• Question: Why do we dream?

    Asked by Najibah :) to Anna, George, Jodi, Rob, Stefan on 12 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by passos, Ali hazlewood.
    • Photo: Rob Appleyard

      Rob Appleyard answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Nobody really knows. We don’t even know why we need to sleep at all.

      The fact that science hasn’t managed to answer some really simple-sounding questions like that is part of the reason to keep doing it.

    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      This is a really good question, but so difficult to answer. And I’m certainly not in a position to provide any authoritative answer. But! People have been researching about dreams for years. One of the latest theories is this:

      The weird people and locations that we see in our dreams and can often be quite disturbing to us on awakening, is possibly a way for the brain to strengthen our semantic memories. Semantic memories are memories that are of general things in our life, like, remembering how to get up and get dressed, rather than a specific memory of what you ate yesterday.

    • Photo: Jodi Schneider

      Jodi Schneider answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      I think it’s to help us consolidate our memories — but apparently dreaming is completely optional: you can live a healthy life without dreaming. But would you *want* to?

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