Dreams: 10 Fascinating Things You Should Know

Posted on March 30, 2017

To many, dreams are simply just dreams. No hidden meanings, insights or hints to solve the problems in our lives. Yet, to some of us, dreams are subtle signs that could help us in our waking life. Be it what interpretation do we hold on the meaning of dreams, here are 10 things that we should all know about dreams.

1.Why the brain remembers dreams - Some of us are able to remember our dreams vividly. Others are however unable to recall details of it. So what accounts for such a difference? The reason is that some people remember their dreams more as they wake up more in the night, thus are able to encode their dreams into their long-term memory.

2.The dream control centre – Your memory of your dreams is dependent on whether you are a light or heavy sleeper. As the sleeping brain is unable to capture information in your dreams, a light sleeper who is more sensitive to external stimuli and awaken more during sleep will be able to remember their dreams better.

3.Daydreamers are also night-dreamers – Neuroscientists have discovered that the parts of our brain responsible for daydreaming is also responsible for our dreams when we are asleep.

4.Some people cannot dream – Even though some people said they don’t have dreams, it is most likely that they do but they are unable to remember their dreams. This might be due to the possibility of them being heavy sleepers. Even so, it is worthy to note that there are some people who genuinely cannot dream, often as a result of brain damage from strokes.

5.The purpose of dreams – Some believe that dreams may serve to experiment ideas, consolidate information, allow us to deliberate on problems when asleep or even as an outlet to vent all our emotions during the day. There are many theories to it and what we choose to believe in is based on our personal preference!

6. Myth: Dreaming only occurs in REM sleep – REM Sleep refers to “Rapid Eye Movement” portions of sleep, which make up round 20-25% of total sleep-time. Although much of our dreaming is done in REM sleep, studies have suggested that some is also done in non-REM sleep.

7.People everywhere dream about the same stuff – Even though we are all different in our life experiences, hobbies and interests, it has been found that there are similarities in the way people dream. For instance, negative emotions and anxiety are more common in dreams than positive ones!

8.What do dreams mean? – Some of us believe that there are definitely interpretations to our dreams. A study has found that dreams may reveal deep psychological truths about ourselves and that most people believe that their dreams will have an influence over their waking life. Dreams may mean a lot to people who choose to believe in them. With that being said, it is up to our own preference to believe what our dreams may be trying to hint to us!

9.Recording a lucid dream - It is hard to record what happens in the brain when we lucid dream. One solution would be to use lucid dreamers. These are people who have mastered the skill of being conscious that they are dreaming and are able to take control of their dreams. A recent study has found that there has been significant overlaps between our brain activity when we are awake and during sleep.

10.Do blind people “see” in their dreams? – According to studies, it was discovered that people who never had sight or who lost their sight before the age of 5 do not see their dreams.



Category(s):Mental Health in Asia

Source material from Psyblog