What is a dream?
A dream is a sequence of images, thoughts, emotions and sensations that occurs involuntarily in a person’s mind during certain stages of sleep.
Oneirology is the term used for the scientific study of dreams that relates to brain functions. In 1952, the researchers at Chicago University found a type of Electrical activity during a certain stage of sleep. The person when wakes up at that stage of sleep said that they are dreaming at that time.
Basically, everytime you go to sleep, a part of your brain produces a chemical called Dimethyltryptamine which causes our dreams at night. This chemical can be produced synthetically and when injected creates hallucinations and strange things in our minds and hence it is called Dream Drug.
The purpose of dreaming is unknown. There are various theories that explain why we get dreams and the most acceptable theory is called Threat Simulation Theory. This theory says that the dreams we get is a sort of training which simulate dangerous events / situations for us to learn how to protect us in that events / situations and this could have evolved during the early days of mankind. Another theory explains that while we sleep, our unconscious brain recollects and organizes the memories even the recent things that we thought and these electrical impulses are detected by the conscious brain. The cortex which couldn’t rely on the information tries to be creative which creates a DREAM.
FACTS
You will almost forget 95% of your dreams within the 10 minutes of having it.
While dreaming, you may not be aware that you are dreaming because the region of brain called PREFRONTAL CORTEX which is responsible for logical thinking will be inactive and that is the reason you are communicating with the dream without thinking logically and seeing strange things.
Blind people also dream but they use the other dominant senses that they experience and have dreams of that type. Blind people have more nightmares in which the reason is not unknown.
Most animals can dream.
There are lots of inventions and ideas came through dreams. For instance, the theory of relativity (E=mc2) by Einstein, X ray Machine, Periodic table, Sewing Machine Needle, Insulin and even Google are invented while dreaming.
LUCID DREAMING
You are aware inside the dream that you are dreaming. You are able to take control of dreaming and can change according to your wish and take conscious decisions. To differentiate you can mark or do something specific and ask yourself and realize whether you are in Lucid dreaming or not.
When does a dream occur?
Normally a sleep can be divided into
1) NREM – Non-rapid eye movement Sleep which is further categorized into 4 stages.
2) REM – rapid eye movement Sleep.
REM sleep which is also known as Paradoxical sleep and this stage occupies 25% of your total dream. It is in this stage that the most memorable dreams do occur. Your eyes moves very fast but cannot move your muscles and you are completely paralyzed. This is because the production of chemicals inside the brain like Norepinephrine, Histamine and Serotonin are blocked which makes the muscle to stop moving. During REM our brain will be so highly active in limbic system and the amygdala like we are awake.
A terrific side effect while you wake up suddenly during REM sleep is you are completely awake but you cannot move your body parts. This is called Sleep Paralysis. Sometimes the person will act their dreams in their real life while sleeping which is called Sleep Walking and the person is completely unaware of what they are doing.
Researchers also found that there will be an incredible terrible memory loss and mood changes if the person doesnt have a proper REM sleep. This is because the amygdala which is found in both the hemisphere are very highly activated which specializes in handling unpleasant emotions like intense fear, anger, anxiety and aggression. When checked through the factor depression, the researchers found normal persons go to REM sleep after going through the non REM sleep but when the persons who are under depression goes to sleep, they directly goes to REM sleep and stays there more time. Hence they experience more unpleasant emotions. Also they have found that if the person has learned a new task at day time, the brain replays the same electronic impulse during REM.
REM sleeps are 4-5 times longer than the non REM sleep. Non REM sleep takes the past and tries to relate it to the future. REM sleep actually tries to experience the future.
It is said that REM sleep occurs every 90 minutes once and the first REM sleep timing will be within 5-10 mins and second and third are within 15 to 20 mins respectively. You may have dreams during other stages too but you won’t be able to remember it as clear as you do in REM sleep.
Some of the characteristic of dreams are you may experience strange sensations like not able to move your body or falling from heights and so on. Also, you may have intense emotions like fear and anxiety while dreaming. Your dreams may relate to frightening, exciting, adventurous, hilarious, magical, melancholic, or even sexual.
