• Question: why do we get dreams

    Asked by Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii to Samantha, Matt, Deborah, Adele, Adam on 15 Jun 2017. This question was also asked by M_c.
    • Photo: Deborah Aitken

      Deborah Aitken answered on 15 Jun 2017:

      Nobody really knows. There’s a few theories that it’s to do with memory consolidation and learning but there’s no real way to know for sure.

      What we do know is that dreams occur in REM sleep and that your REM sleep increases the longer you’ve been asleep. Interestingly babies have more REM sleep than adults!

    • Photo: Matthew Lee

      Matthew Lee answered on 16 Jun 2017:

      Ooo Deborah just taught me something, babies have more REM sleep than adults – thats cool! I have no idea why we dream, ive heard the theory about it consolidating memories and it seems plausible to me. There is a theory, unrelated to dreams, that when you sleep your brain is cleaned, lots of fluid is washed over it and its thought that when this doesnt work well it might lead to alzhemiers/dementia

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