How nice it is to lie down in your soft and cozy bed after a hard day. Cover yourself with a blanket, invigorate your pillow and fall asleep peacefully. The working day ends at this moment, but another life is just beginning. In this life, any of us can be a superhero, a millionaire, an athlete or just an observer. You can live life or watch it. It also happens that you can fall asleep again or, on the contrary, suddenly wake up. All this is possible in a dream. But where do they come from, why do we need them, and should we take them seriously? Everyone has their own opinion and we will definitely talk about it in the comments. For now, let's just discuss interesting facts and scientific explanations about what is associated with dreams.
Sleep is an amazing state, comparable to a parallel world.
What are dreams
To study any phenomenon you need your own science . Sleep also has it. It's called somnology. Only this science studies dreams themselves, but only the physical state of a person’s sleep. It is dreams that the science of oneirology studies.
Now we are more interested in the dreams themselves than in the physiological process. After all, dreams are what make our nights interesting. Although, dreams do not occur throughout the night, but only during certain periods. For further convenience in the article and in order to use more familiar words, we will call dreams dreams in the old fashioned way.
If a person sleeps 8-9 hours a day, and his life expectancy is 70 years, then he spends 23 years of his life in sleep. Of these, only 8 years he sees dreams. That is, about a third of all sleep time.
Scientifically speaking, the pictures that we see when we sleep are subjective images that appear in the mind of a sleeping person. Precisely in consciousness! This is further proof that even when sleeping, a person is conscious and does not lose contact with the outside world. When the body is immersed in a state of sleep, brain activity is only 10-15% less than when awake. In this state, he restores the body, organizes memories and configures all systems.
Where do dreams come from?
There are many theories and hypotheses about where dreams come from. One thing is clear - our brain generates dreams. Why he does this, we will figure it out a little later.
After falling asleep, the brain goes into a slightly different operating mode. In it, he scrolls through all the information that passed through him during the day. Something is stored in the deeper layers of memory, something is thrown away. As a result of this activity, dreams appear.
Remember this element from the movie Inception?
Scientists have found that during dream viewing, the most active areas are the same areas that are active during the day. Among them are the occipital region (associated with visual perception) and the parietal region (responsible for processing sensory information)
Why do you have dreams?
We have more or less figured out the process of the appearance of dreams. Now let's understand why they are needed at all. Here the opinions of scientists and experts diverge even more. For example, one version is that the brain generates possible threats so that a person can prepare for them and do something to counter them in real life. According to this opinion, a nightmare is nothing more than a training session.
This version seems very plausible, but if so, then why do we have pleasant dreams? Some scientists believe that this is how a person either closes himself off from some difficulties, creating a good mood for himself, or tries to increase his self-esteem. In the first case, the connection does not have to be direct. For example, if a person is humiliated at work, this does not mean that he will dream of universal love in the office. He may dream that he became a famous athlete and won the world championship.
In the case of increasing self-esteem, everything is clear and so. A person simply invents for himself what he lacks - fame, wealth, friends, women and much more.
Sometimes dreams occur when a person is really looking forward to something, constantly thinks about it and in a dream can edit his dream. Or vice versa, to restore in an alternative reality the events from the past that occupy all his thoughts.
Sometimes dreams can be very strange and even scary.
Another interesting theory was formulated by physiologist Ivan Sechenov. He believed that dreams are just a person’s reaction to external stimuli. It is on the basis of them that the brain forms images. That is, if you are frozen in a dream, you will dream that you are walking in the snow. If disturbing sounds are heard from the street, you may have a nightmare, and so on.
This theory makes sense. You may have noticed that if you fall asleep while watching a movie, you begin to dream about something based on the plot of that movie.
What is the difference between sleepiness and fatigue?. What is the truth?
As usual, old Sigmund Freud goes his own special way . He argued that dreams are nothing more than an attempt by the subconscious to convey encrypted information about forbidden sexual thoughts. For example, when a person experiences a hidden sexual attraction to a blood relative, he cannot realize his desires. He ends up doing it in his sleep. It’s just that all this happens there in encrypted form.
