Text spotted on a t-shirt while negotiating Ho Chi Minh City’s metro. It was printed slightly lower than I would have liked, and missing a question mark. But still, it made me think. You know when we dream, all manner of impossibilities happen and somehow they hang together. Not a single doubt of credibility enters our mind. Proof that our brains are quite capable of making sense of pretty much anything.

But what is really going on? When we are awake, are we doing the same thing - making sense of a truly crazy world, like in a dream where we make sense of an impossibly crazy world?

Turns out that according to neuroscientists, dreams "make sense" because our prefrontal cortex (PFC) shuts down during sleep. This is the region of the brain that processes complex tasks like logical reasoning and planning. It's a period of rest known as hypofrontality, necessary for the energy-intensive functions the PFC is required to manage during waking hours. So strictly speaking, the brain does not "make sense" of an irrational world, rather that there is no scrutiny from the shut down PFC, so anything goes.

However, when we are awake it feels like we are trying to make sense of a truly crazy world, just like in a dream - but this time with the help of our awakened PFC busily processing away in the background.

I would argue that in a truly objective reality, nothing is irrational - every crazy act (Donald, I'm talking about you!) is an inevitable result of a rational universe acting out the laws of nature. It's just that we're missing the full picture needed to make sense of the perceived irrationality.

So while we sleep we skip critical thinking since our PFC is shut down, but while we are awake we forget the huge holes in our knowledge, and conclude that we live in a world gone mad.

To navigate a rational world while convinced it is irrational is a recipe for disaster. Let’s see how that works out.