad was screaming and in my dream a cat was screaming at me

Me: ah... That was a weird dream.. My brain: what dream?

I was a victim of some pretty sick child abuse and neglect for a nine year period, starting when I was 4, and had many many extremely vivid nightmares during those years, most of which I still remember all too well at the age of 63. They mainly dealt with themes of isolation and helplessness. I also had night terrors as a small child for awhile. They're sort of hallucinations that occur just as one is falling asleep. In the night terrors I was always being chased by white circles. Why white circles? Beats me. When I was 8 I had a dream that was comprised of snippets of a bunch other dreams all glued together, all unrelated. These little snippets were mostly very mundane, not vivid like some other dreams I was having, and were separated by brief images of swirls of mist. It was pretty weird. About two weeks later I was in a house where I'd never been before (my cousin took me over to a friends house, someone I'd never met before.) He showed us his fish tank and I happened to mention something about one of the fishes' tails. The moment the words left my mouth I had the strongest feeling of deja vu I've ever had. And then I remembered I had said those exact same words about the fish's tail in one of those dream segments from two weeks earlier. I remembered the dream segment clearly. I know this sounds crazy, but I think I had a clairvoyant dream! I wonder if this is what deja vu actually is, partially remembering a dream that's somehow been replicated in real life. Food for thought I guess. There was a period as a young man when my dreams were affected by my experimentation with hallucinogenics. Had some dreams where I was feeling the hallucinogenic effects in the dream. These were sometimes quite epic and fantastical. Sometimes these dreams had long plots I could remember afterwards that included an especially epic segment, sort of the highlight of the dream, that would repeat in other dreams with different plots, and at other times it was more like an uncontrolled subconscious swirl of emotions, colors, sounds and sights. I also had dreams during this period which were so realistic that I was convinced I was not dreaming, but awake. In one of those dreams my buddies and I were cruising around in a car as we often did back then. I happened to be sitting in the back seat when we hit a semi and my skull got crushed. I sat straight up in bed and experienced hallucinogenic effects for about 10 minutes. Later when I was in my thirties I had repeated episodes of sleep paralysis accompanied by hallucinations like the strong feeling that someone was standing over me with a knife and a weird unsettling sound, sort of like a scream or squeal that gets progressively louder and induces more panic the louder it gets. I'd have to try to shake myself out of paralysis by *trying* to thrash about, and I'd try to scream for help, for my wife to shake me awake and could only mumble weakly. Eventually i was able to shake myself out of it but it sometimes took a long time and was quite exhausting. Fortunately it's been at least 20 years since I've had problematic dreams. Nowadays I only remember the occasional dream, rarely have unpleasant dreams, and more often than not wake up with only a very vague impression or echo of a dream but can't remember details.

My favourite type of dreams is where I can fly. It’s amazing to be able to fly and I know how to do it in my dreams

uhhhh. can we talk about how michael said he watches people sleep?

I hate when I have good dreams of girls, *not the ones when you just have sex with*, but when you actually fall in love with someone, and then they have to leave you, then you wake up. Shit man.

I dreamed of a song once. that day when I woke up I wrote the notes in a book, then 3 days later I made it with a flute. never had I composed something so good. never forgot that dream. Edit: how is this the 12th top comment :v

As someone who experienced lucid dreaming for a long time, my first time lucid dreaming was a bit of a scary experience to me. Not only can I physically move my body but it feels like it's actually happening. I caused this thing where I "become my dream" and it was very hard for me to focus and after a while I have gotten used to lucid dream and the thing about it is that I started doing it at day and night, but then the lucid dreaming got to a point where I started to feel like I am not in a dream but rather another world and then I started doing crazy stuff (I think you would know what I'm talking about) and The people I do it with are people I know in real life and it made me more confident but I changed. Like I said, I started "becoming my dream" and the me from my lucid dreams became me in real life and because of that, people have been avoiding me and my friends would always say I'm weird. That's when I started noticing myself and what I'm doing and what I'm saying. Then I have been getting very scared of just absolutely refuse to go outside and talk to people. I still lucid dream, which I am fine with, but I haven't regularly dreamed in a while. If you are planning on lucid dreaming, please don't make the same mistakes I have made.

