Dreaming
is one of the most mysterious experiences in our lives but what do we
actually know about dreams? Here are some interesting facts that you
probably didn't know.
You Forget 90% of Your Dreams
Within
5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. Within 10
minutes, 90% is gone. The famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, woke
one morning having had a fantastic dream, he put pen to paper and began
to describe his “vision in a dream” in what has become one of English's
most famous poems: Kubla Khan.
Blind People also Dream
People
who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who
are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid
involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion. It is
hard for a seeing person to imagine, but the body's need for sleep is
so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations
to make it happen.
Men and Women Dream Differently
Every
human being dreams but men and women have different dreams and
different physical reactions. Men tend to dream more about other men,
while women tend to dream equally about men and women. In addition,
both men and women experience sexually related physical reactions to
their dreams regardless of whether the dream is sexual in nature; males
experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood
flow.
You Can Experience an 0rgasm in Your Dream
You
can not only have s e x as pleasurable as in your real life while
dreaming, but also experience an o r g a s m as strong as a real one
without any wet results. The sensations felt while lucid dreaming can
be as pleasurable and strong as the sensations experienced in the real
world.
We Only Dream of What We Know
Our
dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts –
did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces – they are
real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may
not know or remember? We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces
through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our
brain to utilize during our dreams.
Not Everybody Dreams in Color
full
12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The
remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the
1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white,
but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today only 4.4% of the
dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research
has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch
from black-and-white film and TV to color media.
Dreams Prevent Psychosis
In
a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of
each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced
difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of
psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep the
student's brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the
percentage of sleep spent in the REM stage.
Animals Dream Too
Studies
have been done on many different animals, and they all show the same
brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans. Watch a dog sleeping
sometime. The paws move like they are running and they make yipping
sounds as if they are chasing something in a dream.
Body Paralysis
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
when we are asleep and make them a part of our dreams. This means that
sometimes in our dreams we hear a sound from reality and incorporate it
in a way. For example you may be dreaming that you are in a concert
while your brother is playing a guitar during your sleep.
Precognitive Dreams
Results
of several surveys across large population sets indicate that between
18% and 38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive dream
and 70% have experienced déjà vu. The percentage of persons that
believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher – ranging from
63% to 98%.
If You Are Snoring, Then You Can Not be Dreaming
This
fact is repeated all over the Internet, but I'm a bit suspicious
whether it's really true as I haven't found any scientific evidence to
support it.
Note:
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, about 90-120
minutes of a night's sleep)