The same Sigmund Freud.
Generally convenient. Say anything crazy, explain it as hidden sexual desires, and to the question “why?” answer that you still won’t understand.
Why does a person dream about something every day?
If a person is physically healthy and not overworked, then immersing himself in the world of dreams brings him vivid night scenes. Is it normal for them to come while you are resting at night every day? It depends on the specific plot of the dream.
Any person in a healthy and calm state can see ordinary dreams, in which there are vivid events, various night visions.
They can be prophetic in some cases or convey information about the future or present in a symbolic form. For example, you suspect a colleague of insincerity and falsehood, but you drive this thought away from yourself.
During sleep, relaxation occurs and in night images the dreamer dreams of what actually happens. This could be either a prophetic dream that reveals future events, or the disclosure of classified information that you did not pay attention to during the day.
Depending on what caused the suspicion of insincerity, you see stories of different content. For example, one girl may have a dream in which a colleague smiles in her eyes, and she gossips about her to her superiors.
Or he flirts with her boyfriend in an informal setting, trying to pretend that nothing happened.
Why do you have scary stories? Usually such dreams reflect either the dreamer’s anxiety or the approach of dangerous and unpleasant events. If you dream that you find yourself in danger, in extreme situations, this indicates difficulties and difficult circumstances in life. By the way, based on the plots of recurring dreams that you have every day, you can identify the problem and get rid of the obsession. Dreams should be interpreted depending on the recurring element, and all daily dreams can be divided into several categories:
- blurry plots, incomprehensible and unmemorable. They can be confusing and scary, unpleasant and even strange. If you start having such dreams every day, you should not remember them or try to interpret them.
They do not carry any information about the future and in some situations instill sad and unpleasant thoughts. A person usually dreams of them if he has a lot of things to do and worries that he cannot get started with;
- clear but varied stories. They are worth interpreting if you think they convey information. Interpretation depends on the specific subject;
- recurring dreams in which there is a memorable element. For example, you see a clear face of a person, raw meat, the same situation, but against the backdrop of different scenery. Such dreams carry a lot of information that may be useful. Regardless of the plot, they are definitely worth interpreting.
When do you dream most often?
Dreams are usually associated with the paradoxical sleep phase. It is also called rapid eye movement (REM) or REM sleep. The fact is that human sleep is divided into cycles and they change in waves. In the relaxed phase, a person is as calm as possible, and at the peak, the heartbeat quickens, the muscles tense, and the brain works more actively. It is at these moments that dreams occur, and the brain is most ready to awaken. What comes first is still unclear. Perhaps a person is mobilized because he is dreaming, or maybe vice versa.
You can often fall asleep in your sleep. And sometimes even fall asleep in the dream of a dream. That is, when it seems that you are awake, you could simply go to a higher level.
The REM sleep phase occurs approximately every one and a half to two hours and dreams are the most vivid during this period. Recent studies prove that dreams also occur in the restful phase of sleep, but they are very dull and unemotional.
People who don't dream
All people see dreams, usually more than one per night. But not everyone remembers their visions well; on average, this is 2-3 cases per week. There are people who believe that they do not dream. They just don't remember them.
The sleep of such a person is very deep; he wakes up in the slow-wave sleep phase and forgets his dreams. If you wake him up at the end of REM sleep, he will be able to remember what he saw in his dream. There are situations when a person did not have dreams for a long time, but at some point he began to have dreams every day.
It is important to know! The statement about the absence of dreams is false. The opinion that the deeper (without visions) a person sleeps, the more fully he rests, is erroneous. The best relaxation occurs during vivid, story-driven dreams.
Do all people dream? Do babies dream?
Scientists claim that human physiology is designed in such a way that he simply cannot help but dream. All people dream! Those who say that they do not dream simply do not remember them. Perhaps this is due to some kind of mental disorder or simply a special behavior of the brain on this particular night.
