What is Dreaming

Dreams consist of images, ideas, and emotions that occur in the mind during REM sleep. Interpreting dreams to find meanings and searching for an underlying message. The study of dreams is called oneirology. Dreams can last a few seconds or up to 20-30 minutes. An average person has up to 3-5 dreams and in some cases, it may even be up to 7 dreams.

Dreams may vary from being frightening, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual. Dreams represent unconscious desires and wishes. It also consolidates and processes information gathered during the day. Dreams prepare for possible future threats.

Dreams serve in helping cognitive abilities and reflecting unconscious mental function in a psychoanalytic way. The dreamer has reduced control over the dreams.

 

PHASES OF SLEEP

There are five stages of sleep

STAGE 1 – This stage is known as light sleep and also forms 4- 5% of total sleep.

STAGE 2 –  Eye movement stops and brain waves become slower with sleep spindles. This forms up to 44-55% of total sleep.

STAGE 3 – Delta waves begin to appear with faster waves. This accounts for 4-6% of total sleep.

STAGE 4 – It is hard to wake someone up during stages 3 and 4 which together are called deep sleep. People awakened during this stage usually don’t adjust immediately and feel disoriented for several minutes after waking up. This forms 12-15% of total sleep.

STAGE 5–  It is also known as rapid eye movement ( REM). Heart rate increases, blood pressure rises and male develops penile erections. When people wake up from REM sleep they tell bizarre tales also known as dreams. It accounts for 20-25% of total sleep time.

 

THEORY ON DREAMS

1. Psychoanalytic theory – This theory believes that dreams represent unconscious desires and personal conflicts. Dreams act out as unconscious desires in the safety of an unreal setting.

2. Activation-synthesis theory – This theory believes that dreams are byproducts of your brain processing memories, emotions, and sensations.

3. Continual activations theory – This theory suggests that our dreams provide a place to hold our memories while they transfer from short-term memory to long-term memory.

 

NIGHTMARES IN DREAM 

This causes the dreamer to feel several disturbing emotions which causes fear and anxiety. They occur because of stress, fear, trauma, illness, and emotional difficulties.

 

LUCID DREAMS

The dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. They may have some control over their dream. It often occurs in the middle of a regular dream at random.

 

CHARACTERS IN THE DREAM

A study has shown that

1) 48% of characters represented a named person known to the dreamer.

2) 35% of characters were identified by their social role or relationship to the dreamer.

3) 16% were not recognized.

 

MEMORIES 

Two temporal effects characterize the incorporation of memories into dreams are:

1) The day-residue effect which involves immediate incorporation of events from the preceding day.

2) The dream-lag effect involves incorporation delayed by about a week.

It is been noticed that processing memories into dream incorporation take a cycle of around 7 days.

 

WHAT IS DREAM LAG

Dream lag happens when people you have recently seen tend to appear in your dreams.  It has been reported in dreams that dream lag occurs in the REM stage.

 

MEMORY TYPES 

The two types of memory are:

1. Autobiographical memories or long-lasting memories about the self.

2. Memories about specific episodes or events.

 

THEMES 

The themes are linked to the suppression of unwanted thoughts and as a result an increased occurrence of suppressed thoughts. 55 typical dream themes have been identified which has been common for over different sample populations. Few of them are

• School, teachers, studying
• Being chases
• Sexual experiences
• Falling
• Arriving too late
• A living person dead.
• A person coming back from death
• Being physically attacked
• Being killed
• Eating delicious food
• Insects and spiders
• On the verge of falling
• Being frozen with fright
• Being tied up
• Fire
• Snakes
• Finding money

 

WHAT DO THESE DREAMS MEAN?

1. Relationships – One cluster of typical dreams like being an object in fanger, falling, or being chases is related to interpersonal conflicts.

2. Sexual concepts – This cluster includes flying, sexual experiences, finding money, eating delicious food is associated with sexual motivations.

3. Fear of embarrassment –  These dreams are associated with social concerns and fear of embarrassment like failing an exam.

 

DEATH IN DREAMS

People who had considered attempted suicide or violence are more likely to have dreams with death involved.

 

FORGETTING DREAMS

It has been observed that after 5 minutes of a dream 50% of the content is forgotten.

Steps to help improve dream recall

1. Waking up naturally without any disturbance

2. Focus on the dream

3. Write down the dream as soon as you wake up

 

DOES EVERYONE DREAM IN COLOR?

• About 80% of participants younger than 30 years old dreamed in colour.
• About 20% of participants at 60 years old dreamed of colour.
• 12% of the population dream in black and white
• People with vision loss have fewer visual dream impressions compared with sighted participants.
• People with vision loss report auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory dream components.

 

FACTS ABOUT DREAM

• Around 80% of the people with deafness reported that it did not indicate impairment. Many spoke in their dreams while they could hear and understand what others spoke.
• People with paraplegia reported that in their dreams they could run, walk, and swim.
• Longer dreams occur in the mornings
• You are more likely to dream about sex if you sleep facedown.
• Women dream of sex with multiple partners two times less than men.
• Women have more nightmares than men
• Sleeping right after eating makes it more likely for nightmares to occur as the metabolism increases which activates your brain.
• Pets also have dreams
• Negative dreams are more common than positive dreams.

 

Other Important Articles

• WHAT ARE SLEEP DISORDERS
• What is False Memory
• Importance of Sleep