Dreaming is a Biologic Necessity

JP:  .....What about dreams?

WSB:  Oh well, I always write my dreams down and I get a great deal of material from dreams.

JP:  So they are a source of material?

WSB:  Oh, good heavens, yes.  Well, for me, at least, Now some people they don't remember their dreams at all.  I've talked to people who say they do not remember ever...they don't remember a single dream.

JP:  Why's that?

WSB:  Well, I always ask if they're heavy sleepers and they usually are.  They forget their dreams in the time it takes them to wake up.  We know that everybody dreams and we know that dreams (this is a very important discovery) that dreams are as necessary as sleep itself.  Deprived of dream-sleep someone would die, in about a month or two, just as they would die from lack of sleep, no matter how much dreamless sleep they get.  They've experimented with people and they've experimented with animals.  They can tell by the REM (the rapid eye movements) when people or animals are dreaming, and this, apparently is..serves some very essential biological function.  It's a biologic necessity.  Dreaming is a biologic necessity.

source:  http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/william-burroughs-commissioner-of-sewers.html