All people dream. Those who don't dream simply don't remember them
If all people dream, can babies do the same? According to the most popular theory today, people begin to dream already in the eighth week of their intrauterine development. Of course, these are not the dreams that we are used to, because the child has not seen anything yet. Even in the early years of life, dreams are far from what adults see. Normal images begin to form around the age of three. Before this, children's dreams consist of alternating spots of color.
Only by the age of three do children begin to have lucid dreams.
Naturally, it is impossible to prove this, since it is unlikely that it will be possible to assemble a focus group and interview everyone.
Even animals have dreams . Scientists have tested this experimentally. At home, this can be understood by the way the cat or dog's paws twitch. This is the REM phase of sleep and they are dreaming about something. Sometimes they even shudder and wake up.
Why don't I have dreams?
To understand why there are no images and a person cannot control them or control dreams, you need to know about the characteristics of the body. As the night progresses, he plunges into different phases of drowsiness, which determine whether in the morning he will be able to remember what he saw in his dream.
There are only two types of sleep - fast and deep. Dreams visit a person during the first phase, which allows you to remember what you dreamed. The state that makes it possible to retell the vision in detail the next day lasts for a short time, although such periods are repeated several times during the night.
Deep sleep plunges a person into a position reminiscent of lethargy - the body loses activity, organs hardly function or all processes slow down. Here lies the reason for the lack of visions - the brain, sending impulses, also freezes and relaxes. If a person is awakened during this phase, the images seen are quickly forgotten.
Psychological reasons
The psychological state plays an important role in the images seen at night. If a person is subject to depression, stress, or suffers from negative emotions, dreams are often absent. The brain feels overloaded and tries to cope with psychological problems, protecting itself from night visions and sending unpleasant pictures to the far corners of consciousness.
Feeling experiences, the brain tries to send only those dreams that do not contain threats, unpleasant scenes, scary or unwanted moments. This does not always work out, and stress is reflected in nightmares, terrible visions that force you to wake up and remember what you saw down to the smallest detail.
Physiological reasons
The lack of dreams can also be explained by a large overload of the brain, which occurs during mental work. The body tries to quickly move into the slow phase, which lasts for long periods, allowing the person to rest well and recuperate.
A person who has regained his strength wakes up in a deep phase, which is not accompanied by dreams. Physical and mental fatigue are considered to be the reasons why pictures seen overnight are not remembered. The deep type of sleep does not allow one to recreate night visions. This can be considered a positive thing - after exhaustion, nightmares are often disturbing. The brain makes sure that the person gets enough sleep and does not worry about what he saw the next day, so it tries to hide scary pictures in the subconscious.
Why do you wake up if you fall in a dream?
Many people are familiar with the feeling of falling in a dream. Usually it is very real and at this moment you really begin to feel weightlessness or a state of free fall.
One of the most logical explanations for this sensation is the sudden awakening of certain parts of the brain . These special zones are located in one of the sections of the human brain stem. The bundles located in it receive information from the inner ear and control the position of the body.
At the moment of falling asleep they gradually go into an inactive mode, but in the phase of shallow sleep they can suddenly become more active. At this moment the person may shudder and wake up.
If she takes a step forward, she will definitely wake up
This often happens if you sleep in transport, when the body is mobile and the sleep is shallow. You can also find yourself in a similar situation if you stumble or fall from somewhere during the shallow sleep phase. The brain perceives this as a real fall and gives a signal to group.
Is it possible to control dreams?
There is nothing supernatural about this. Just don’t be fooled by some cool glasses that will help you shape your dreams. All this is very doubtful and is far from a fact that it will actually work. Especially considering that the method of operation of such devices has not been scientifically proven.
In order to control dreams, you need to understand that you are dreaming. Usually you realize this after waking up. In a dream, everything seems very real and realistic. I noticed that I had lucid dreams about once every week or two.
