Threat perceptions and avoidance in recurrent dreams

Revonsuo argues that the biological function of dreaming is to simulate thr eatening events and to rehearse threat avoidance behaviors. He views recurr ent dreams as an example of this function. We present data and clinical obs ervations suggesting that (1) many types of recurrent dreams do not include threat perceptions; (2) the nature of the threat perceptions that (lo occu r iii recurrent dreams are not always realistic; and (3) successful avoidan ce responses arc absent from most recurrent dreams and possibly nightmares.