Does Dreaming Help Us Stay Healthy?

Does dreaming serve a health-related function?

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Michael Roizen, M.D.
ABOUT THE EXPERT

Michael Roizen, M.D.

As chief wellness officer and chair of the Wellness Institute of the Cleveland Clinic, Michael F. Roizen, MD, is on a mission to inform... Read more

There is speculation that dreaming helps you encode memory (that means actually storing it for the long term) and also helps give purpose to your life — some people dream their goals and then seek that reality. Dreaming occurs after 90 minutes of continuous sleep, in the REM (rapid eye movement) period. You have to get into REM to rejuvenate your brain fully. But it’s not clear whether the rejuvenation is also related to dreaming.

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