If what happens in a dream is not very real, it is easier for a person to understand that he is dreaming. If he understands this, he can explore the world of his dream or, conversely, try to wake up if he is having a nightmare.
Is it possible to stop having nightmares?
The process of controlling dreams is very interesting, but you have to act subtly. This usually happens on the borderline between sleep and wakefulness. Therefore, it is very easy to wake up in this state.
Why does a person sleep
First, let's figure out why we need sleep at all.
Sleep is a natural state of the body that includes several cycles. During this period, brain activity is reduced, as is the reaction to external stimuli.
For a long time, the mechanism of the sleep state and the reason for dreaming were under a veil of secrecy, and scientists from different times made assumptions based on their conjectures. Modern technologies have made it possible to study the human brain during sleep, and people have received answers, although only to some questions.
Is it possible to watch a dream after waking up?
Technically, there is nothing difficult about watching your dream after waking up. Especially if you haven't woken up completely.
When a car honks outside the window or someone slams a door in the hallway, a person wakes up, but not completely. If at this moment you begin to actively think about what you dreamed, you can gradually fall asleep and “watch” the continuation of this story .
The main thing is not to go wild and not go into wakefulness mode. In this case, it will definitely not be possible to finish the dream. You can still think about it for some time, but if you don’t, the dream will definitely be forgotten. However, there is a way to save it in memory.
Who often dreams
Why do some people have dreams every day, while others are absolutely sure that they don’t see them at all? It all depends on the psyche of the person himself, his physical condition, lifestyle and temperament.
Who often dreams and why:
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Interesting theories explaining why we dream
- People who are under severe stress or overexcitement. They are so absorbed in their life situation that the brain receives a constant stream of information, and at night it has to work harder to process it. Dreams become very vivid, realistic and a person does not forget them even after the day has come.
- Impressive individuals who react emotionally to everything that happens in their lives, both positively and negatively. Such people may experience both pleasant dreams and nightmares, depending on how they feel.
- People who are passionate about solving an important problem, creating a project, or just a very interesting activity. Their brain continues to work towards their goals even in their dreams. This category also includes creative individuals who may dream about their future creations.
- People who are strongly influenced by negative emotions, have phobias, low self-esteem, and a tendency to depression. They may be haunted by nightmares or simply unpleasant, dark dreams. If you start having similar visions in a dream, this will indicate that you should think about changing your outlook on life.
Nightmares or recurring unpleasant dreams can be a cause for concern, but a complete absence of dreams is a much more worrisome sign. If a person really does not dream, it means that there is no REM phase in his night cycle, and the body does not receive normal rest.
If the reason why you often have vivid dreams is an overload of the nervous system, a good rest will help relieve excess stress. You can also get rid of excess stress through relaxation practices such as meditation and autogenic training.
How to remember your dream
Since the original purpose of dreams is not for you to remember them, they are not stored in deep layers of memory. In order to remember a dream forever, you need to remember it in as much detail as possible immediately after waking up. After that, you need to either write it down, or scroll through your memory as many times as possible and it will be remembered.
The easiest way to remember a dream is to write it down.
It turns out to be an interesting thing. If you replay a poem, song or role in a play in your memory many times, you will remember it for a very long time. Information about the dream, even if it takes root in memory, will still be rejected . We haven’t been able to really explain this yet, but it’s a fact. There are exceptions, but it is dreams that are erased from memory faster than everything else.
Classification of dreams and their meanings
In the book “The Language of Dreams. Bridge to the Unknown" author Rita Lev describes her many years of research into dreams, techniques and methods of working with them. The author recommends preparing for a sleep analysis in advance.
How to understand your dream
A dream is such a vague picture that often a person cannot remember the details of even the most vivid plot after waking up. To exclude this and be able to interpret your dreams, you need to use the following rules:
- Please note that a person always dreams about himself, and all the people from it must be correctly associated with the personality of the sleeper.
