A bit of biology on dreams

The first this that comes to mind when I hear the phrase “the farming of bones” is a digging up of the past; a remembering of events and times that have already occurred. The bold-print chapters depicting Amabelle’s meditations seem to represent her dreams, thoughts, and reflections on her past; her own “farming of bones.” They seem to momentarily cease when she and Yves escape to Haiti because she is so caught up in the moment and so engrossed in thinking about the future. She doesn’t have the time or the mental capacity for personal reflection of the past.
For me, and for most people I think, my dreams tend to be quite vivid on some nights, cloudy on others, and I can go days or weeks without remembering my dreams at all. Sometimes they are so lucid that I have to stop and think about small details in my life – did that really happen or was that just part of a dream?
Most people have probably wondered what causes a dream. What are the biological/neurological correlates to dreaming? Many people know that there is a strong correlation between dreaming and a certain physiological state accompanied by rapid eye movement (REM) and intensified brain activation. However, research has found that there is a dissociation between REM sleep and dreaming: patients with brain damage affecting the part of the brain responsible for REM sleep still experience dreams while patients with brain damage that affects the phenomenon of dreaming still exhibit REM sleep. Research has shown that the part of the brain responsible for REM sleep is located in the brain stem and is known as the pons. Further, higher parts of the brain (i.e., parts of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex) have been shown to be responsible for dreaming. These areas of the brain are part of a neurochemical pathway that receive the neurotransmitter ‘dopamine’ from a lower part of the brain. What is the purpose of this pathway? Well, one researcher states that its function is “to motivate the subject to seek out and engage with external objects which can satisfy its inner biological needs.” Sounds a bit Freudian, wouldn’t you say?
I like to think of dreams as solely created by the brain with no outside input. During sleep, the normal pathways providing input from the outside world to the brain are cut off. This gives the brain a chance to recharge and perhaps, with increase brain activation at times, conjure up elaborate, ridiculous, and amusing stories.

Reference:
http://www.psychoanalysis.org.uk/solms4.htm