Why We Dream: Making, Refining, and Rehearsing Schemas

What is the purpose of dreaming? According to the Embodied Cognition Theory of Dreaming (ECTD), it is to prepare and rehearse the patterns of waking life, which are captured as schemas.

Both the idea of schemas and the theory seem complex but are simpler than they sound. First, the idea of schemas needs to be understood. Imagine your mind as a library. Each book in the library is a 'schema', which is a collection of all your experiences, knowledge, and beliefs about a particular topic. These schemas shape how you perceive the world and react to new experiences. Too many books and books about every detail of every day would make it too hard to find the important ones, so you have your library filled with the books most relevant to your life. The books/schemas are like mental shortcuts that help you navigate life and keeping the books focused on what is important keeps you from overloading your brain with irrelevant information.

To connect schemas with dreaming, it is helpful to look at the theory of embodied cognition. This theory suggests our mental processes are based in our bodily experiences. In other words, our thoughts are shaped by our physical experience of being in the world. The ECTD then relates that concept to our dreams. When we dream, our brain is actively engaging in isolating, reorganizing, and rehearsing our schemas. So in other words, each night we go to our library, update our books with any new information, and train ourselves on the books most likely to be important for what is going on in our waking lives.

Applying that understanding of dreams, imagine you dreamt you were lost. Based on ECTD, it is depicting and training you in a schema, which may be directly related to physically being disoriented or may be a metaphoric representation of feeling confused; it depends on what is affecting you when you are awake.

But why does this matter? Understanding the role of schemas in dreaming can offer many insights into your waking life. Your dreams reveal what is most important to you along with how you understand yourself in the world you inhabit. They are a window into how you process and understand the world around you, and each night, they prepare you to notice and respond to what is important. By paying attention to your dreams, you can become aware of how well your schemas are working, and when they aren’t working well, make changes that lead to a more fulfilling life.

So, next time you wake from a dream, take time to write it down and then look at it. Examine it as a likely metaphoric depiction of what is affecting you in waking life. Sit with the idea that the dream is the result of your brain and body preparing you for waking and that there is a complex process underlying how you recognize and respond to what you encounter in waking. Embrace these nightly experiences for they are the map to your personal world.