Neuroscience: Strange Dreams Might Help Your Brain Learn Better
“A new study by researchers from the University of Bern, Switzerland suggests that dreams—especially those that simultaneously appear realistic, but, upon a closer look, bizarre—help our brain learn and extract generic concepts from previous experiences.
The importance of sleep and dreams for learning and memory has long been recognized—the impact that a single restless night can have on our cognition is well known. “What we lack is a theory that ties this together with the consolidation of experiences, generalization of concepts, and creativity,” explains Nicolas Deperrois, lead author of the study.
During sleep, we commonly experience two types of sleep phases, alternating one after the other: non-REM sleep, when the brain “replays” the sensory stimulus experienced while awake, and REM sleep, when spontaneous bursts of intense brain activity produce vivid dreams.
The researchers used simulations of the brain cortex to model how different sleep phases affect learning. To introduce an element of unusualness in artificial dreams, they took inspiration from a machine learning technique called Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs).
According to this study, wakefulness, non-REM and REM sleep appear to have complementary functions for learning: experiencing the stimulus, solidifying that experience, and discovering semantic concepts. “We think these findings suggest a simple evolutionary role for dreams, without interpreting their exact meaning,” says Deperrois.
“It shouldn’t be surprising that dreams are bizarre: this bizarreness serves a purpose. The next time you’re having crazy dreams, maybe don’t try to find a deeper meaning—your brain may be simply organizing your experiences.”
Read the complete article here.
#Dreams #Sleep #Brain #Learning
💬 Are you the type of person that remembers their dreams? What is the most bizarre dream that you had?
@globalBraid3744
Bizarre dreams are fun and makes you wake up thinking "what just happened" haha. Especially when they take you out of reality you can wake up feeling like you 'lived' in that world for a bit and that you suddenly got pulled away from it. It's fascinating how our brain works during sleep and there's still so much to understand as our brain remains one of the poorly studied organs within our body.
@sunnyWriting4806
Exactly, haha! Sometimes I really like surrealist dreams I have, being in a whole different world. Our brain is definitely fascinating and I wish that there was more research studying it.
