Where do dreams come from? Fewer places than you'd expect
Many scientists have speculated that dreams help us process memory or learn new things. But there’s a lot of work between that and figuring out what our bodies are actually doing when we dream. Now, a group of researchers at UCBL in Lyon, France say they’ve found a link between REM sleep and a few specific areas of the brain — at least in rats. It hasn’t cracked the puzzle of dreams, but it might point the way towards some valuable clues.
Humans (and rats) cycle through several stages of sleep every night, and dreaming is possible across multiple stages. But the vivid, elaborate dreams we tend to remember most clearly occur during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. There’s a lot of similarity between imagining doing something in this state…
Source:: The Verge