Me: Wait.. its all a dream? Crush: *_Always has been._*

imagine having sleep paralysis and hearing a slight, “hey, VSacue, Micheal here”

My dreams are extremely vivid, very detailed and I'm able to recall them from the moment they started and where they stopped. I also have recurring dreams that have taken place over a 15yr period where they connect with one another. When I think about my dreams or describe them to others, they appear in my mind as if I'm recalling a factual memory which sometimes is disturbing because I have questioned if I was dreaming or actually experiencing the memories of someone I was in another life or if I'm connecting with myself in another reality while being in an unconscious state....

I've had a dream about literally the best most original movie concept idea ever, and also an incredibly well thought out video game concept idea. I didn't do anything though, I was just amazed by my insane creativity and moved on.

I don't mind dreaming about a tea party with abraham lincoln as long as we are not in any theaters

Does anyone else get really creeped out by videos of people sleeping? Like, those weird black and white videos...yeesh.

I am a part-time filmmaker and often dream of the most incredible stories that feel like a "masterpiece". They are such elaborate exciting stories that I could never invent in my waking life. And yet I forget almost 95% of them right after I wake up, I can only remember the feeling: "Wow, this is so good, if I implement this I will be famous".

I sometimes lucid dream, it happened a few days ago, but whenever I realize I'm dreaming, I'm like "hey wait i can do whatever..." and then have no idea what to do. In a dream, your senses are much more foggy, and thinking straight is hard, so it's hard to control your dream even if you know you can, and if you do, it's not really very fun due to the nature of dreams. You can tell no one is real. Also, most of my dreams are lucid, but you also forget a lot of stuff in your dreams, so even if I know it's a dream, I rarely remember I can control it. Whenever I realise i can control the dream, much of the dream has already passed, and since idk what to do in it, I kinda just let the dream play out until I forget I can control it. Although sometimes I make myself run really fast or fly around. Last dream I had, I was in a dangerous situation and then I remembered i could control it and made myself super fast and the gas gas gas meme was in my head at the time so I ran from the monster singing "gas gas gas" then tried to spawn in a radio playing it to make it funnier, but unfortunately, I couldn't manage to do it, it's often hard to do the thing because you don't really know how other than imagining it. One time, I was flying in my dream, then was like... how do I do this again? I basically forgot how to do it because to fly forwards I had to imagine it, not do it. And it was very confusing. Also, because most of my dreams are lucid, even nightmares don't scare me because I know it's a dream, and I can just tell whatever is tryna kill me "hey uhhh i dont really care because ill either just respawn or wake up since this is a dream" and the thing sometimes doesn't react to the information or goes oh I'm in a dream? One time I was in an intense fight with some sort of giant lizard then paused and said "wait why are we doing this again, this is all a dream" then he said idk and we both thought for a second. Then I came to the conclusion "lets just keep fighting its kinda fun" and the dream continued.

I felt like i learned everything but understand nothing

Michael can watch me sleep anytime, for science of course

this video was out there before I could even talk correctly and I found it like 5 years ago, it's become some tradition (?) to watch this every year it always gets in my recommend once a year. Best video I've ever seen

Bro is teaching me more information than school did in 12 years

Gotta love how VSauce made videos back in 2011 that hold up to 2019 standards of RU-vid video quality and production. which makes his videos timeless

*Have you ever had a dream that you, um, you had, your, you- you could, you’ll do, you- you wants, you, you could do so, you- you’ll do, you could- you, you want, you want them to do you so much you could do anything?*

Thanks. I'm glad my sleeping brain helps me learn. Those of us who work a lot with dream content can see how our dreams address concerns neglected during the day, as when someone goes through a day mostly in the head, without feeling, and then dreams emotionally and colorfully that night. Or when a situation that should concern us goes unrecognized and returns in symbolic form at night. Dreams speak accurately about such things, but in metaphors, not literally.

