Dreams Actually Virtual Reality Threat Simulation?

Time Slows Down writes "Psychology Today has an interesting story on a new theory of why we dream. Finnish psychologist Antti Revonsuo believes that dreams are a sort of nighttime theater in which our brains screen realistic scenarios simulating emergency situations and providing an arena for safe training. 'The primary function of negative dreams is rehearsal for similar real events, so that threat recognition and avoidance happens faster and more automatically in comparable real situations,' he says. We have 300 to 1,000 threat dreams per year — one to four per night and just under half are aggressive encounters: physical aggression such as fistfights, and nonphysical aggression such as verbal arguments. Faced with actual life-or-death situations — traffic accidents, terrorist attacks, street assaults — people report entering a mode of calm, rapid response, reacting automatically, almost without thinking. Afterward, they often say the episode felt unreal, as if it were all a dream. 'Dreaming is a sensitive system that tries to pay much attention to the threatening cues in our environment,' Revonsuo says. 'Their function is to protect and prepare us.'"

Comments

Yeah

[dreamchaser]

Last night while I was dreaming of playing poker with Einstein and Hawking and an anthropomorphic Zebra, I stopped and thought "This is really a great simulation of reality!" It got really interesting when the dancing elephants started circling our table. I feel far better prepared for life now.

Re:Yeah

[dreamchaser]

You need to dream about humor more often, to train you to enjoy it more (or even get it in the first place) in waking life ;)

Re:Yeah

[cayenne8]

Great....just great.

Now,tonight, I'm gonna be having nightmares of a Slashdot nature....repeating meme's turning into spiraling thoughts, and endless encounters with goatse pics, and alt-tab won't work any longer...EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Re:Yeah

[Nykon]

"I know that I pretty much stopped dreaming about the time I hit puberty."

That's a shame. The good dreams don't start until puberty ;-)

Re:Yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

I usually dream about making love to a woman. *sigh* One day, one day.

Re:Yeah

[JWW]

Of course, the imagery of dreams isn't always that universal. In your case, what do Einstein and Hawking represent for you? What about zebras? What does playing poker mean to you? Do you bluff a lot in poker? Or do you play on the merits of your cards? If you're a physicist, and just making guesses here about the zebra, I'd say that you that see Einstein and Hawking as a black-and-white dichotomy that needs to somehow be resolved. Maybe you think one of Hawking's theories and another of Einstein's are in deep conflict and maybe you see yourself as trying to resolve that. Of course, if you're not a physicist, the dream could mean something else entirely.

Obviously, it means he watches too much Star Trek: TNG and that whatever station he watches it on is right next to Animal Planet.

Re:Yeah

[phillips321]

During puberty, in my dreams, i was a legend, a real pornstar, an animal in bed! Sadly a few years later when i popped my cherry did i realise i was nothing like the stallion my dreams had trained me for.

Re:Yeah

[rkanodia]

If you don't think you do, go to one of those sleep study centers and book yourself for the night.

Way to go, Captain Reading Comprehension. The GP did exactly that.

NUDE

[chowhound]

Apparently my brain is exhaustively preparing me for the possibility that I'll drive to work naked.

Re:NUDE

[eebra82]

Are you sure it's not just preparing you for the possibility of doing it again? Some dreams are read from past events you've long forgotten about.

Re:NUDE

[eclectic4]

Apparently my brain is exhaustively preparing me for the possibility of having sex with Jessica Alba. All I can say, is that I'm very, very prepared...

Re:NUDE

[holmedog]

I'm kind of curious if they took wet dreams into account. Teens prepping for premature ejactulation?

Dreamt of that before

[Marcion]

> What struck him the most was how lifelike they were. "I would say to myself, in my dream, 'Oh shit! I've dreamt of this before, but now this is really happening!' " he recalls

I actually get that. And I thought I was like Isaac Mendez, now it just my brain running simulations. the fact my brain gets it rights shows how dull and predicable my life must be....

Re:You ever have that dream...

[davidbrit2]

Full-contact theological debate, evidently.

interesting...

[Ralph Spoilsport]

It's like nature's version of QA.

OK - let's do some load testing. HA! See? The test server fried. Fix that - so now it passes to other test servers. Set up? OK - run the test. See? Load OK. Good. Now config the prod servers like that, and we'll be good. Next? copy paste evil Evil EVIL hacker script into data entry on test server. Did it fail? Yes? Good. Prod server's fine then.

OK - you're dreaming that everyone is chasing you (load testing), so you pass the magic baton to someone else and the crowd runs past you. You are in a horrible argument with someone (hacker script) and you smash their brains in and feel happy about it.

Dreams as mental QA scripts. I like that! It makes a kind of "sense", and demonstrates the necessity of not only dreaming BUT PAYING FOR GOOD QA SO YOU DON'T PUT OUT A SHIT PRODUCT. Hopefully that will be heard in Redmond - but they never sleep, so they never dream...

RS

Nightmares

[rice_burners_suck]

Maybe that's why I keep having that nightmare about turning on my Mac one day only to find it's suddenly running Vista!

Re:You ever have that dream...

[truthsearch]

So what about that dream where I'm naked at work and Jesus is fighting Nietzsche in pudding? What the hell is THAT training me for?

Coming out of the closet?

Re:What Dreams May Come?

[Cro Magnon]

You KNOW you've been wasting too much time on /. when your dreams get duped!

Re:OK, what kind of threat is this?

[bcattwoo]

My brother had a recurring dream as a kid. He was chased over and under his bed by an octopus. What kind of threat was he preparing for? Rising sea levels as a result of global warming. Duh.

Evolving Reality with Age

[Sponge Bath]

When I was a young child I had disturbing nightmares about scary monsters and falling.
Recently I had a dream about someone dinging my fender in traffic.

I guess that's the evolution of my reality:
From Earth shaking terror to bored annoyance.

Bothersome image

[stewbacca]

Am I the only one bothered by the high occurence of slashdotters dreaming about themselves naked? Ewwww.

Re:That explains it

[Scrameustache]

All those dreams I had of being chased and then not being able to run, losing all the power of my usually very strong and quick legs. That's your subconscious saying "yeah? Well what if our legs DON'T work, what'll you do then, smarty pants?"

Negative? Threat?

[SanityInAnarchy]

So you're saying that was a negative dream to you? And that your brain is preparing you for the threat of sex with Jessica Alba?

Re:I call bullpatootie

[Rei]

Well, at least I'll be prepared when a witch tries to shepard soul crystals down a river with the hopes of winning favor from a god that, unbeknownst to her, is the father of the land's emperor and has already favored him instead, and I have to teleport into the emperor's aerial flagship to gather information. ;)

Re:I call bullpatootie

[BorgCopyeditor]

*leans back and holds pen and pad at the ready*

Tell me about your mother.