It is believed that dreams sometimes help us solve problems. It is also proposed that a critical aspect of dreaming lies in the processing of memories.

       Researcher Erin Wamsley designed a study in which participants explored a virtual maze, trying to learn its layout. Then she let them take a 90-minute nap. After their nap, she asked them whether they remembered dreaming about the task and then tested them on the maze again. The results were astonishing. Participants who had no memory of dreaming about the task took, on average, one and a half minutes longer to find their way out of the maze after their naps. However, those who reported that they had dreamed about it found their way out two and a half minutes faster than before. Erin then repeated the experiment by actually waking subjects to collect dream reports and identify those whose dreams were related to the task. She found that the latter showed almost 10 times more improvement after their naps compared with the participants who reported no related dreams.

       What exactly did they dream about? One participant reported: “I was thinking about the maze…, and then that led me to a cave trip I had a few years ago. The cave is maze-like.” Another recalled hearing the music played in the background while exploring the maze.

       Dreams like these seemed unlikely to help participants enhance their memories of the maze’s layout. And yet they were reported by the very participants who showed the greatest improvement. The sleeping brain was both enhancing its memory of the maze layout and creating related dreams. So, these dreams must be serving some other function. But what?

       Perhaps some strategy you learned while exploring a cave will help you the next time you try the maze task. Conversely, maybe something you learned from the maze task will help you next time you’re down in a cave. Your brain suddenly realizes, hey, exploring mazes and caves is really the same thing. It is a perfect example of the function of dreaming that researchers like Erin Wamsley propose: the extraction of new knowledge from existing information through the discovery of unexpected associations.

       A Native-American sweat lodge is a ceremonial sweat bath that typically has its roots in Native-American history and culture. Traditionally, it is a purifying ritual that uses intense heat to stimulate vision and insight. A sweat lodge ceremony helps detoxify the body by stimulating blood circulation and causing you to sweat out impurities. You are typically naked or wrapped in a towel.

       A traditional Native American sweat lodge is dome-shaped and built low to the ground. Rocks are heated up in a fire outside the lodge and then brought into the center of the lodge with a shovel and placed in a dug pit. More rocks are brought in, traditionally in four rounds, and the sweat lodge gets progressively hotter. The person in charge of the ceremony “pours the water” and is responsible for the health and well-being of participants. Typically, there are 8 to 12 participants, but there can be as many as a few dozen. Pouring water on the rocks creates steam, which makes the Native American sweat lodge feel even hotter. Sweet grass or sage is scattered on the rocks. You might be smudged with sage smoke before entering the sweat lodge to aid with the ritual of purification. It is usual to offer up prayers, share your thoughts with others, and ask for the release of pain and suffering.

       The sweat ceremony is intended as a spiritual reunion with the creator and a respectful connection to the earth itself as much as it is meant for purging toxins out of the physical body. The ceremony is believed to free the mind of distractions, offering clarity (mental healing)； to allow for introspection and connection to the planet and the spiritual world (spiritual healing)； and to provide antibacterial and wound-healing benefits (physical healing).