"wow that was such a cool dream" brain: "what dream?" "...>:("

10 years later. vsauce vids really do seem timeless.

it's a blessing to have such channels in today's world i mean everyone is busy uploading cringe and funny videos and this guy is literally spreading some interesting knowledge, idk why he is not uploading more such videos nowadays, his frequency of uploading videos has drastically reduced :( I hope you will continue making such videos, and if you need some donation, I would love to donate to you but not now as I am just a high school kid now, but I will definitely help you financially in the future because i don't see such videos uploaded by any other youtuber:)

*Whenever i dream i most of time had a lucid dream where i know what i am doing and can control it completely i can control a person's reply during conversations, can change the climate and whether of a particular area, can change my own location and in dangerous situations i can do whatever i have imagined yet, like a supernatural power or something like that and also i can control the time when i would like to be awake* *it's an incredibly fantastic experience to have a lucid dream*

You know that feeling when you have a dream and you realize you're dreaming and then you're like "no don't wake up I wanna have to have a lucid dream" but then you wake up

There’s nothing I hate more than when I forget a dream, especially a good one Also recently I had a dream that I was in Australia

I've become aware that I'm dreaming many times in dreams, but I can't ever seem to gain control over my dreams. I mean, I can control MYSELF, but I can't control any of the rest of it. I've even had dreams where I was speaking other languages, playing my piano flawlessly, even a few times attending Hogwarts, and once I become aware in my dream I can no longer understand that language, my perfect playing crumbles and even becomes worse than my waking playing, I am no longer able to perform magic. Becoming aware in my dreams brings all real world physics and abilities back into play for me, and it is kind of frustrating. A couple of times upon becoming aware I just end up waking up mere moments later and end up forgetting what I was dreaming about, other than that I had become aware right at the end of it.

I love how hes such a good creator that hsi vidoes from 12 years ago are recommended ❤️‍🔥

1:04 "You can actually see this happening when you watch people sleep, like I usually do." Not creepy at all...

0:29 : micheal: “it’s estimated that we forget about 95% of our dreams.” The subtitles: “85, actually”

I had an ongoing nightmare as a kid of being in a car, or driving it, and passing my home, sending me into a terror. When I was 18, this situation actually happened where I missed the highway exit to go to the place where I just moved to. I asked for directions, made it back to the new home, and to this day, I never had that nighmare again.

The thought of thinking I was only 4 when this came out is crazy, and seeing how good the camera quality was back then is crazy.

"You can actually watch this happen if you see people sleep, like I usually do" DOLAN DARK WHERE ARE YOU

does anyone else sometimes have dreams where they're aware that they're dreaming but can't control what they're doing? and also dreams where you're aware and can force yourself to wake up?

Waking up and not being able to move sounds like the scariest experience on earth

This video does not feel 10 years old

Have you ever had a dream inside a dream? I have once. I thought I had woken up but I was just in another dream.

Havent had a lucid dream in a while. Its really fun.

I’m coming off anxiety medication and am experiencing extremely vivid dreams, I can even remember a dream from yesterday and could draw it now. I’m not endorsing abusing medication, but it’s really helping my creativity.

I got a curiosity box and I’m more than happy to support the guy who helped me through college 🤜🤛

Has anyone had a dream where you pee in the toilet but you end up peeing in real life.

1:05 Someone needs to put that in a Vsauce out of context video 😂

LOVE THIS CHANNEL! I learn everything from here! Thanks a lot! for your videos. Greetings from Perú 🇵🇪.

