• Question: Why do we dream?

    Asked by anon-240764 to Tom, Rebecca, Emily, Elspeth, Ben, Antoine on 9 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Elspeth Keating

      Elspeth Keating answered on 9 Mar 2020:

      Unfortunately really not my area of expertise, but I do know that there is no general agreement on why we dream.
      Scientists believe that we dream to help process memories, help us deal with emotions, stresses and possibly to help prepare us for possible threats. Some people can lucid dream – where they can control the direction the dream takes, without waking up. Dreams are also affected by hormonal changes – many expectant or new mothers report a large change in dreams.

      Before I had my son, I used to be able to lucid dream, and used to do it quite frequently, especially if the dream was more of a nightmare. I trained myself over a few months – if I tried to interfere too abruptly in my dream, I would end up waking up – but after a while I managed to influence them and add in elements and sometimes half the fun was to sit back and see where your dream would take you.

    • Photo: Emily Goddard

      Emily Goddard answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      I don’t know much about why it happens, but I do think it’s often your brain tidying up from the day — my dreams often feature people or places I’ve seen or thought of recently.

      One of the biggest reasons I have dreams is to do with temperature. If I get too hot in bed I have nightmares!

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