Chapter 3

 I think dreams provide a kaleidoscopic view into the unconscious mind, made up of a variety of thoughts, experiences, and memories sifted through and preserved by a hard working brain that does its best. 

I think our bodies make us dream for a combination of reasons that are outlined in the textbook. I could see how the minds ability to "help sift, sort, and fix" our day to day lives would have been important to our evolving ancestors and even now, especially if it ties into developing and preserving neural pathways. The brain is always trying to process and organize information, it would make sense that even while sleeping it continues to try while also developing itself. I suppose if the brain is active then our conscious has to also be active to a certain degree, resulting in dreams. 

I could also see why the frontal lobes of the brain would be idle while conscious as we don't need to thinking rationally or logically or even at all, so why use up the energy to do so. And if the amygdala is left in charge for whatever reason, then it would make sense why dreams are a nonsensical rollercoaster of boring, sad, fun, horrifying, who knows! And I can see that our dreams would reflect our level of cognitive development, even if there's no "adaptive function", I don't see how that wouldn't be true. 

Dreaming is strange to me in general, why does the brain subject us to the wilds of the unconscious mind instead of doing maintenance in the dark while we sleep. I'm tired of trying to run through invisible jello when an evil thing is after me!