Though it’s worth noting that because there’s limited research looking into these questions - and because most of the studies that have been done are relatively small - dream researchers still consider these theories rather than established facts, Troxel says. “This suggests that a function of REM is to smooth out the edges of our emotional lives and help us selectively forget some of the negative things that happen so we don’t feel so overwhelmed by it,” she explains. The results suggest that REM sleep, over time, helps with emotional processing, making negative events less distressing.
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However, after two days, those who had at least one full REM sleep period had less emotional reactivity, as well as number and duration of memories of those negative pictures compared with those who got no or a short amount of REM sleep time. Interestingly, greater amounts of REM sleep was correlated with higher emotional reactivity to viewing the negative pictures (when they were awake) in the short-term compared with those who got no REM sleep. One study tasked 76 healthy young women with viewing negative and neutral pictures before differing amounts of REM sleep. In contrast, REM sleep dreams may be more story-like.Īnd it may be that REM sleep plays an important role in emotional processing, and supporting mental health overall, Troxel says. Research also shows that we do dream in non-REM stages of sleep, but these dreams are typically harder to remember, shorter, less intense, and more thought-like compared with dreaming in REM. “It’s an opportunity for the brain in an unconstrained way to make sense of the world, problem-solve, think creatively, and support memory consolidation.”Ībout one-quarter of your sleep time is spent in REM, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Most dreaming occurs during the rapid eye movement (REM) part of sleep, the stage of sleep where the brain is forming new connections and recalling experiences from the day, says Dr. “What happens during our dreams may help us work through challenging things that happen during the daytime and that we may not be capable of processing during our waking lives.” The prevailing theory based on research suggests that the primary reason for dreams is to support emotional processing, she says.
“While there’s no consensus about the functions of certain stages of sleep, the reality is that there’s not a firm consensus about why we sleep in general,” says sleep expert Wendy Troxel, PhD, senior behavioral scientist at the RAND corporation and author of Sharing the Covers: Every Couple’s Guide to Better Sleep.
When it comes to the question of why we dream, sleep medicine research has in fact revealed perhaps surprisingly little.
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RELATED: How to Fix Your Sleep Schedule Most of Our Dreams Happen During REM Sleep And as it turns out, there are a few reasons why you might remember or you might not - and whichever it is probably doesn’t predict how well you’re sleeping. “Everyone dreams, but not everyone remembers it,” says licensed psychologist and board certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist Shelby Harris, PsyD, an associate professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York.
You might be wondering: Does whether or not you can recall imaginative stories from the night before say something about the quality of your sleep? Others of us tend not to remember our dreams at all. Do you remember the dream you had last night? First thing in the morning some of us might recall scenes vividly enough to share over breakfast, but later in the afternoon it’s probably fuzzy at best.
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