What is it that everyone does every night, week after week, year after year, but so few of us remember the next morning? What is it that creates a feeling of strangeness when we think about it? What is it that we would die without? Dreaming…

Dreaming appears to be a waste of valuable time, especially when one considers that almost a third of our lives is spent in the sleep state, but nothing could be further from the truth. After many years of experiments and behavioural studies, scientists have come to the conclusion that dreaming isn’t as capricious as it seems: its purpose is to keep us balanced and well-adjusted!

The idea that our brain is a computer can help explain what dreaming is about. When we sleep, the sensory input is shut down and the brain reviews the information received, storing that which is valuable and discarding what…