Stefanie Schuster asked:
Why do we dream?
In 2013 The Guardian published an article called “The 20 big questions in
science”. Most of them are still considered to be the biggest questions
in science, one of them being “Why do we dream?”. With this new interac-
tive format, we asked this question on our blog and collected answers
over the last three months. And we got great replies and thoughts!
tes
solida -
n
o
c
in
el P.:
o may
the bra
Micha ep is when we dream s days
le
n
he
‘REM s s and whe replaying t
ie
h
r
it
o
w
m
me
r
do
regula
as to
hout eam-
be it h
it
w
dr
.’
nes
events ance decli pendent of
e
m
d
r
‘Perfo ut maybe in
(b
p
e
le
s
ing?).’
Jens
K
‘I cou linzing
:
ld im
phen
a
ome gine tha
non
centl
t dre
o
y
a
ries.’ encoded f the rea ms are
a
c
a
u
tobio tivation n epi-
‘Duri
grap
ng R
hical of re-
E
tual
mem
realit M sleep
o-
ie
t
erati
ve m s in orde he brain
r to o
sens
odel
creat
o
e
p
‘We c ry input.’ it uses t timize th s vir-
o pr
e
an d
edict gen-
r
in th
e rea eam with
futur
l wor
o
e
ut ac
ld.’
ting
all of
it ou
t
in
ave a time
David Sk:
rtant to h
d
o
n
p
a
,
im
s
e
te
b
a
nsolid
o
c
‘It could
,
ts
c
e
fl
uch
brain re
s with a m
n
o
which the
ti
a
lid
a
v
om
tional
rruption fr
does emo
ithout inte
w
lled
y
o
it
c
tr
a
n
p
o
a
c
being
t
higher c
u
o
h
it
w
brain
e and
high order
the outsid
d
n
a
l
a
ic
g
trate
by more s
’
.
regions
Steffi:
‘Dreams
help to m
aintain a
fight-or-fl
nd train
ight resp
th
onse as
is most a
the amyg e
ctive duri
dala
ng dream
ing.’
GizAltan:
‘Freud suggested that dreams are (for) “…
disguised fulfillments of repressed wish-
es.”’
‘In the end, dreams are end-products (or
side products) of some neurobiological
processes.’
Johanna Salu
:
‘For me pe
rsonally, the
purpose of
dreams is to
entertain and
provide food
for thought.’
‘Another inte
resting cont
radiction in
dreaming is
evidenced by
the fact that
one frequent
ly feels like pa
ssive partici-
pant in a stor
y, a characte
r that things
are happenin
g to, yet the en
tire
concoction of
one’s own min story is a
d.’
‘Dreaming po
ses lots of
intellectually
stimulating qu
estions while
simultane-
ously giving m
e the ability to
fly. I couldn’t
ask for more.’
Joe H
o
‘We d well:
ream
escap
b
ed in ecause th
death
ough
t can
.’
JH:
ing drives
‘We dream because only dream
, beyond
quo
us to go beyond the status
social,
from
injustice of all kind ranging
’
political to gender inequality.
Laura:
‘We drea
m so tha
t the brain
informati
c
on/feelin
gs/conce an process
create sp
rns in ord
ace for ne
er to
w inform
‘I think w
ation.’
e dream:
1) to rech
and 2) to
arge the b
giv
rain
ten suppre e our emotions (w
hich we o
ss) the sp
f-
ace to co
me up.’
Check out our website www.neuromag.net/question/
why-do-we-dream to read the full responses.
only
be
l:
Michael Schred
ective
defined as subj
be
n
ca
g
‘Dreamin
g sleep.’
experiences durin
are more
nt experiences
‘Emotional salie
ms, and
grated into drea
likely to be inte
inent in
ns are very prom ities
social interactio
tiv
ac
red to cognitive
dreams compa
ing etc.’
like reading, writ
e brain is
mption why th
‘The basic assu
e experi-
idate waking-lif
able to consol
me form of
that there is so
ences/tasks is
eep.’
replay during sl
November 2017| NEUROMAG |
23