Question: Do our dreams mean something to do with our emotions,worries or daily thoughts?

Alex Reid answered on 5 Nov 2018: last edited 5 Nov 2018 1:35 pm

Hi, this is a brilliant question, thank you. It is such a good question you should know it is something hundreds of sleep researchers are still working on. Our current understanding of dreams is that they are a byproduct of other things your brain is doing while you sleep, in particular memory processing and reprocessing (also known as memory consolidation). As such they may not have a direct ‘function’ like a heart or lung. Think of the heat coming off a car engine, the engine was not made to make heat, it was made to move the car, so the heat is the byproduct. In the case of dreams memory processing may by expressed as hallucinations.

However, despite not necessarily having a ‘function’ dreams may also contain information that is important to you personally and emotionally as they may be derived from memories you find particularly important. Dreams are sometimes successfully used in certain types therapy as they may contain ongoing worries or concerns you have, and discussing dreams can help some people work through problems or issues they may or may not have fully acknowledged.

It is probably no coincidence the sleep stage in which you dream the most (known as Rapid Eye Movement Sleep) is the sleep stage most associated with processing emotional memories, particularly negative memories. In fact there is a lot of research on this. Also, sometimes the processing of memories can go a bit wrong, leading to sleep issues which have a close relationship with mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

In short: sleep and emotional memory consolidation are really important to our wellbeing, and dreams may be one expression of this.