There are two major theories about why we dream. The first is the activation-synthesis theory, which holds that dreams are interpretations by our forebrains of essentially random activity from the spinal cord and cerebellum during sleep, especially REM sleep.
The other major theory of dreaming is “threat simulation theory,” which holds that the evolutionary function of dreaming is for us to practice how to behave in threatening situations.
First, most dream emotion is negative. Also, people tend to dream of ancestral threats: falling, being chased, natural disasters, and so on.
These two theories of dreaming are often presented as competing, but as far as I can tell they are compatible…
Why do we feel the urge to talk about our dreams?…We like to talk about dreams to help us prepare for how to act in dangerous situations in the future.
Because most dreams are negative (support for the threat simulation theory) our bias in favor of negative information makes them feel important.
We tend to think of dreams as being really weird, but in truth about 80 percent of dreams depict ordinary situations. We’re just more likely to remember and talk about the strange ones.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Why You Shouldn’t Tell People about Your Dreams
