Religion was the original field of dream study. The earliest writings we have on dreams are primarily texts on their religious and spiritual significance.
Dreams are important religious phenomena in virtually all the world's religious traditions.
The first contribution that religious studies makes to modern dream research is to enlarge out historical knowledge of dreams. Humans have been exploring their dreams for millenia, and these explorations have most often been conducted in religious terms and contexts. However, the field of religious studies provides much more than additional historical data. Its most valuable role in modern dream research lies in disproving a simplistic, evolutionary model of our knowledge about dreams. Religious studies offers many correctives to this unfortunately widespread model.