sent2null space

I recently engaged a discussion on Facebook that piqued my interest in the area of sleep and dream research. The conversation started on other topics and soon moved toward sleep and dreams and the possible reasons for their existence, both from an evolutionary perspective and from an individual physiological perspective. I think a proper theory of sleep and dreams must include what we know concerning the development of our species in the ancient past and how the increased cortical development that our ancestors experienced might have led to the selection of the ability to dream as a key survival advantage. First let's talk a bit about what we know about human cortical development. Development of the human cortical mind There are many related theories as to why our brains evolved into the large masses that they occupy today , relative to our cranium size. Compared to other primates humans have the largest brain size to cranium ratio, in fact it is believed that the gyri and sulci th...