The Dream Factor

Stickgold concedes that it has been hard to find the tools to test the NEXTUP theory at the molecular or cellular level. Yet, Aton says that while the model is theoretical, current research looking at sleep and memory consolidation supports these ideas.

“We still need to do a lot of digging to say, yes, this is what sleep looks like and how it’s different from wakefulness,” she says. “We also still need to do quite a bit of work to see how non-REM sleep is different from REM sleep and what the two offer to our overall cognition. But it is entirely possible that REM sleep is there to prepare your brain for consolidation. Maybe dreaming is a way for us to adapt, to come up with new answers to problems, and to sort things out in a way that just isn’t possible when you are awake. It’s going to be exciting to do the experimental work to test these new ideas in the future.” l