Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchison'

Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchison's theory that the function of REM sleep is to erase potentially damaging brain circuitry: we dream to unlearn undesirable patterns of behavior and to undo faulty neural connections. This would explain why infants spend so much time in REM sleep, and why dreams are so fleeting. Dreams would be meant to be forgotten. One of the implications of this theory is that in recalling, telling, and interpretating our dreams, we would be reversing the reverse learning, and reinforcing the very patterns that the brain has deemed unhealthy.