“The theory is that the dream helps to allow emotions to be felt, experienced in the body, and then pass through or be digested,” Goldman explains.īut positive emotions are rarely the ones that need to be fully processed in our dream state. Goldman tells mbg that there are some theorists who believe that we dream in order to process our emotions most optimally. “I thought well, if dreaming really is a simulation, maybe the brain is using them in the same way for us to go through very risky situations that would be too risky to practice and rehearse in real life,” he says. Rather, he equates the brain’s version of virtual reality to that of flight simulation, a kind of virtual reality technology used to teach pilots how to respond in emergency situations. Revonsuo goes on to explain that he believes the brain’s simulation to be too complex to be random, like other dream theories might suggest. “It’s like a virtual reality going on in the brain, like a biologically programmed virtual reality that gets activated every night for us.” “Dreaming is like a world simulation,” Revonsuo explained in an episode of Shrink Rap Radio. The results 4 showed that the children who experienced fewer negative events in their waking lives also tended to have fewer upsetting dreams. In doing so, the brain simulates our social reality “so that we can better navigate interactions, situations, threats, and relationships” in our waking lives.īack in 2005, Revonsuo and a team of psychologists tested this theory by evaluating the dreams of children. “Revonsuo’s theory suggests that the dream realm offers a consequence-free zone for the brain to practice social and behavioral strategies,” Sacks tells mbg. proposed what is now known as the Threat Simulation Theory (TST) of Dreaming 3, insinuating that dreams are our brain’s way of rehearsing survival strategies, without having to defend against an actual threat. In the year 2000, Finnish cognitive neuroscientist and psychologist, Antti Revonsuo, Ph.D. It’s also believed to be the stage in which memories get eliminated, updated, or edited. The theory is that, because dreams are often a reflection of things that happened when a person was awake, the resting brain is retrieving that information, digesting it, and learning from it. And to help further the process along, our mind creates images and stories to optimally manage all of this activity.Īs for the science behind this one, a 2019 review 1 of dream theories published in the journal Brain Science Advances stated research does suggest that something called “sleep-dependent memory consolidation” exists, and that memory processing takes place during both REM and non-rem (NREM) sleep. “The theory is that while we dream, the brain is sorting through what information it should keep and what it should forget,” she says. Goldman likens it to a kind of mental clean-out. Listed on the body’s rest and refresh itinerary while you sleep is memory consolidation, and some believe dreaming plays a role in this task. This can lead to us being consciously aware that we're dreaming, but unable to wake up. Some dreams do occur when we are in lighter stages of sleep, Goldman adds. According to a recent survey, the Sleep Foundation found that only 55% of adults will have experienced one lucid dream in their lifetime. However, Goldman tells mbg this type of dreaming is rare. When the prefrontal cortex-which is responsible for decision making, attention, and cognitive flexibility-is activated during REM sleep, lucid dreaming, when a person can have influence over their dreams, can occur. “This is a stage of sleep in which our brain activity resembles an awake brain, which can explain why REM dreams are vivid and story-like,” Goldman explains. These experiences can translate to images, thoughts, emotions, and even sensations.Īs for when dreaming occurs during the four sleep stages, Goldman tells mbg that dreams primarily pop up during the rapid eye movement phase-aka REM sleep. When we sleep, Goldman says, the cortex “creates a conscious-like experience,” that often contains people, places, or things from our real life that we are familiar with. And as magical as they may feel, we now know that dreams are equal parts psychological and neurological, developing in response to heightened activity in the outer layer of the brain, called the cortex.Īccording to psychologist and Hope for Depression Research Foundation media advisor Michele Goldman, Psy.D, the cortex deals with thought processing and higher-order functioning. Virtually everyone succumbs to a dream-like state when they transition from wake to sleep (though only a small percentage of Americans remember their dreams come morning).
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