var·i·ance
ˈverēəns/ noun
- the fact or quality of being different, divergent, or inconsistent.
Dreams are at variance with the reality of waking life. The logic and consistency of one world is not quite like the other. Dreams have a similarity to our lives of working, playing, eating, or any of the other many varied things we do when we are not sleeping. However during sleep we imagine or remember that waking world and reinterpret the images and sensations of that world into a sometimes fantastical world where anything can and often does happen.
Waking and sleeping are complementary worlds that rely upon each other to exist. Waking cannot be without sleeping. However we can sleep in a coma for an indefinite period of time. What dreams exist in that interminable sleep? And do those dreams gradually lose touch with the imagery of the waking world?
As with all circumstances of living, there must be some balance between waking and sleeping in order for the dreams to function normally. Or is there truly a normalcy to dreams? If dreams are the variance of waking life and these dreams reinterpret and evaluate the experiences of the waking hours then what do the dreams of a comatose state consist of--colors, shadows, darkness?
More research will be necessary to understand the dream world of the coma victim, but without the variance of waking life versus dreams is there anything really to be measured or studied?
Do you think there is a purpose to the variance between waking life and dream life? How "normal" are most of your dreams? What do you like best--dream life or waking life?
