A childhood classic, “Alice in Wonderland,” involving a girl, Alice,  dreams up a magical world. A rabbit who’s running late, a talking cat and a Mad Hatter are all characters created up from within Alice’s mind. This tale exemplifies the power that a brain has to create dreams.

The brain continues to surprise mankind. Scientists work at discovering the meanings of the dreams people have. Dreams stem from brain activity at night during the Rapid Eye Movement stage (REM). From nightmares to the common “tooth-falling out” dream, sleepers enter another universe while sleeping.

According to an article on lifehack.org, a person can have up to seven different dreams per night. It depends on how many REM cycles someone has. A person dreams during the REM cycle and can dream one to two hours every night. People’s brains are more active while they sleep at night.

“I’ve had some pretty weird dreams. Once I had a dream that clowns were chasing me and trying to kill me,” sophomore Ashley Crotteau said.

Over time, people begin to see several common dreams. Backed up by dream expert, Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, dreams of a person’s significant other cheating is one of the most typical dreams. It rarely means an affair is actually going on, it just means that he or she is giving too much time and attention to another person or object.

Another common dream tends to be related to school. This type of dream has many variations: repeating senior year, having to take a pop quiz, giving a presentation, etc. Loewenberg says that a school-related dream is common because it is often connected with a job or career. By comparing the dream to what is currently happening at that person’s job, the dreamer may be able to figure out what the dream meant.

“I had a recurring dream where my class was in this gym and the teacher was making us run sprints. Then some guys were standing there, threatening to hurt us, but the teacher threw some rocks at them and they just left,” Crotteau said.

Along with school and cheating dreams, people often dream of weather. This is because weather can represent emotions. According to Loewenberg, tornadoes represent worry and anxiety that may be getting out of control. The tornado shows that stress emotions are destructive, just as a tornado can be.

In addition to this information, Loewenberg states the dogs are the most dreamed-of-animal. These animals tend to be loyal and provide friendship. Dogs in dreams can symbolize the loyalty someone has towards another. Looking at relationships in their life, a dreamer could see who the dog in the dream was symbolizing.

“There was a period of time where my dog would show up in some of my dreams,” freshman Matthew Redman said.

According to the International Association of the Study of Dreams, a person can often influence their dreams by using pre-sleep suggestions. Lucid dreaming is another method that is used to influence dreams. During lucid dreaming, a person is aware they are dreaming while still alseep and in the dream. Lucid dreaming can be experienced spontaneously, but people can learn how to increase lucid dreaming.

Emily Dickinson once wrote “The brain is wider than the sky,” and dreams have proved this quote to be true. At night, mankind can enter into different worlds and experience their wildest dreams. Whether it’s dreaming about a magical world with a tardy rabbit or about tornadoes, dreams continue to appear every night.