After a stressful day, sleep is undeniably the best thing that could ever to ever happen to you. It’s that wonderful moment the conscious part of you goes to wonderland and your brain just won’t take a break, instead it goes into overdrive and occupies itself with producing vivid, sensual and sometime scary dreams that take place during rapid-eye-movement stage of your sleep.
As humans, we do not fully understand sleep, neither do we fully comprehend dreams either, but we are not totally in the dark either.
Let’s see some answers to some of your pressing questions about dreams.
1. Who Are These Strange People In Your Dream?
The human brain is responsible for many complex creations, but it can’t invent the image of people. So the “strangers” that you meet in your dreams actually have the faces of people who you’ve once seen in your real life but forgotten, like a random student from your primary school or that guy bumped into on the side walk that one time.
You’ve probably seen hundreds of thousands of people from birth so it goes without saying that the brain as a huge cast of characters to play with when you drift off to sleep.
2. Is It Possible For Blind People To Dream?
While people who lost their eyesight prior to age five usually do not have visual dreams in adulthood, they still dream.
Despite the lack of visuals, the dreams of the blind are just as complex and vivid as those of the sighted.
Instead of visual sensations, blind individuals’ dreams typically include information from the other senses such as sound, touch, taste, hearing and smell.
3. Why Do We Even Dream?
Scientists have long wondered why we dream, with answers ranging from Sigmund Freud’s idea that dreams fulfill our wishes to the speculation that these wistful journeys are just a side effect of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep.
Recent Studies revealed that our slumbering hours may help us solve puzzles that have plagued us during daylight hours. The visual and often illogical aspects of dreams make them perfect for the out-of-the-box thinking that is necessary to solve some problems.
The research also states that, while dreams may have originally evolved for another purpose, they have likely been refined over time for multiple tasks, including helping the brain reboot and helping us solve problems.
4. Why Can’t I Remember My Dream, Efficiently?
What if we told you that you normally have 4 to 6 dreams every night. Those numbers times 365 days in one year makes for between 1,460 and 2,190 dreams every year.
“Wait a minute, I don’t remember having 4 different dreams in one night, and I certainly don’t remember having over 1,000 dreams this year.” That’s what you said, right?
The fact of the matter is, we forget 90% of them within 10 minutes of waking up, and you between 95% to 99% by the end of the day.
5. Why Are Dreams So Difficult To Remember?
According to one theory, the changes in the brain that occur during sleep do not support the information processing and storage needed for memory formation to take place. Brain scans of sleeping individuals have shown that the frontal lobes, the area that plays a key role in memory formation, are inactive during REM sleep, the stage in which dreaming occurs.
Others believe that most of your dreams don’t really interest you enough to make you want to remember them.
Dreams are commonplace and don’t require enough concentration to force you to remember them. In that sense, they are similar to other routine actions you do throughout the day like driving or tying your shoes. You don’t remember most of the time you do those things either.
6. Do Animals Dream?
Animals Probably Dream.
Have you ever watched a sleeping dog wag its tail or move its legs while asleep? While it’s hard to say for sure whether the animal is truly dreaming, researchers believe that it is likely that animals do indeed dream.
Just like humans, animals go through sleep stages that include cycles of REM and NREM sleep. In one study, a gorilla was taught sign language as a means of communication. At one point, the gorilla signed “sleep pictures,” possibly indicating the experience of dreaming.
7. Is There A Way To Record My Dreams Using Technology?
You might soon be able to upload your dreams to YouTube!
Scientists at UC Berkeley have achieved a major milestone in their quest to create a technology that would let us tap into our brain’s imaging systems. They used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models and they succeeded in decoding and reconstructing visual experiences of their test subjects.
The tests they ran had people watching a movie trailer. Then, they reconstructed the images using their new technology. While that’s as far as they can do right now, it puts them one step closer to being able to tap into your dreams.
The more noble implications for this technology will allow some sort of understanding, and even communication with people who cannot communicate verbally. For example, stroke victims, and people in comas.
8. What Happens To My Body When I Sleep?
When you dream, your body is paralyzed.
In the first 90 minutes of sleep, you go through deepening stages ranging from light sleep to deep sleep.
Then you enter a phase called REM sleep (REM is short for Rapid Eye Movement) During REM sleep, the rest of your body essentially becomes paralyzed. The release of certain neurotransmitters is shut down and your large muscles do not move.
Some people have abnormal REM sleep in which those neurotransmitters do not shut down, and they act out their dreams. Most of the dreams we vividly remember happen during REM, as our brain has higher activity during this phase.
9. What Is The Most Common Dream?
Since we’ve established that we all dream . . . a lot.
It might surprise you to know that during a typical lifetime, people spend an average of six years dreaming!
What is the most common dream?
Simple answer: Your spouse is cheating.
If you’ve ever woken up in a cold sweat after dreaming about your husband’s extramarital escapade with your best friend, you’re not alone, says Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, a dream expert, author and media personality.
“The most commonly reported dream is the one where your mate is cheating,” she says. Loewenberg conducted a survey of more than 5,000 people, and found that the infidelity dream is the nightmare that haunts most people—sometimes on a recurring basis.
It rarely has anything to do with an actual affair, she explains, but rather the common and universal fear of being wronged or left alone.
10. Is it Possible For Somebody Not To Dream At All?
Except for in the case of extreme psychological disorder, every human being dreams. In fact, in a recent study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream but still allowed 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty concentrating, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis in a span of three days.
When they were allowed their REM sleep, their brains compensated for the lost time by increasing the percentage of the sleep spent in the REM stage.
Its official, you might go crazy if you don’t dream.
Bonus:
Can Any Good Come Out Of Dreams?
You’ve probably heard of inventions that have been inspired by mistakes, you probably haven’t heard of those inspired by dreams.
Dreams are responsible for many of the greatest inventions of mankind. A few examples include:
-The idea for Google -Larry Page
-Alternating current generator -Tesla
-DNA’s double helix spiral form -James Watson
-The sewing machine -Elias Howe
-Periodic table -Dimitri Mendeleyev
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