• Question: Why do we have putative dreams?

    Asked by lucylemondrops6741 to Kate, Kieren, Nicola, Rowena, Roy on 14 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      In theory, it is our brain processing all the information in our subconscious that the conscious us mind has been too busy to deal with during the day, or all the things the subconscious has been protecting the conscious mind from as self preservation and slowly releasing to be processed.
      Put simply, your mind works on a few levels, the bit you are aware of is your conscious, the bit that you are kind of aware of like a gut feeling is the subconscious, and then there is the bit you are not aware of the unconscious. The subconscious is a bridge between these and dreams are how it allows thoughts across.

    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      Dreams are the brain’s way of going through all the new information it got during the day and processing it and filing it away. Our brains are changeable and when we get new information we build new connections, so the brain has to work out what new connections work and make sense. It’s like rereading a book that you skimmed through.

      The way the left and the right brain interact the right half gets all the new cool information and then tells the left brain what is “normal” and what to do with it, so you can see it as the right brain choosing what information is regular stuff it understands to give the left brain for useful applications like making decisions.

      When I do a lot of maths or organic chemistry I dream in maths or organic reactions. I think of this as my brain working out the rhythmn and the patterns of these “languages”. An important part of learning is sleeping and we can’t learn stuff unless we rest afterwards and let it solidify in our minds.

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