- Before going to bed, place a pen and a piece of paper at the head of your bed.
- Prepare yourself in advance to memorize the plot, and go to sleep with this thought.
- When you wake up in the morning, write down everything you remember, even if fragments of thoughts seem incomprehensible and ridiculous. Try to colorfully describe and name everything that you dreamed at night.
- Identify the most vivid images and feelings that come to mind. Write them down.
Why do you have colorful dreams?
At one time there was an opinion that only people who have schizophrenia or other similar disorders have colorful dreams. Actually this is not true.
All people see rather abstract dreams, which for the most part show only the contours and outlines of objects. The rest is completed by the person using his imagination.
Therefore, colorful dreams are dreamed primarily by those who have a good imagination and by children, since they are not yet blinkered by the framework of the world around them. People with some types of mental disorders also have good imaginations. Perhaps that is why the two phenomena (color dreams and schizophrenia) were connected in this way.
Why do you dream... Can you trust dream books?
In order to understand whether dream books can be trusted, you need to understand the nature of this phenomenon. If you dream what is called “in fact” (it became cold - you dreamed of snow), then it is wrong to say that it is prophetic.
On the other hand, mystical explanations of dreams occupy a wide place in the culture of modern society. Some sincerely believe in this, others just want to have fun and see how this “internal prediction” coincides with real events.
Remember the traditional sign “if you fly in your sleep, you grow”?
However, the fact is that dream books or dream interpreters are compiled by people based on real facts . That is, if 100 people dreamed of a frog and the next day 98 of them found a wallet on the road, that means something.
On the other hand, many dream books were compiled so long ago that they simply have nothing to do with real life. Psychologists at different times treated them differently. Some said that there is a connection and the brain can really predict something, while others said that a person simply programs himself for what he sees in a dream and it happens.
In any case, everyone always agreed that a dream carries one thing in itself. You should not remember the entire dream and look for everything in the dream book. You need to take only the detail that was the brightest or simply the most important in this dream. At the same time, what should you do if you have previously watched a movie about bikers and had a vivid dream about a motorcycle? This is no longer a pure image, but an imposed one.
You need to remember only the most vivid parts of the dream.
Many people interpret dreams retroactively. For example, they remember that two days ago they saw a hammer in a dream, and today they punctured a tire. As a result, they open the dream book, and it says “dreams of a hammer foretell difficulties.” There's no denying that a flat tire is a problem. But the modern city dweller faces difficulties every day.
What are lucid dreams
Let's move away from the topic a little and talk about what lucid dreams are. Sometimes a sleeping person may be aware that he is in a dream. This can happen either spontaneously or after various training sessions. This state is called lucid dreaming.
Modern methods of entering lucid dreams have appeared, for example, keeping a dream diary, using special devices (devices that record rapid eye movements and send light signals to the sleeper’s eyelids), etc.
People's ability to be lucid in dreams varies; some people are naturally able to control dreams, while others need to develop this ability. There are attempts to use lucid dreams in psychotherapy.
Prophetic dreams
A separate topic is prophetic dreams. Those that directly tell you what should happen to you today (or in the near future). We can argue about them even longer, but they can also be either a coincidence, or simply a person’s ability to predict events.
For example, he thought for a long time about what to do in his relationship with his business partner. The brain was overloaded with this information, but it chose the right decision for itself and built a chain of events that would follow it. As a result, it came true, but due to the fact that the connection between the events was not very obvious, the dream began to seem mystical.
In addition, many details of the dream are lost, and when something happens, the missing parts in memory can be supplemented with new facts. The main thing is to remember the main plot thread.
On the other hand, I personally know a person who told me that he had a dream about something, and then it came true with amazing accuracy. Perhaps, again, this is a matter of intuition, since this person is doing well with it.
A dream is like another world. Sometimes it’s very nice to reach out to him.
