DREAMS

WHAT ARE DREAMS? 

Have you ever wondered or even thought about how dreams occur, why does it occur, what does it mean, or have you ever tried to recall them when you wake up? Before knowing all these let's understand what really do dreams are!

Dreams are basically stories and images that our mind creates while we sleep. They can make you feel happy, sad, or scared. And they may seem confusing or perfectly rational.

Dreams happen during a phase called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep when your brain is most active. Some experts say we dream at least four to six times a night.

Let us understand about stages of sleep before we get to know about dreams further.

STAGES OF SLEEP (OR) SLEEP CYCLE

Each night you take a rollercoaster ride through the different stages of sleep. Each stage of sleep plays a different role in how you feel the next day. 

There are two basic types of sleep: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep (which has three different stages).  Each is linked to specific brain waves and neuronal activity. 

NREM STAGE 1

Stage 1 is essentially the dozing-off stage, and it normally lasts just 1-5 minutes.

During N1 sleep, the body hasn’t fully relaxed, though the body and brain activities start to slow with periods of brief movements (twitches). 

It’s easy to wake someone up during this sleep stage, but if a person isn’t disturbed, they can move quickly into stage 2.

NREM STAGE 2

Stage 2 is a period of light sleep before you enter deeper sleep.  

During stage 2 sleep:

• You become less aware of your surroundings.
• Body temperature drops.
• Breathing and heart rate become more regular.

The second stage of sleep lasts for approximately 20 minutes. The brain begins to produce bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity known as sleep spindles. According to the American Sleep Foundation, people spend approximately 50% of their total sleep in this stage.

NREM STAGE 3

During stage 3 sleep:

• Muscles relax.
• Blood pressure and breathing rate drop.
• The deepest sleep occurs.
• less responsive to noises

We spend the most time in deep sleep during the first half of the night commonly lasts for 20-40 minutes. Even though brain activity is reduced, there is evidence that deep sleep contributes to insightful thinking, creativity, and memory.

RAPID EYE MOVEMENT (REM)

During REM sleep:

• The brain becomes more active.
• The body becomes relaxed and immobilized.
• Dreams occur.
• Eyes move rapidly.

REM sleep first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep. Your breathing becomes faster and irregular, and your heart rate and blood pressure increase to near waking levels. Your arm and leg muscles become temporarily paralyzed, which prevents you from acting out your dreams. 

HOW LONG DO DREAMS LAST?

REM sleep lasts only a few minutes early in the night but gets longer as we sleep. Later in the night, it might last more than 30 minutes. So you might spend half an hour in a single dream.

 

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF DREAMS?

There are several dream classifications, including nightmares, recurring dreams, and lucid dreams. Let’s look briefly at some distinct forms:

Nightmares are broadly defined as frightening dreams that result in some degree of awakening from sleep. "Bad dreams" are considered a less severe form of nightmare. Most people experience nightmares throughout life, usually very rare and, less commonly, with more regularity. A small percentage of the population studies suggest around 5% have nightmares as often as once a week. Nightmares themselves disrupt sleep not only by waking the sleeper, but also leading to a fear of falling asleep and returning to a disturbing dream.

A recent study of the content of nightmares found the most common themes included:

• Physical aggression
• Interpersonal conflicts
• Experiences of failure and helplessness

Researchers found fear to be the most common emotion in nightmares and bad dreams, though it’s often accompanied by other emotions as well.

Night terrors, or sleep terrors, create another frightening dream-like experience. While they are frightening and disruptive to sleep, night terrors are not the same as nightmares. Night terrors are very intense episodes of fright during dreams. These frightening episodes are often accompanied by screaming or yelling, as well as by physical movement such as leaping out of bed or flailing in panic. Research suggests that sleep terrors occur during non-REM sleep dreaming, while nightmares tend to happen during REM sleep.

Adults do experience night terrors, but they are somewhat more common in children. Estimates suggest that as many as 6% of children experience night terrors, most often between the ages of 3-12. 

Recurring dreams are ones that reappear with some pattern of regularity. Studies suggest that recurring dreams may contain more threatening content than regular dreams. These kinds of repetitive dreams tend to repeat until the waking life task at hand is completed. Sometimes, people have recurring dreams that are pleasurable, too. An example of this would be: a woman has recurring dreams of making love with a movie star that she finds attractive.

