as a neuroscientist it seems that sleep + dreaming is a lot more complex than that (and nobody really knows what either of those does). but in terms of learning and bridges to regression (DL) and other machine learning, my suspicion would be it helps with generalization + relating experiences to one another, as well as consolidation.
I’ve often wondered if nightmares serve to prepare us to act quickly in worse-case type scenarios. Our mind responding to stress by saying, ok if this goes really bad, what are you gonna do about it.
