These conditions may occur because, during REM sleep, the flow of counsel between the hippocampus and neocortex is reduced. Increasing levels of the stress hormone cortisol dilatory in sleep (often during REM sleep) agency this decreased communication. Separate point of mind consolidation is the linking of distant but related memories. Payne and Nadel hypothesize that these memories are then consolidated into a smooth narrative, similar to a process that happens when memories are become available under stress.

Fritz Perls presented his theory of dreams as part of the holistic medicine nature of Gestalt therapy. Dreams are seen as projections of parts of the cocky that have been ignored, rejected, or suppressed. Jung argued that individually could consider every person in the dream to represent an aspect of the dreamer, which he called the subjective approach to dreams. Perls expanded this mark of prospect to say that even inanimate objects in the dream may represent aspects of the dreamer. The dreamer may therefore be asked to imagine being Meaning Behind Dreams an object in the dream and to communicate it, in categorization to bring into awareness the characteristics of the dealie-bob that correspond with the dreamer's personality.