Hi there, it's Matt here and welcome back to the third in this multi-part series talking

all about the science of dreaming. Now so far we've learned

about how your brain is able to dream and also where dreams come from and where they don't come from in terms of their source and their origins.

However, none of the science that we've discussed so far suggests that dreams, above and beyond

the main stage of sleep from which they arise, which is REM sleep, have any real meaning. Do dreams have a function?

Now certainly we know that the stage of REM sleep, which is where we principally dream that stage of sleep has many

different functions as we've discussed and we will continue to discuss on this

podcast but do we have any evidence that dreams

themselves independent of the stage of REM sleep, actually matter, actually make a difference in terms of how we function as human beings.

Or alternatively, are dreams just epip phenomenal?

In other words, are dreams just a byproduct of this thing called Rem sleep from which they emerge and dreams themselves are

utterly meaningless they have no function whatsoever they have no purpose, no use. Now to illustrate this concept of

dreams as an epiphenomenon, let's consider a light bulb. Now the reason that we construct the physical elements, the physical apparatus that is the light bulb,

is to create light.

That's the function of the light bulb. But it turns out that when you

produce light in this way you also produce this thing called heat.

Now, heat was never the function or the purpose of the light bulb.

Instead, heat is simply what happens when light is produced in this way.

It's an unintended byproduct.

In other words, heat is the epiphenomenon.

And so goes the argument for dreams, meaning that evolution went to great lengths

to construct the neural circuitry in the brain that produces this thing called REM sleep and all of the functions that REM sleep supports.

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