• Question: Why do we dream?

    Asked by HabztheG to Josh, Chris, Rebecca, Rob, Susan on 16 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by nyah, the josh, Naomi845, phoebe123, estherisboss, Jimmy (Jemima).
    • Photo: Josh Meyers

      Josh Meyers answered on 16 Jun 2015:

      The answer to this one is that nobody really knows.
      It is clear that while much of our brain shuts down to sleep, some of it remains active.
      It is well accepted that everyone dreams, the difference between people is whether they remember their dreams or not.
      Dreams are most active during the REM phase of sleep, which is characterised by and stands for Rapid Eye Movement.

      There are some studies which suggest that the brain uses dreams to process information that has been learnt recently in order to decide which pieces of information are important! See here for more details:
      http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/why-do-we-dream.htm

    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      Scientists are still undecided on this one – it is likely that dreams help us sort through thoughts of some kind or another, to settle out matters in our conscious lives and to get the most out of learning experienced by sorting through any incidents that our unconscious picked up and our conscious mind missed, or sorting through emotions that we have not had chance to address during the day. Alternatively, they might just be random and mean nothing at all! We just don’t know!

    • Photo: Susan Cartwright

      Susan Cartwright answered on 18 Jun 2015:

      I’m not a neuroscientist or an evolutionary psychologist, but to the best of my knowledge nobody really knows. It may be the brain trying to sort out recent experiences. Apparently everybody does dream, but dreams aren’t generally stored in long-term memory while you’re asleep, so you are only likely to remember them if you wake up either during or shortly after the dream.

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