"Movies are our dreams" (1 Viewer)

I've been puzzling over this idea. I first heard it from Werner Herzog, I think he mentions is frequently, at least in ​Encounters at the End of the World, or perhaps it might be from interviews. Then in Hugo the main character relates that his father said that about movies. I'm curious about the idea because movies have always had a powerful impact on my sleep, in fact for much of my life I generally avoided them because I slept too intensely due to my dreams after watching a movie. Now that I'm getting older, and especially my work is so science heavy I find that watching a movie before going to sleep wonderfully restorative. I also sleep really deeply.


So I wonder what they mean by this idea, that movies embody our dreams allegorically? So we want to be action heroes, comedians, adventurers and the like? Or does it mean something along what I experience, that movies influence our dreams? Or does it mean something different?


Thoughts welcome.