Abstract
Natural selection shaped motivational systems to produce behaviors that
increase survival and reproductive fitness during waking life. A dream
production mechanism that reflects these motives and simulate them
repeatedly in a variety of scenarios during sleep would have increased
the probability of survival and reproductive success. A thematic
analysis of 900 dream reports suggest that dreaming is a simulation of
ancient social motives to rehearse functional behavior aimed at
satisfying these motives, and thus provide support to the social motive
simulation hypothesis of the function of dreaming.