Another theory states that our dreams are our way of regulating emotions. This model is called the AMPHAC/AND neurocognitive model of disturbed dreaming. It suggests that normal dreams help us eradicate fear and process other emotions properly, however, when this regulation fails, nightmares occur. 

A third popular model has a completely different perspective on the meaning of dreams. The activation-synthesis model suggests that dreams are actually random and are our brain's way of making sense of activity that happens while we sleep. Our brains take the signals from parts of our brain and try to interpret them, thus resulting in dreams. This model does not suggest that dreams are meaningless tho, as a psychiatrist from Harvard suggested, “Dreaming may be our most creative conscious state, one in which the chaotic, spontaneous recombination of cognitive elements produces novel configurations of information: new ideas.”