ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dream incubation

Okay kiddo, do you know what dreams are? They are like movies that play in our heads when we sleep. Sometimes we have good dreams and sometimes bad dreams, but do you know what dream incubation is? It's a way to have a certain dream by thinking about it before we go to sleep. It's like asking your brain to have a particular dream.

It's kinda like when your mom asks you to imagine a beach, and you close your eyes and picture yourself on a beach. Dream incubation is just like that, but it's about imagining what you want to dream about before you go to sleep. So if you want to dream about unicorns, you can think about unicorns before going to bed, and your brain might make that dream come true.

It's important to remember that not all the time it works. Some nights our brains just want to dream about something else, and that's okay too. Dream incubation is just like asking your brain a wish or a request for a dream, and sometimes it comes true, and sometimes it doesn't. So when you go to bed tonight, think about what you would like to dream about and have fun imagining it in your head.
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