I miss this version of Vsauce. Good times. The newer version lately is still amazing, but I used to watch these over and over because of the addictiveness on learning so so much. Absorbing everything I could learn. I would put them on a playlist and listen until I fell asleep.

"..if you watch people sleep. Like I usually do." When my brain regestitered that I laughed.

As a child I woke up in midnight unable to move my body. Nice to know why this happened.

your contents are really helpful and interesting. keep doing things.

Vsauce videos age like gold. Everything still reliable, relatable, and pure facts. Sauce is just such a good lad👌

I challenge everyone who sees this to start a dream diary. You can write it in a notebook or your phone, it doesn’t matter. It’s so fun, I promise! I cannot tell you how many times I’ve looked back at my dream diary and been so confused and concerned about what dreams my brain concocts every night.

I watch why we dream As I stay awake on a school night

It was really cool of him to shout out Destin, he and Micheal are awesome.

Loved this video! learned so much. :))) truly timeless classic even in 2018

IF YOU WATCH PEOPLE SLEEP LIKE I USUALLY DO VSAUCE SPIT MEME MADE ITSELF

"if you watch someone sleep, like I usually to do" What? Michael is a creepy stalker.

My dreams are mind blowing. Insane experiences that are heavy on my senses.

It’s 2024 in two months and this video is still serving fir the trends. He is really a head of his time 🤙🏻

Sleepless me watching Vsauce again in 2024

“If you have people remember words pairs and then you don’t allow them to sleep the next day their memory for that stuff is incredibly terrible.” Schools: I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that

sometimes I am seeing a dream, then I wake up for a few minutes and when I sleep again the dream continueses from the moment it stopped. pretty weird, am I the only?

vsauce is the only youtuber i've watched since i was younger that i still love and enjoy, the way he explains things makes me feel like i'm actually learning

Cool to see an older video of his

I've gotten into the habit of writing down my dreams as soon as I wake up from them. Sometimes I'm so sleepy when I write notes in the middle of the night, I wake up to check them in the morning and I can't understand what I wrote 😂

If I ever realize in my dreams that I am in fact dreaming, I get excited and wake up :|

I love how he explores the different theories behind why we dream. From Freud's wild ideas to more scientific explanations, he covers it all. And it's not just boring facts - he keeps it engaging with cool visuals and examples that make you go, "Whoa, I never thought of it like that!" Plus, the video gets you thinking about your own dreams and what they might mean. Like, have you ever had a dream that felt so real you woke up questioning if it actually happened? Overall, "Why Do We Dream" is one of those videos that makes you go down a rabbit hole of thought. It's entertaining, educational, and leaves you pondering the mysteries of the human brain. Definitely worth a watch if you're into mind-bending stuff!

Years ago I would have pretty unsettling dreams from time to time. Then I saw a tv show on dreams and one doctor talked about how we have way more power over our dreams than we think we do. If things are coming at you, dangers and frightening things, then just decide to fight back. Go after the bad in your dreams. It totally worked, and I realized I could then in turn make my dreams far more pleasant. I maybe have had one unpleasant dream in the past several years. I never worry about dreaming anymore. If you worry about it, it does become a self fulfilling prophecy so to speak.

I'm not bragging when I say this, it's more pathetic than anything else... but I've been asked plenty of times to do those sleep studies as almost everyone of my doctors and my neurologist seem interested in my issues. I've had numerous amounts of sleep problems that range from insomnia, sleep paralysis, night terrors and what I call LSD dreams. Night terrors made me afraid to sleep so I became an insomniac, sleeping medication gave me sleep paralysis... which feels like a seizure. The worst were LSD dreams, the freaky dreams you remember forever. The odd thing was I was having dreams that felt like they were going on for weeks... the worst was a month. After the dream had gone on so long I began to mistake it for the real world. I lived in there for almost a month before I couldn't take how crazy my new "life" had became so I committed suicide... thinking I'd really die but instead I woke up. I was convinced I was dead for a while, this was some sick afterlife that makes you never able to leave this place but then I saw a shrink and a neurologist. They had a great solution. They put these eye blinds on, that you see people wear while sleeping. But they had 3 LED lights on the inside. When they would see my brain activity show I was sleeping they would blink the lights. I could see the lights in my dream, and I'd realize I was not awake. This made my dreams lucid... I created worlds. Went to dinner with Emma Stone... did more than just that but a gentlemen never tells. Fought on a battlefield... played god to a village. I did whatever I wanted. I became addicted this... the worse my real world would become the more time I spent in my dreams. I wrote about this experience and everything that happened. Then Inception came out 4 years later.... humph odd.

