There's a decent hypothesis about the reason for dreaming, but it's a bit absurd to call it the whole point of sleep.
As a person with severe insomnia, often going several days without sleep, you absolutely start breaking down without sleep. Brain zaps, hearing things, seeing things, etc. I've read people have even died in severe cases.
So it feels like there's a medical necessity that's the whole point. Whether dreams are a neat side effect of said process or a purposeful side project of sorts is worthy of debate, however.
As a person with severe insomnia, often going several days without sleep, you absolutely start breaking down without sleep. Brain zaps, hearing things, seeing things, etc. I've read people have even died in severe cases.
So it feels like there's a medical necessity that's the whole point. Whether dreams are a neat side effect of said process or a purposeful side project of sorts is worthy of debate, however.