Ever wonder why people dream, and what these dreams could mean for different people? If you want to find out more about dreams and what they are, check out this top 10 amazing facts about dreams – and be impressed by each interesting details that you might not have known before.
10. If you dream about strangers, it is possible that they are actual people you have met and seen in real life.
Although your dreams may show you some people that you think are total strangers, your brain is unable to invent images of people whom you have never met before. Thus, the strangers that you see in your dreams are faces of those who are real people that have been with you at one point in your life. For instance, these people were probably that guy you have bumped into one time while you were walking on the street, or a mailman that you used to see when you were younger. It is also possible that you have laid your eyes on a few people before you slept, and these characters play in your mind as you fall asleep.
9. People tend to forget about a major percentage of their dreams.
According to J. Allan Hobson, a dream researcher, at least 95 percent of dreams are forgotten immediately after waking up. You probably wonder why it is very difficult to remember dreams. Based on the explanation by some specialists, the immense changes in your brain each time you sleep fail to support the amount of information processed and stored in your memory. Moreover, brain scans of individuals who are sleeping have presented that their frontal lobes, or the area that has a large role int he formation of memory, remain inactive during the entire period of REM sleep. This is also the phase in which your dreams occur.
8. Dreams are different with men and women.
Based on dream researchers, there are various differences in terms of dreams by men and women. The content of one’s dreams vary depending on his experiences and emotions. In a clinical study, men typically dream about aggression while women hardly. do. In fact, William Domhoff, a dream researcher, stated that women usually have longer dreams that men. These dreams may also include more characters, and men typically dream about other men. On the other hand, women dream about both men and women equally.
7. You have the power to control your dreams.
Believe it or not, you may be capable of controlling your dreams if you want to. This is usually possible with lucid dreams, or in instances when you are already aware of your dreaming while you are not even awake yet. When you are having this type of dream, you may choose to control or direct the content of your dream. Researchers estimate that at least half on all individuals are capable of remembering their lucid dreams while others do not even have dreams.
6. Negative feelings are typical in most dreams.
For about a period of 40 years, dream researcher Calvin S. Hall has collected over 50,000 accounts of dreams from college students. These documentations of their dreams were made available to a wider audience in the 1990s by William Domhoff, a student of Hall. The accounts revealed that among the different emotions experienced by people during their sleep included happiness, fear and joy. However, the most common of all these emotions was anxiety, and these emotions were even more present in dreams than positive ones
5. You remain paralyzed each time you are dreaming.
During the period of sleep where dreaming occurs (REM sleep), your voluntary muscles remain paralyzed. The reason for this REM atonia is that it prohibits you from being capable of acting your dreams out as you sleep. Additionally, since your motor neurons are unstimulated, your body is not able to move. In various cases, this paralysis may also carry over into your waking state for at least 10 minutes, and this is a condition referred to as sleep paralysis. In this state, you wake up from a frightening dream only to discover yourself being unable to get up or move a single muscle in your body. Although this experience can be rather terrifying, medical experts state that this is a normal phase, which can last for only a few minutes before your normal muscle control returns.
4. Most dreams are universal in nature.
It is a fact that dreams are influenced greatly by your personal experiences during your waking hours. However, researchers have discovered that certain themes in dreams are common in various cultures. For instance, people from different parts of the world also dream about falling, being attacked, or being chased. There are other typical dream experiences such as being naked in public, flying, inability to move or frozen. Thus, people’s dreams may be universal regardless of their culture or race.
3. Animals are likely to have dreams, too.
Have you seen a sleeping cat or dog move its legs or wag its tail while it sleeps? Although it can be difficult to tell for sure if the animal is actually dreaming, researchers claim that it is possible that animals also have dreams. As with humans, animals also enter different sleep stages that consist of various cycles of NREM and REM sleep. In a study, a gorilla was once taught how to communicate using sign language. This gorilla signed to inform others about having “sleep picture”, which indicate its experience of dreaming as it sleeps.
2. Some dreams are not in color.
About 80 percent of dreams are set in color, yet a small percentage of individuals claim to have dreams in black and white. Dreamers who have been awakened were asked to choose any colors from the chart to match the ones found in their dreams, and they selected soft pastel colors quite frequently.
1. Everybody has dreams.
No matter what age, people dream as they sleep. According to researchers people are most likely to have dreams and each of these last for a minimum of 5 minutes. In a typical lifetime, a person may spend an approximate average of 60 years dreaming.
Interesting discoveries about dreams, don’t you think? So, the next time you have a dream, try to recall these amazing facts, and consider keeping track of your dreams to find out fascinating meanings behind each.
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