We all have had weird dreams with laughable and bizarre scenarios that defy any kind of logic.
According to a new hypothesis, the random weirdness in dreams is there for a reason: to help us handle the unexpected in a better way, as life is unpredictable and always in flux.

Dreams: A Dose Of Weirdness

Dreams add some chaos to our mundane life, a form of random noise that contrasts with routine life in the daytime.
By creating a Bizarro version of the world around us, dreams help us gain a well-rounded and less simplistic understanding of it.

A Random, Chaotic Dream World

<ol>
<li>Sigmund Freud believed dreams are our latent desires and repressed wishes, which are sometimes symbolic.</li>
<li>Some scientists believe dreams help us consolidate our memory and are a sort of brain housekeeping.</li>
<li>Some believe dreams are ancient biological radars, helping us to practice upcoming threats.</li>
<li>Dreams may help us make new connections by joining together random strings of memories.</li>
<li>Dreams are also seen as a way to build empathy between people by sharing stories.</li>
<li>Dreams may be a way to help us regulate our emotions.</li>
</ol>

Main Theories About Dreams

AI inspires hypothesis that sleeping human brain might try to break its overfamiliarity with daily data <figure><picture itemprop="contentUrl"><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/07d2a8ac994dca6c31587ab625181e3fbf078da5/0_422_5160_3096/master/5160.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=402e6c98b184a56f643925d0564e77bd 1240w, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/07d2a8ac994dca6c31587ab625181e3fbf078da5/0_422_5160_3096/master/5160.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=22869ab9af6931d257eae7d423f047b5 1210w, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/07d2a8ac994dca6c31587ab625181e3fbf078da5/0_422_5160_3096/master/5160.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=07ab83be9f2477221f7128825b1c84b9 890w" sizes="(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw" media="(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)"><source srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/07d2a8ac994dca6c31587ab625181e3fbf078da5/0_422_5160_3096/master/5160.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=2a61f21ca530b04492e6320e24b4aa27 620w, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/07d2a8ac994dca6c31587ab625181e3fbf078da5/0_422_5160_3096/master/5160.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=d825a255ec668cc3184a900bf6617783 605w, https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/07d2a8ac994dca6c31587ab625181e3fbf078da5/0_422_5160_3096/master/5160.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=e9e06b89856356847a6fc59b1cdf16de 445w" sizes="(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw"><img alt="Talking fish, anyone?" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/07d2a8ac994dca6c31587ab625181e3fbf078da5/0_422_5160_3096/master/5160.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=07ab83be9f2477221f7128825b1c84b9" height="407" width="678"></picture><figcaption dir="auto">Talking fish, anyone? Photograph: Andy Ryan/Getty Images</figcaption></figure><div><label for="dateToggle">Fri 14 May 2021 13.18 EDT</label></div>Last modified on Fri 14 May 2021 19.47 EDT<div data-testid="long-share-count" aria-hidden="true">2,193</div>It’s a common enough scenario: you walk into your local supermarket to buy some milk, but by the time you get to the till, the milk bottle has turned into a talking fish. Then you remember you’ve got your GCSE maths exam in the morning, but you haven’t attended a maths lesson for nearly three decades.Dreams can be bafflingly bizarre, but according to a new theory of why we dream, that’s the whole point. By injecting some random weirdness into our humdrum existence, dreams leave us better equipped to cope with the unexpected.The question of why we dream has long divided scientists. Dreams’ subjective nature, and the lack of any means of recording them, makes it fiendishly difficult to prove why they occur, or even how they differ between individuals.“While various hypotheses have been put forward, many of these are contradicted by the sparse, hallucinatory, and narrative nature of dreams, a nature that seems to lack any particular function,” said Erik Hoel, a research assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.Inspired by recent insights into how machine “neural networks” learn, Hoel has proposed an alternative theory: the overfitted brain hypothesis.A common problem when it comes to training artificial intelligence (AI) is that it becomes too familiar with the data it’s trained on, because it assumes that this training set is a perfect representation of anything it might encounter. Scientists try to fix this “overfitting” by introducing some chaos into the data, in the form of noisy or corrupted inputs.Hoel suggests that our brains do something similar when we dream. Particularly as we get older, our days become statistically pretty similar to one another, meaning our “training set” is limited. But we still need to be able to generalise our abilities to new and unexpected circumstances – whether it’s our physical movements and reactions, or our mental processes and understanding. We can’t inject random noise into our brains while we’re awake, because we need to concentrate on the tasks at hand, and perform them as accurately as possible. But sleep is a different matter.By creating a weirded version of the world, dreams may make our understanding of it less simplistic and more well-rounded. “It is the very strangeness of dreams in their divergence from waking experience that