A dream is a sequence of images, thoughts, emotions and sensations that occurs involuntarily in a person’s mind during certain stages of sleep.
Oneirology is the term used for the scientific study of dreams that relates to brain functions. In 1952, the researchers at Chicago University found a type of Electrical activity during a certain stage of sleep. The person when wakes up at that stage of sleep said that they are dreaming at that time.
Basically, everytime you go to sleep, a part of your brain produces a chemical called Dimethyltryptamine which causes our dreams at night. This chemical can be produced synthetically and when injected creates hallucinations and strange things in our minds and hence it is called Dream Drug.
The purpose of dreaming is unknown. There are various theories that explain why we get dreams and the most acceptable theory is called Threat Simulation Theory. This theory says that the dreams we get is a sort of training which simulate dangerous events / situations for us to learn how to protect us in that events / situations and this could have evolved during the early days of mankind. Another theory explains that while we sleep, our unconscious brain recollects and organizes the memories even the recent things that we thought and these electrical impulses are detected by the conscious brain. The cortex which couldn’t rely on the information tries to be creative which creates a DREAM.
FACTS
You will almost forget 95% of your dreams within the 10 minutes of having it.
While dreaming, you may not be aware that you are dreaming because the region of brain called PREFRONTAL CORTEX which is responsible for logical thinking will be inactive and that is the reason you are communicating with the dream without thinking logically and seeing strange things.
Blind people also dream but they use the other dominant senses that they experience and have dreams of that type. Blind people have more nightmares in which the reason is not unknown.
Most animals can dream.
There are lots of inventions and ideas came through dreams. For instance, the theory of relativity (E=mc2) by Einstein, X ray Machine, Periodic table, Sewing Machine Needle, Insulin and even Google are invented while dreaming.
LUCID DREAMING
You are aware inside the dream that you are dreaming. You are able to take control of dreaming and can change according to your wish and take conscious decisions. To differentiate you can mark or do something specific and ask yourself and realize whether you are in Lucid dreaming or not.
When does a dream occur?
Normally a sleep can be divided into
1) NREM – Non-rapid eye movement Sleep which is further categorized into 4 stages.
2) REM – rapid eye movement Sleep.
REM sleep which is also known as Paradoxical sleep and this stage occupies 25% of your total dream. It is in this stage that the most memorable dreams do occur. Your eyes moves very fast but cannot move your muscles and you are completely paralyzed. This is because the production of chemicals inside the brain like Norepinephrine, Histamine and Serotonin are blocked which makes the muscle to stop moving. During REM our brain will be so highly active in limbic system and the amygdala like we are awake.
A terrific side effect while you wake up suddenly during REM sleep is you are completely awake but you cannot move your body parts. This is called Sleep Paralysis. Sometimes the person will act their dreams in their real life while sleeping which is called Sleep Walking and the person is completely unaware of what they are doing.
Researchers also found that there will be an incredible terrible memory loss and mood changes if the person doesnt have a proper REM sleep. This is because the amygdala which is found in both the hemisphere are very highly activated which specializes in handling unpleasant emotions like intense fear, anger, anxiety and aggression. When checked through the factor depression, the researchers found normal persons go to REM sleep after going through the non REM sleep but when the persons who are under depression goes to sleep, they directly goes to REM sleep and stays there more time. Hence they experience more unpleasant emotions. Also they have found that if the person has learned a new task at day time, the brain replays the same electronic impulse during REM.
REM sleeps are 4-5 times longer than the non REM sleep. Non REM sleep takes the past and tries to relate it to the future. REM sleep actually tries to experience the future.
It is said that REM sleep occurs every 90 minutes once and the first REM sleep timing will be within 5-10 mins and second and third are within 15 to 20 mins respectively. You may have dreams during other stages too but you won’t be able to remember it as clear as you do in REM sleep.
Some of the characteristic of dreams are you may experience strange sensations like not able to move your body or falling from heights and so on. Also, you may have intense emotions like fear and anxiety while dreaming. Your dreams may relate to frightening, exciting, adventurous, hilarious, magical, melancholic, or even sexual.
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