system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why is it so difficult to tell a dream from real life even though in a dream you're sometimes confronted with the most absurd scenarios?
gpt
A lot of these answers seem very vague and anecdotal.  The real reason why dreams seem very logical while dreaming and absurd when you wake is that during REM sleep portions of the prefrontal cortex, in particular the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, are deactivated in REM sleep.  This part of the brain is responsible for many executive functions such as judgement, logic, planning, and working memory.  Its deactivation explains our acceptance of the absurd things that happen in our dreams.  It may also contribute to the hallucinatory properties of dreams because the deactivation of this region is a signature of halucinating schizophrenics.