for - key insight - similarity of waking and dream state - How can - wake experiences be direct reflections of the sensory world at that moment while - comparable dream experiences are created by the brain based on novel combinations of fragments of memories from the past? - The answer must be that our experiences are always constructed by the brain; the very same processing that - gives us dreams - gives us waking experiences of reality. - In other words, our brains do not need incoming sensory input to produce realistic experiences. - Our waking experiences are the way that they are - not because of sensory input but - because of the functional capabilities of the human brain. -The MToC argues that the functional capability that produces our experience of reality, whether - we are awake - or asleep, - is the explicit memory system. - During sleep, we speculate that our brains are simply carrying on with functioning - akin to what happens when we are awake. - The typical modes of action of the human brain persist across wake and sleep. - While we are awake, our brains are producing a stream of experiences of being in the world, punctuated by thoughts. - While we are asleep, without the tremendous barrage of sensory input to constrain experience, perhaps our brains tend to return to these waking habits, - producing a stream of experiences in the world punctuated by thoughts.