Here we can also say separately about deja vu (the feeling that what is happening has already happened). This feeling may arise due to the fact that a person subconsciously remembers something from his dreams. It’s even possible that he didn’t realize it. That is, it was not like he woke up and remembered him at least a little. Such “shadow” dreams can be the cause of deja vu .
The Science of Dreams
- Elena, you study dreams. Is this really science and not magic?
“Dreams are truly a subject of scientific research. I've been doing this for many years. Our society includes:
- doctors,
- psychologists,
- art critics,
- cultural scientists,
- artists,
- writers.
There is an International Dream Research Community with which we actively collaborate.
— Is healthy sleep when you dream about something or when a person sleeps so soundly that he wakes up and doesn’t remember anything?
— Healthy sleep is the one that restores. Everything is individual. For one person it is normal to have vivid dreams every day and remember them, for another it is normal not to remember dreams. For one it is normal to sleep 6 hours, for another 10.
— Do colorful dreams affect our health?
— There is no danger in colored dreams. They can be related to health if a person who has never had colorful dreams suddenly begins to have vivid dreams. But this is not necessarily a negative connection. Perhaps a person’s life has simply changed dramatically. If colors are combined with unpleasant emotions, recurring nightmares, then you need to be wary.
— The ancient Greek dream book “Oneirocriticism” by Artemidorus is one of the first in our culture. What do dream books mean as such?
— The Dream Book is a guide for analyzing dreams from the perspective of predicting the future. Dream books are based on a universal interpretation of the same symbols for different people. This deserves criticism because dreams are only as unique as the individual. Therefore, I treat dream books only as culturally valuable material. They reflect the spirit of the times. The Dream Book of Artemiduus is a unique work in five volumes. It is still being studied. Artemiduus is first and foremost a thinker. He considered the same images depending on:
- floor,
- age,
- social status.
For example, he interpreted images differently for slave owners and for slaves. His attempt to analyze dreams anticipated discoveries in the field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.
- A person can wake up in the middle of the night, then fall asleep again and see the continuation. Or the next night. How to evaluate this?
- This means that the problem that the dream was trying to solve is so important that the person unconsciously returned to continue the process. In addition, among us there are right-handers and left-handers.
Continuation dreams are more often seen by left-handed people.
This has to do with how the brain works - I conducted such a study. As a practicing psychotherapist, I can say that dreams are a very good aid in psychotherapy, a window to the unconscious, to a person’s internal problems.
— I once dreamed that Vladimir Putin prepared dumplings for my birthday. Then I dreamed that I was talking with Barack Obama. Then Ivan the Terrible wanted to execute me, but my wife defended me. What do dreams of this kind mean?
— As a psychotherapist, I collected statistics on which famous person most often appears in dreams. Vladimir Putin. Especially for women. They:
- go on adventures with him;
- they express their problems and he helps;
- enter into a romantic relationship with him.
That is, this image affects the unconscious of Russians.
If you work with the images from your dreams, you will probably see something significant for you behind them.
Another aspect. If you tell a dream immediately after waking up and then, after a while, these will be different dreams, because the person is trying to interpret them. Psychoanalysts always pay attention to the fact that the dream was told in a psychotherapist’s office. If a woman tells a dream to a female and a male psychotherapist, these will be different dreams.
I carried out my dissertation on the study of dreams in neuroses in children and adolescents like this: I came to their hospital at the time of their awakening and recorded stories on a tape recorder when they had not yet had time to dream up anything.
Should you be afraid of dreams?
In my opinion, the clear answer here is “no”. If you don't take dreams too seriously and don't expect anything from them, they become just a nice distraction for the night. If you have a nightmare and feel uncomfortable going back to sleep, just try not to think about it. Well, if you constantly have nightmares, you should consult a specialist. This does not mean that you have any problems with your head. Most likely, something is just bothering you or something in your body is not working right. Everything is closely connected within us, so this could very well happen.
If you are reading this article in the evening, then good night and pleasant dreams!
