Question: Why, if we cry in our dreams do we wake up crying?

Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

I think Suzi is about right. It’s actually a really interesting question, because my guess is that it’s all about perception of the world.

(I’m not a psychologist, but …) it seems to me that the only way we know there is a world at all is that we perceive it through our senses, and we know what they tell us because the impressions they give us come through our brain. Now, when we’re asleep, a lot of our senses are dulled (like being turned down, though they’re not turned off because we can still be woken up by a loud noise, a strong smell, a bright light etc) – and we don’t have the external input to those senses. However, the brain is still working, and the mind (or whatever the thing that perceives is called) can’t tell the difference between what we perceive when we are awake and what our brain imagines when we are asleep. Both things are just brain-waves, and so the brain reacts the same to both of them, and makes the body cry.

I don’t know whether that makes sense, but it seems plausible to me!