gives them their biological function,” Hoel said.Already, there’s some evidence from neuroscience research to support this, he argues. For instance, one of the most reliable ways of prompting dreams about something that happens in real life is to repetitively perform a new task, such as learning to juggle, or repeatedly training on a ski simulator, while you are awake. Overtraining on the task triggers this overfitting phenomenon, meaning your brain attempts to generalise beyond its training set while you sleep by creating dreams. This may help explain why we often get better at physical tasks such as juggling, following a good night’s sleep.Although Hoel’s hypothesis is still untested, an advantage is that it takes the phenomenology of dreams – particularly their sparse, hallucinatory, and narrative content – seriously, rather than viewing it as an unexplained byproduct of other background brain processes. Even experiencing seemingly unrelated, but physically similar activities, may have benefits: for example, dreaming about flying may improve your balance and stability while running.“It is all plausible,” said Prof Mark Blagrove, director of Swansea University Sleep Laboratory, who specialises in the study of sleep and dreams. “This theory proposes that in dreams we generalise from what we have learned during the day. It thus fits within various other current theories, such as the recent Nextup theory, which holds that dreams search for novel associations of what has recently been learned.“However, as with so many theories that dreaming has a function, there is no evidence yet that dreaming is more than an epiphenomenon, a functionless byproduct of neural activity.“Even when the neural activity such as of REM sleep is shown to have a function, this does not show that the simultaneous dreaming [we experience during REM sleep] has a role in that function.”<figure><img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/11eb17896efe15b1ab497e4de6a2c3de5df162cc/45_0_1800_1080/master/1800.jpg?width=460&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=8bd1a8ade5ddb613231910d35b226b03" alt="" width="140" height="84"><figcaption dir="auto">Paralysed man uses ‘mindwriting’ brain computer to compose sentences
Read more</figcaption></figure>Even so, this new theory might encourage psychologists and neuroscientists to undertake experiments to test whether dreams help us to generalise from what we have learned, he added.Other theories for why we dreamThe question of why we dream has fascinated scientists and philosophers for millennia, but we still don’t have a solid explanation for why we do it. Here are some of the other main theories:<UL><LI>Freudian theory: Sigmund Freud believed that dreams represent “disguised fulfilments of repressed wishes”, and are composed of manifest and latent content. Manifest content refers to the sights, sounds and storyline of the dream, while latent content is the symbolic meaning behind the dream, representing the unconscious wishes of the dreamer.</LI><LI>Memory consolidation theory: Perhaps dreams are just replays of past events. We consolidate our memories during sleep, and according to this theory, dreams are the reflection of that. Certainly, there is some evidence that specific sequences of neural firing observed while we are awake are sometimes “replayed” during sleep.</LI><LI>Threat simulation theory: This posits that dreams are an ancient biological defence mechanism, which enable us to practice overcoming threats. Essentially, they provide the dreamer with a virtual reality environment in which to practice important survival skills.</LI><LI>Activation synthesis theory: Maybe dreams are just a random string of memories thrown together. If so, they may provoke us to make new connections, or trigger creative epiphanies while we sleep.</LI><LI>Empathy theory: Dreams may not have evolved with a function, but gain one when we share them with other people. Similar to sharing of stories, dreams may serve to build empathy between people.</LI><LI>Emotion regulation theory: This proposes that dreams are constructed from our emotional history, and may serve to help us process and regulate our emotions.</LI></UL>… as it’s our birthday month, we have a small favour to ask. It’s not every day you turn 200. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating two centuries of independent, high-impact Guardian journalism, as we gear up for centuries more. Since 1821, tens of millions have placed their trust in our quality reporting, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. And we’re just getting started.Thanks to funding from more than 1.5 million Guardian supporters in 180 countries, we’ve remained open to all, and fiercely independent. With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we set our own agenda and provide truth-seeking journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour. Unlike many others, Guardian journalism is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of global events, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. Over the past 200 years, we have reported on the most critical issues and events of the day, and published countless exclusives that have held the powerful to account and exposed incompetence, injustice and impropriety. From the global movement for racial justice to the climate crisis, from a broken food system to life in an age of misinformation, our fact-based journalism highlights injustice, offers solutions and helps make order out of a dizzying news cycle.If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers our journalism and helps sustain our future. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