So sleeping is like saving your progress

Cool thing about dreams is that they can show you a lot of things about patterns in your life and just yourself in general if you analyze them metaphorically

and that’s pretty cool, and that’s why, thanks for watching.

Imagine you're sleeping and suddenly wake up in the middle of the night to a figure watching you. And the figure says: *Hey Vsauce, Michael here*

Me: Whoah, that dream felt so weird, what was it about? My brain: Good question.

Just the Michael I needed for this topic 💪🏼

When I was a young teen I had a recurring theme in my dreams where it would be dim in a room. Not so dim that I could not see, but too dark to make out small text or do other things that required light and concentration. To solve this problem, I would go to turn on a light switch. But when I turn on the light, the bulb kinda just glows a dull yellow and doesn't illuminate anything in the room. I get mildly annoyed, and the dream usually ended after that point. It wasn't annoyance to the point of rage or fear, just a "aw man I was gonna have fun reading that" kind of annoyance. This theme would find its way into almost every dream I had for a few years, I remember one where I was a Wyoming cowboy, riding across the range for most of the dream. After some time I went into my cabin, noticed it was a bit dim for my liking, and the light switch routine commenced. One dream I was being stalked by a bear in my own home, and what was at first a terrifying dream quickly derailed into monotony via trying to light up the room. Around when I was 14 or 15 I stopped having the dream regularly, and I think the most recent time I had it was late 2019- when I was 16.

One time I was dreaming and my alarm went off. In my dream I was a DJ remixing it. 😂

I had sleep paralysis when I was in high school. Actually got it from a medication I was on. I didn’t see anything creepy but I would wake up and be stuck. After awhile I learned just to relax and go back to sleep.

As an avid VR user who’s been using it since 2019, I’ve noticed I do a lot of lucid dreams. Turns out, studies show that VR usage can promote lucid dreaming.

I forget my dreams too but there are few that i had years ago but i still remember them some good ones or some nightmares

Sometimes i wake up and think, what a weird dream i just had but not remember anything about the dream

"You can see this if you watch people sleep ... like I usually do" - Vsauce 2011

thanks for being with us in this world

it's already 11 years yet the video of the content seemed relevant and timely

"You can actually see this happening while watching people sleep, like I usually do." Two interpretations: One - Michael watches people sleep. Two - Michael sleeps like regular people. Either way, I'm laughing so hard.

sometimes I have dreams of me in the future. Like one random ass part of my life, such as sitting on the bus. Weeks or months later I do exactly that and I get this weird feeling of deja vu and then remember that I dreamt the exact same thing a few months ago. Anyone else get this?

I’ve had lucid dreams a few times but I could only control my self through my dream not to much the environment. I’ve talked to other characters in my dream about how I’m aware I’m dreaming and had conversations too, Pretty wicked!

I’ve always said to people that I think we dream to prepare us for things that will happen in the future, so we’ve already experienced the feeling in our dreams, then we can cope with it better in our real life

1:44 when a fly suddenly gets into your ear.

What about dreams where you know you're dreaming but can't control it?

The amazing thing is you are creating the storyline for a dream... and, at the same time, participating or watching and reacting to the same dream

Anyone had a dream that was so scary, u couldn’t talk or scream