What do you think is the purpose of dreams?

I think dreams are simply a symptom of the REM phase of sleep prior to deep sleep. It's a stage your brain goes through in order to reach a totally relaxed state - essentially autopilot.

The actual content of dreams on the other hand can be an expression of real life concerns or events, or entirely fictional, unhinged and surreal experiences. I don't think in these moments the content is particularly significant - as I say, it's merely filler, something for the brain to process as you reach stand-by mode :)

It's nice to romanticise their significance, to imbue them with some mystical or spiritual quality; perhaps they're omens? Premonitions? Perhaps it's your subconscious mind trying to reveal a truth to you? But really I think this is simply superstition. It reveals nothing but the limitations of your imagination in that moment.

I go with the most recent scientific theory, that they are an evoltionary trait which allows our brain the assimilate thoughts that it couldn't fully assimilate due to waking activity.

I do still believe that the Freudian dream theory still holds some worth, but not as much as it should. I believe that dreams are a manifestation of random and disorderly images that our mind attempts to turn into comprehensible images (like how people that hear noises will interpret them as disembodied voices). I think the meaning is more in how our mind interprets those images rather than the images themselves. Nothing will reflect who you are and what is right or wrong with you more than how you interpret things.

Personally, I think it's the subconscious analyzing the days events or working things out that may be troubling you.

I've got a question for you. How do you know when you're awake and when you're sleeping? How do you know that what you deem as reality isn't actually a dream and what you deem as a dream isn't actually reality? Thought for today.

Explain to my why my subconcious lets me control my dreams then.

I think it's nearly all of these.

My dreams are almost always insanely vivid and some of them have been telling me about something that's wrong in my waking life.

I saw a documentary, in which it was proposed that dreams are to prepare you for events that might happen in your life, so you react to them properly to survive, hence when you're young you dream a wolf is trying to kill you or something, then in later life you might dream your wife becomes pregnant or you lost your keys.
It seems possible dreams are an evolutionary phenomenon to better prepare you for disastrous events, to help you survive them.

I think all of these answers are correct, except that they don't mean anything. I think they reveal our subconscious, they can entertain us while we sleep, relieve stress, make us aware of stress, maybe even keep us from falling into a coma every time we lay our heads down.... And since it is possible to alter them, and even to visit friends in our sleep, i think the best answer is that they are an actual alternate reality. My dreams evolve nightly just as my days evolve daily. I've always felt like my dreams wanted to keep me, like what i do in dream world is more important than "life"

It's part of the brain's memory storage process. Your brain goes through everything in your memory for the day, throws out unimportant stuff, and puts everything else in the appropriate section of your long-term memory.
Similar to de-fragmenting a hard disk on a PC.

What you see in your dreams may be your brain trying to make sense of data that was captured, but you didn't take note of and analyse during the day.

The brain doesn't sleep.
It just switches from conscious to semi then subconscious thoughts.

Sleeping is an evolutionary trait.
We sleep because of nightime, because of the rotation of the Earth from day to night, every 24 Hrs.
Millions of years ago night meant no hunting, it was colder, and obviously darker. So life evolved to shutdown during the night. Even flowers do it.

Looking at that fact, if aliens came from another planet where their day went for, say an Earth year; and night was only for one day after that. Then this alien race could quite easily have twice the life we have and have twice the amount of science and technology due to it. Assuming they lived only for as long as humans do.

For people who reply with, what about the places on Earth that last more than a day (ie months at a time of daylight) Life didn't evolve in these subzero climates, basically it evolved in Africa and parts of the Middle East. I know how annoying, obviously all the smart ones left those places long ago.

Dreams are only 7 sec long but fell long its you brain saying wake the fuck up my brain well in the wake up phase shows me the best moment of my life in slow moshin it only lasted 7 sec itself

Dreams are there so we can enter REM sleep. To stay healthy we need dreams they give us "tuneups." Dreams help the brain to consolidate emotional memories or to work though current problems.

It lets us into our subconscious mind, where usually the core of our problems are/begin. Therefore helping us answer some of our problems in our waking life/world. It helps restore our memory, and of course its a way for us to release stress.

So we can have something to watch while we're asleep; kind of like airline movies. I wish my brain would develope video games so I can play them instead.

I loved the "To keep you from dying in your sleep" option haha it made me laugh :)

One word.

WINDOWS!

Interpret that how you wish. I also believe that things like acid and mushies also facilitate this... After researching these things briefly, and following the works of Aldous Huxley.

I am convinced that human kind needs to heed more of what our subconscious teaches us. Weather it be dreams, or pharmaceutical journeys. We need to stop the shit and get enlightened.

Shamans, witch doctors and high priests in times gone by used dreams and psychedelics for enlightenment. We have to enlighten ourselves.