Dreaming is one of the most mysterious and interesting experiences in our lives. During the Roman era, some dreams were even submitted to the Roman Senate for analysis and dream interpretation. They were thought to be messages from the gods. Dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battles and campaigns! But, what do we actually know about dreams? Here are a few interesting facts about dreams:
- Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream is forgotten. Within 10 minutes, 90% is gone.
- Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorders).
- In our dreams, we only see faces that we already know. Our mind does not invent faces. We see real faces of
real people whom we have seen during our lifetime but may not know or remember. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces throughout our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.
- The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Negative emotions are more common than positive ones.
- You can have four to seven dreams in one night.
- Animals dream too. Studies done on many different animals show the same brain waves during dreaming
sleep as humans. Watch a dog sleep. Their paws move like they are running and they make yipping sounds
as if they are chasing something.
- Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a normal stage of sleep characterized by rapid movements of the eyes.
REM sleep in adult humans typically occupies 20-25% of total sleep, or about 90-120 minutes of a night’s sleep. During REM sleep, the body is paralyzed by a mechanism in the brain in order to prevent the movements which occur in the dream from causing the physical body to move. However, it is possible for this mechanism to be triggered before, during, or after normal sleep while the brain awakens.
- Dream Incorporation. Our mind interprets the external stimuli that our senses are bombarded with while we are asleep and makes them part of our dreams.
- Dream interpretation has many forms. In one technique, everything in your dream in considered an aspect of you, including people, places and events. If your mother shows up in a dream, it may be a symbolic representation of the mother (care giver or nurturer) inside of you.
- Dream Control. Lucid dreaming is a technique that can be practiced over time, acquiring the skill to make decisions in a dream. This technique may be useful in helping individuals avoid conflict an negative emotions associated with their dreams.
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