Question: Why do we dream?

Victoria Garfield answered on 8 Mar 2021:

This is a great question and one that’s not straightforward! There are different theories as to why we dream and there doesn’t seem to be one answer. This isn’t my area of expertise, even though I do sleep science as part of my research. However, some of the theories around why we dream are: to consolidate memories and help us remember things when we are awake; to process emotions and to be able to better manage them while we’re awake; some research states that actually dreams serve no real purpose and that they are like a by-product of just being asleep; another theory is around perhaps reviewing events that have happened in our lives, particularly recent ones. So, dreaming is super complex and there are scientists across different areas who are working on this, across psychology and neuroscience.