Why do we dream?

                                          Dreams

This web quest  is going to take you on a journey throughout different sites to help you understand more about why we dream. The exact functions of sleeping and dreaming are unknown, but psychologists have attempted to interpret what happens and why when we sleep. In this lesson, you'll explore the importance of sleep and some of the more famous theories regarding why we dream. Neither sleeping nor dreaming is fully understood by psychologists. What goes on when you sleep? Sleep is important to a well-functioning person. Your body restores itself while you sleep. Growth hormones are released more at night than they are during the day. The amount of sleep you get impacts your mood and ability to function. Lack of sleep negatively impacts your ability to process, and to forge, new memories. 

REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, which is when you dream, is especially important for brain development. It's also something that psychologists find very interesting to study. If you were woken up from REM sleep, you'd likely report that you were dreaming. You probably dream more than once a night, but you don't always remember all of your dreams.

Several attempts have been made at dream interpretation. Theories range from suggestions that we workout our everyday problems in our dreams to dreams being a function of routine brain maintenance, where information is moved into long-term memory. Let's review some of the more famous theories.