ABSTRACT
Dreaming is an animal activity. The ability to dream arrived during the course of evolution. All warm-blooded creatures dream, but cold-blooded animals, like snakes, do not. Dreams do not have to occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep—also dream during ordinary sleep or even when dozing ever so slightly while appearing to be awake—but our best dreaming is done during REM sleep. When REM sleep begins, the encephalogram traces kick into added life, while myogram traces suddenly go flat. Although the genital excitation does not influence the dreams, it is ready and waiting to be either suppressed or excited to orgasm by the emotions of the unfolding dream drama. REM dreams are not merely imaginary events at all; they are bodily activities reacting to emotions with all the usual glandular and neuronal biochemical surges and smooth muscle convulsions and discharges of fluids.