Lucid dreams are an especially fascinating form of a dream. In lucid dreams, the dreamer is aware of the fact that he or she is dreaming, and often can manipulate or control the dream as it unfolds.

Research links lucid dreaming to unusually elevated levels of brain activity. Studies have found that lucid dreamers displayed significantly higher brain wave frequencies than non-lucid dreamers, as well as increased activity in parts of the frontal lobe. This area of the brain is deeply involved with conscious awareness, a sense of self, as well as language and memory.

In most cases, dreams don’t affect sleep. Dreaming is part of healthy sleep and is generally considered to be completely normal and without any negative effects on sleep.

THE CONTENT OF DREAMS:

There are scientists who have continued to explore the content of dreams, and new technologies have given us the ability to observe dream content as never before.

Most data on dream content has been gathered using dream reports and questionnaires. Dream experiences vary widely, but there are well-established themes that occur among many dreamers. Some of the most common dream subjects include:

• School dreams (studying, taking tests)
• Being chased
• Sexual dreams
• Falling
• Being late
• Flying
• Being attacked physically
• Dreaming of someone dead being alive, or someone alive being dead

Other research indicates that a majority of dreams contain content related to autobiographical memories (memories about the self) as opposed to episodic memories, which deal with events and details, such as locations and times.

There’s a body of study that suggests our waking lives have great influence over the content of our dreams. Pregnant women dream more about pregnancy and childbirth. Hospice workers who act as caregivers to others (whether patients or family members) dream about the experiences of caregiving and the people for whom they care. Musicians dream twice as often about music as non-musicians do.

Dreams don't usually reflect daily life events right away. After a few days or perhaps a week, a life experience might sometimes make its way into a dream. Dream lag is the term for this latency. Different types of memories that can be absorbed into dreams have been identified by scientists examining the interaction between memory and dreams. Dreams frequently include both very short-term memories (known as day-residue) and slightly longer-term memories (from a period of around a week). Dreaming about these events, as well as the order in which memories arise in dreams, may be a crucial aspect of the memory consolidation process.

WHY DO WE DREAM?

Our daily lives seem to influence our dreams in a variety of ways. Theories on why humans dream include the idea that dreaming is a way for the brain to integrate emotions, stimuli, memories, and information gathered during a waking day.

Experts in the fields of neuroscience and psychology continue to undertake experiments to learn more about what happens in the brain during sleep, but it may be impossible to confirm any explanation for why we dream conclusively.

WHY ARE DREAMS HARD TO REMEMBER?

Researchers are baffled as to why dreams are so quickly forgotten. Perhaps we're meant to forget our dreams because if we did, we wouldn't be able to distinguish between dreams and genuine memories.

It may also be more difficult to recall dreams because our bodies may turn down memory-making processes during REM sleep. When some brain functions are turned back on, we may only remember the dreams that occur immediately before we wake up.

Some argue that we don't forget our dreams since we don't know how to access them. Dreams can be preserved in our minds and retrieved later. This could explain why you recall a dream later in the day.

TIPS FOR DREAM RECALL

When compared to persons who wake up numerous times during the night, folks who sleep well and don't wake up until the morning are less likely to remember their dreams.

Some tips may help you remember your dreams:

Wake up without an alarm. You’re more likely to remember your dreams if you wake up naturally than with an alarm. Once the alarm goes off, your brain focuses on turning off the annoying sound, not on your dream.

Remind yourself to remember. You're more likely to remember your dreams in the morning if you make a conscious decision to do so. Remind yourself before going to sleep that you want to recall your dream.

Dream playback. If you think about the dream right after waking, it may be easier to remember it later.

HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF YOUR DREAMS?

If you’re curious about your dreams or want to sort out any possible meaning behind them, consider keeping a dream diary or journal.

Write it down. Keep a notebook and pen next to your bed, and record your dream first thing every morning, while the memory is still fresh. Write down anything you recall and how it made you feel, even if you can remember only random pieces of information.

Journal without judgment. Dreams are sometimes odd and may go against societal norms. Try not to judge yourself based on your dreams.

Give each dream a title. This may help if you want to refer back to a dream. Sometimes, the title you create can provide insight on why you had the dream or the meaning behind it.

Dreams have fascinated humanity since the beginning of time and will probably continue to puzzle us. Science has allowed us to learn much about the human brain, but we may never know for sure the meanings behind our dreams. I hope you guys have got a clear idea on dreams, why it occurs, types of dreams and some doubts on it by the end of this article and hope you find it meaningful.