Our dreams mystify us<span> and often leave us waking up confused, disoriented, frightened, or perhaps very, very satisfied. </span>Freud<span>, of course, proposed that our </span>dreams<span> represent </span>unconscious<span> wishes that we’re afraid to express in our waking life. The most recent explanations aren’t totally incompatible with this theory. According to the </span>activation-synthesis model<span>, dreams are stories that we create out of the random stimulation that occurs in the brain while we </span>sleep<span>. The updated activation-integration-modulation (AIM) model proposes that dreams reflect the activity of regions of the brain active at a particular moment as well as the activity of particular neurotransmitters. This </span>neuroscience explanation<span> regards the stories we make up as reflecting, in part, our hidden desires, but they are not primarily the products of repressed wishes.</span>
