A Wonderleaf question
Why do we dream?
a real page from the book
We dream because the sleeping brain keeps working: it sorts memories, practices reactions, and blends feelings from the day with older knowledge. During REM sleep, brain activity can be vivid and loose, so the results may feel like a story even when they are really pieces being rearranged.
One of the oddest details is that your body usually keeps big muscles quiet while dreams play, so a chase stays in your head instead of becoming a midnight sprint. The strange scenes often borrow real scraps from the day, then recombine them without caring about tidy logic.
Wonder words
- memory
- signals
- emotion
- brainstem
Try it out
At breakfast, trade one dream detail and one real-life thing it may have borrowed from yesterday.
Read the whole picture book
Watercolour scenes, straight answers, about three minutes cover to cover.
Open the picture bookKeep wondering
- Why does hair grow?
- How do germs get inside the body?
- Why do we cry tears?
- Why do we sweat?
- Why does my stomach growl?
- Why do we have a belly button?
One more wonder: Why is space so dark?
And the next question?
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