• Question: why do we have dream? why do we have nightmares?

    Asked by to Anna, Elaine, Fiona, Kevin, Darren on 24 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Fiona McLean

      Fiona McLean answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      What a great question! This is quite a tricky one. The real answer is we don’t really know but there a few ideas as to why. Some people think that it is to give our brains a chance to reflect and then clean up thoughts. I personally think that we dream possibly to help us predict and prepare for situations that could come up in our real lives (and perhaps this is why we get deja vu-if our brain predicts a situation correctly). It could also be to help us learn and secure memories long-term as sleep helps turn short-term memories into long-term memories. We also don’t really know what part of the brain is used to have dreams. I think potentially the parts that are involved in memory because in my dreams there are often people I know or places I’ve been.

    • Photo: Zhiming Darren Tan

      Zhiming Darren Tan answered on 25 Jun 2014:

      Our brains don’t switch off completely when we sleep – otherwise we would be dead, I think. So we continue thinking. Some breakthroughs in science and math have reportedly come about when the person is asleep!

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