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Discussion » Questions » Health and Wellness » But really, why does our brain use REM sleep for?
Cal 'Bull' Toro

But really, why does our brain use REM sleep for?

Possible explanations for why we dream include:

To represent unconscious desires and wishes
To interpret random signals from the brain and body during sleep
To consolidate and process information gathered during the day
To work as a form of psychotherapy

If this is the top tier level of our knowledge on the subject, have any of you anything to add or maybe subtract from those statements? Why do we dream? What is the brain going through in terms of processes?

Is it, as I strongly feel, a mixed collaboration of those 4 statements? In that they might all at once be the factors?

Posted - March 28, 2017
Tags : Sleep REM dream

Responses


  • 6477
    OK lol I like a challenge. I think it's *entertainment* no *use* other than that.. I think it's a by-product almost.. the brain doesn't entirely shut down - when it's not being *actively* used - it kinda runs almost a random/screensaver type programme.  I personally don't believe that most dreams mean anything...some play out current worries but mostly they are just random..
      March 28, 2017 3:26 PM MDT
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  • 5
    Do you imagine then it could be a form of psychotherapy? Or do you think when the mind dreams it's serving no function whatsoever? That seems strange and unlikely to me, somehow.
      March 31, 2017 3:03 AM MDT
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  • Dear Cal "Bull" Toro,

    REM sleep...the dreaming sleep...yes, I personally think all four of your reasons - and I would even add one more; and that is the archetypal quality of some dreams, studied by Carl Jung and others.
    Archetype suggesting a universal quality, coming from the level of the 'soul,' if you will.
    * * *
    And, you may already know, people will die without sleep, maybe even specifically REM sleep I don't recall for certain. So there is something very important about this "knitting up the raveled sleeve of care."
      March 29, 2017 12:11 AM MDT
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  • 5
    Thank-you! An excellent response
      March 31, 2017 3:04 AM MDT
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  • 22891
    not sure since i rarely remember my dreams
      March 29, 2017 5:52 PM MDT
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  • 5
    The brain as an organ has the power of thinking which is pretty vague, so it seems to me (with nothing well-established) it could just be 'wriggling' so pretty much your subconscious activity all on it's own.
      April 9, 2017 4:58 AM MDT
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  • 53526
    (its own)
      April 9, 2017 6:45 AM MDT
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