Dreaming & Memory

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    suzanne
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    I love watching dogs dream. So many gestures and expressions and sounds! Unlike humans who typically have considerable inhibition of movement while we are asleep, even in intense dreams, dogs do not have that much inhibition. Thus, our best friends can be galloping along, whimpering just a bit chasing bunnies in their sleep.

    From a really cool piece I found today, these gems:
    “One idea is that dreams play a role in this by going, “Well, we’ve experienced this today. What usefulness might this have in the future?” Well, there’s this famous saying that memory is not about the past. Memory is about the future. And what is meant by that is that the reason you can remember things is not so that when you’re retired and having a drink with an old friend on your porch, you can go all “remember when we were kids and we took that ride out to the lake?” That’s not why we’ve evolved to have capacities for memory.

    “Memory is what allows you to, when you’re driving down the road, and you look in your rear-view mirror, and you see these flashing blue and red lights to go, “Oh, yes, that’s an emergency vehicle or a police car, I need to move to the right and let it pass.” It’s what allows you to predict and understand what unfolds before you, and to make the correct reactions and interpretations of the world around you.”

    So much to learn, and so many ways to consider what we may take for granted: the value of sleep and dreams.

    Find it all here at Quanta — https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-and-how-do-we-dream-20220824/

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