The Embodied Cognition Theory of Dreaming: A proposal for how dreams prepare individuals for waking life

Abstract

The Embodied Cognition Theory of Dreaming (ECTD) is a novel proposal describing the function of dreaming, which is to prepare individuals for waking life. ECTD builds on the theories of embodied cognition and embodied metaphor, applying them to the mental experience of dreaming. From that foundation, ECTD proposes three reasons for dreaming. The first is to organize schemas congruent with individuals’ affective and sensorimotor understandings of self-in-context. The second is to prepare individuals to react to schemas, and the third is to prepare individuals to use sensorimotor processes likely to be needed in waking experience. ECTD posits that dreaming exists to prepare individuals to react to the types of experiences that were affectively significant in waking.