Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers

Read the passage and select ALL statements it supports.

Sleep researchers increasingly view dreaming not as random noise but as a form of overnight rehearsal. During REM sleep, the brain replays fragments of recent experience, strengthening the neural connections that support memory. Studies in which volunteers learned a maze and were then woken at intervals found that those allowed to dream about the task navigated it faster the next day. Crucially, the benefit appeared only when the dream content related to the learning, suggesting that the brain selectively reprocesses what matters. Emotional regulation may also be involved: by replaying stressful events in a calmer chemical environment, dreaming could blunt the sting of difficult memories over time.