Do Babies Dream of Electric Bottles?

One of the things that surprised me about being a parent was when Zoe first started waking up suddenly, crying her lungs out. She does this on occassion, and as near as Victoria and I can tell, she seems to be having a nightmare. It's very hard to wake her up in this condition, but once she does, she usually calms down and can even be quite happy.

But this begets a whole series of questions. Can babies dream? If so, what about? What is a baby's worst nightmare? She doesn't seem to have anxiety separation yet. We can leave her with strangers, walk away, and she's happy as a clam.

Victoria suggests that perhaps she sees a bottle that she cannot reach, and is maybe a little hungry as well. But I wonder. Is the subconscious even formed yet? Is the sense of self even formed yet (i.e., is she even self-aware)? How would one even test such a thing? I mean, I can imagine a battery of MRI or CAT scan tests to determine which areas of the brain are lighting up, but that can only tell us if the baby is actually dreaming. Such tests can't reveal the content of the dream.

Too bad there's no way to do the cool sci-fi thing and hook up a camera directly to her brain so that we can see the images on a screen. Then again, perhaps an Avent bottle with angry eyes, giant fangs, and a bad case of rabies is something I'd rather not see.