Ever wonder why people dream, and what these dreams could mean for
different people? If you want to find out more about dreams and what
they are, check out this top 10 amazing facts about dreams – and be
impressed by each interesting details that you might not have known
before.
10. If you dream about strangers, it is possible that they are actual people you have met and seen in real life.
Although your dreams may show you some people that you think are
total strangers, your brain is unable to invent images of people whom
you have never met before. Thus, the strangers that you see in your
dreams are faces of those who are real people that have been with you at
one point in your life. For instance, these people were probably that
guy you have bumped into one time while you were walking on the street,
or a mailman that you used to see when you were younger. It is also
possible that you have laid your eyes on a few people before you slept,
and these characters play in your mind as you fall asleep.
9. People tend to forget about a major percentage of their dreams.
According to J. Allan Hobson, a dream researcher, at least 95 percent
of dreams are forgotten immediately after waking up. You probably
wonder why it is very difficult to remember dreams. Based on the
explanation by some specialists, the immense changes in your brain each
time you sleep fail to support the amount of information processed and
stored in your memory. Moreover, brain scans of individuals who are
sleeping have presented that their frontal lobes, or the area that has a
large role int he formation of memory, remain inactive during the
entire period of REM sleep. This is also the phase in which your dreams
occur.
8. Dreams are different with men and women.
Based on dream researchers, there are various differences in terms of
dreams by men and women. The content of one’s dreams vary depending on
his experiences and emotions. In a clinical study, men typically dream
about aggression while women hardly. do. In fact, William Domhoff, a
dream researcher, stated that women usually have longer dreams that men.
These dreams may also include more characters, and men typically dream
about other men. On the other hand, women dream about both men and women
equally.
7. You have the power to control your dreams.
Believe it or not, you may be capable of controlling your dreams if
you want to. This is usually possible with lucid dreams, or in instances
when you are already aware of your dreaming while you are not even
awake yet. When you are having this type of dream, you may choose to
control or direct the content of your dream. Researchers estimate that
at least half on all individuals are capable of remembering their lucid
dreams while others do not even have dreams.
6. Negative feelings are typical in most dreams.
For about a period of 40 years, dream researcher Calvin S. Hall has
collected over 50,000 accounts of dreams from college students. These
documentations of their dreams were made available to a wider audience
in the 1990s by William Domhoff, a student of Hall. The accounts
revealed that among the different emotions experienced by people during
their sleep included happiness, fear and joy. However, the most common
of all these emotions was anxiety, and these emotions were even more
present in dreams than positive ones.
5. You remain paralyzed each time you are dreaming.
During the period of sleep where dreaming occurs (REM sleep), your
voluntary muscles remain paralyzed. The reason for this REM atonia is
that it prohibits you from being capable of acting your dreams out as
you sleep. Additionally, since your motor neurons are unstimulated, your
body is not able to move. In various cases, this paralysis may also
carry over into your waking state for at least 10 minutes, and this is a
condition referred to as sleep paralysis. In this state, you wake up
from a frightening dream only to discover yourself being unable to get
up or move a single muscle in your body. Although this experience can be
rather terrifying, medical experts state that this is a normal phase,
which can last for only a few minutes before your normal muscle control
returns.
4. Most dreams are universal in nature.
It is a fact that dreams are influenced greatly by your personal
experiences during your waking hours. However, researchers have
discovered that certain themes in dreams are common in various cultures.
For instance, people from different parts of the world also dream about
falling, being attacked, or being chased. There are other typical dream
experiences such as being naked in public, flying, inability to move or
frozen. Thus, people’s dreams may be universal regardless of their
culture or race.
3. Animals are likely to have dreams, too.
Have you seen a sleeping cat or dog move its legs or wag its tail
while it sleeps? Although it can be difficult to tell for sure if the
animal is actually dreaming, researchers claim that it is possible that
animals also have dreams. As with humans, animals also enter different
sleep stages that consist of various cycles of NREM and REM sleep. In a
study, a gorilla was once taught how to communicate using sign language.
This gorilla signed to inform others about having “sleep picture”,
which indicate its experience of dreaming as it sleeps.
2. Some dreams are not in color.
About 80 percent of dreams are set in color, yet a small percentage
of individuals claim to have dreams in black and white. Dreamers who
have been awakened were asked to choose any colors from the chart to
match the ones found in their dreams, and they selected soft pastel
colors quite frequently.
1. Everybody has dreams.
No matter what age, people dream as they sleep. According to
researchers people are most likely to have dreams and each of these last
for a minimum of 5 minutes. In a typical lifetime, a person may spend
an approximate average of 60 years dreaming.
Interesting discoveries about dreams, don’t you think? So, the next
time you have a dream, try to recall these amazing facts, and consider
keeping track of your dreams to find out fascinating meanings behind
each.
07:45
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