AI inspires hypothesis that sleeping human brain might try to break its overfamiliarity with daily data 

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AI inspires hypothesis that sleeping human brain might try to break its overfamiliarity with daily data

Last modified on Fri 14 May 2021 19.47 EDT

It’s a common enough scenario: you walk into your local supermarket to buy some milk, but by the time you get to the till, the milk bottle has turned into a talking fish. Then you remember you’ve got your GCSE maths exam in the morning, but you haven’t attended a maths lesson for nearly three decades.

Dreams can be bafflingly bizarre, but according to a new theory of why we dream, that’s the whole point. By injecting some random weirdness into our humdrum existence, dreams leave us better equipped to cope with the unexpected.

The question of why we dream has long divided scientists. Dreams’ subjective nature, and the lack of any means of recording them, makes it fiendishly difficult to prove why they occur, or even how they differ between individuals.

“While various hypotheses have been put forward, many of these are contradicted by the sparse, hallucinatory, and narrative nature of dreams, a nature that seems to lack any particular function,” said Erik Hoel, a research assistant professor of neuroscience at Tufts University in Massachusetts, US.

Inspired by recent insights into how machine “neural networks” learn, Hoel has proposed an alternative theory: the overfitted brain hypothesis.

A common problem when it comes to training artificial intelligence (AI) is that it becomes too familiar with the data it’s trained on, because it assumes that this training set is a perfect representation of anything it might encounter. Scientists try to fix this “overfitting” by introducing some chaos into the data, in the form of noisy or corrupted inputs.

Hoel suggests that our brains do something similar when we dream. Particularly as we get older, our days become statistically pretty similar to one another, meaning our “training set” is limited. But we still need to be able to generalise our abilities to new and unexpected circumstances – whether it’s our physical movements and reactions, or our mental processes and understanding. We can’t inject random noise into our brains while we’re awake, because we need to concentrate on the tasks at hand, and perform them as accurately as possible. But sleep is a different matter.

By creating a weirded version of the world, dreams may make our understanding of it less simplistic and more well-rounded. “It is the very strangeness of dreams in their divergence from waking experience that gives them their biological function,” Hoel said.

Already, there’s some evidence from neuroscience research to support this, he argues. For instance, one of the most reliable ways of prompting dreams about something that happens in real life is to repetitively perform a new task, such as learning to juggle, or repeatedly training on a ski simulator, while you are awake. Overtraining on the task triggers this overfitting phenomenon, meaning your brain attempts to generalise beyond its training set while you sleep by creating dreams. This may help explain why we often get better at physical tasks such as juggling, following a good night’s sleep.

Although Hoel’s hypothesis is still untested, an advantage is that it takes the phenomenology of dreams – particularly their sparse, hallucinatory, and narrative content – seriously, rather than viewing it as an unexplained byproduct of other background brain processes. Even experiencing seemingly unrelated, but physically similar activities, may have benefits: for example, dreaming about flying may improve your balance and stability while running.

“It is all plausible,” said Prof Mark Blagrove, director of Swansea University Sleep Laboratory, who specialises in the study of sleep and dreams. “This theory proposes that in dreams we generalise from what we have learned during the day. It thus fits within various other current theories, such as the recent Nextup theory, which holds that dreams search for novel associations of what has recently been learned.

“However, as with so many theories that dreaming has a function, there is no evidence yet that dreaming is more than an epiphenomenon, a functionless byproduct of neural activity.

“Even when the neural activity such as of REM sleep is shown to have a function, this does not show that the simultaneous dreaming [we experience during REM sleep] has a role in that function.”

Even so, this new theory might encourage psychologists and neuroscientists to undertake experiments to test whether dreams help us to generalise from what we have learned, he added.

Other theories for why we dream

The question of why we dream has fascinated scientists and philosophers for millennia, but we still don’t have a solid explanation for why we do it. Here are some of the other main theories:

<ul><li>Freudian theory: Sigmund Freud believed that dreams represent “disguised fulfilments of repressed wishes”, and are composed of manifest and latent content. Manifest content refers to the sights, sounds and storyline of the dream, while latent content is the symbolic meaning behind the dream, representing the unconscious wishes of the dreamer. </li><li>Memory consolidation theory: Perhaps dreams are just replays of past events. We consolidate our memories during sleep, and according to this theory, dreams are the reflection of that. Certainly, there is some evidence that specific sequences of neural firing observed while we are awake are sometimes “replayed” during sleep. </li><li>Threat simulation theory : This posits that dreams are an ancient biological defence mechanism, which enable us to practice overcoming threats. Essentially, they provide the dreamer with a virtual reality environment in which to practice important survival skills. </li><li>Activation synthesis theory : Maybe dreams are just a random string of memories thrown together. If so, they may provoke us to make new connections, or trigger creative epiphanies while we sleep. </li><li>Empathy theory: Dreams may not have evolved with a function, but gain one when we share them with other people. Similar to sharing of stories, dreams may serve to build empathy between people. </li><li>Emotion regulation theory: This proposes that dreams are constructed from our emotional history, and may serve to help us process and regulate our emotions. </li> </ul>

… as it’s our birthday month, we have a small favour to ask. It’s not every day you turn 200. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating two centuries of independent, high-impact Guardian journalism, as we gear up for centuries more. Since 1821, tens of millions have placed their trust in our quality reporting, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. And we’re just getting started.

Thanks to funding from more than 1.5 million Guardian supporters in 180 countries, we’ve remained open to all, and fiercely independent. With no shareholders or billionaire owner, we set our own agenda and provide truth-seeking journalism that’s free from commercial and political influence. When it’s never mattered more, we can investigate and challenge without fear or favour.

Unlike many others, Guardian journalism is available for everyone to read, regardless of what they can afford to pay. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of global events, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action.

Over the past 200 years, we have reported on the most critical issues and events of the day, and published countless exclusives that have held the powerful to account and exposed incompetence, injustice and impropriety. From the global movement for racial justice to the climate crisis, from a broken food system to life in an age of misinformation, our fact-based journalism highlights injustice, offers solutions and helps make order out of a dizzying news cycle.

If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Every contribution, however big or small, powers our journalism and helps sustain our future. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

Weird dreams train us for the unexpected, says new theory

Dreams: A Dose Of Weirdness

A Random, Chaotic Dream World

Main Theories About Dreams

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