• Question: Why do we dream? it seems real when you dream but when you wake up you remember its not real and what decides what you dream of?

    Asked by Booper Dooper to Paul, Mobeen, Laura, Jen, Greg on 7 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by FinnC the genius.
    • Photo: Laura Haworth

      Laura Haworth answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      This is a difficult question as we still don’t really know why we dream. There is a few theories out there but no one is a 100% and it is an area that is still being researched. We know that the majority of our dreaming occurs during the REM stage of our sleep cycle and it is suggested it is the brains way of processing the things we collect when we are awake- that’s why dreams can involve people we have seen/thought about during the day or activities we have been involved in. People also suggest dreaming occurs as a method of forming memories, or a way of expressing our emotions from the day and some theories suggest that dreaming has no purpose.

    • Photo: Paul O'Mahoney

      Paul O'Mahoney answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      I dont think anyone really knows why exactly we dream. Laura has given a pretty good explanation of the current theories.

      I suppose your brain kind of gets tricked when it’s dreaming, and it’s only when you wake up and can make sense of what was happening in your dream that you realise it wasn’t real, and I think that things that happen during the day can influence your dreams.

    • Photo: Greg Melia

      Greg Melia answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      Like the others have said, we don’t really know. You go through four or five stages of REM (“Rapid Eye Movement”) sleep in a full night, which happen between other periods of deep sleep. You need both kinds of sleep to feel properly refreshed, and if you wake up in an REM stage you usually feel quite awake, but if you wake up in the middle of a deep sleep stage, you feel really groggy – which is why it’s important to get your full night’s sleep and not cut back.

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