People dream about six years during their lives on average. Imagine! Six years spent absorbed in wondrous, frightening, thrilling and sometimes completely incomprehensible sensations. Your dreams, if you could record them all, would certainly prove just what a creative being you really are. Why we dream what we do might appear to be totally mystifying, but in fact, the disciplines of dream and sleep science have actually discovered quite a lot about dreams. You will discover a lot of information that will truly astonish you! Let’s get started.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
1. Your Mind Is More Active During A Dream
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 1 - Than When You’re awake during sleep, the mind and body relax. After all, the primary reason why we sleep is to recover from the day’s stress on the body, to repair muscle damage, and to freshen up for the next day’s demands. Yet, as paradoxical as it may seem, your mind is a buzz of activity while you are asleep, even more so than when you are awake. Sleep studies - where a brain’s electrical activity is measured - provide solid data documenting brain activity. But why is the brain so active when you are asleep? Well, you experience a lot during a typical day. When you are awake, your brain is so busy taking in everything you see, hear and feel, that it has little time to actually process, categorize and store all this information. When you are asleep, your brain finally has time to make some sense of it all. There is also evidence that your brain becomes even more stimulated when it has to deal with brand-new experience, or with some major change, you experienced - regardless of whether that change was good or bad.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
2. It All Happens in Your Subconscious
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 2 -Your conscious mind relaxes when you are asleep, but your subconscious never really sleeps. When you sleep, your subconscious is where all that dreaming takes place. You see, your subconscious mind is busy processing your thoughts and concerns - this processing generates dreams. Dreams speak the language of the subconscious mind; and this language is composed of images, metaphors and other symbols that your conscious mind usually has a hard time grasping. This is why most people have trouble making sense of their dreams. But you can be sure that your dreams don’t just come out of nowhere - they come right from your own, personal experiences.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
3. Your Dreams Only See Familiar Faces
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 3 - What?All those weird events in my dreams? I know all those people? That’s right! Your subconscious can’t invent new faces. That only makes sense, because your subconscious only “remembers” things. So, any face that appears in your dreams is a face you have already encountered. This does not, however, mean that you actually know the person. Well, just think about it. Your eyes see and take in things that your conscious mind doesn’t really pay attention to. Just think of all the people you pass by during the day, maybe faces in a crowd you glanced at. You may not recognize any of those faces, but your subconscious stored all of them. Most of the main actors in your dreams are, however, people you would recognize - simply because they occupy your thoughts more. But sometimes, your dreams can concoct a strange mix of familiar and unfamiliar people. For instance, a friend of yours might appear in one of your dreams. His face and personality might seem to match up with reality. Yet, upon waking, you might realize that a person with a different face actually played the role of that friend.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
4. You Can’t Read In Your Dreams
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 4 - You are typically engaged in a lot of activity in your dreams, but one thing you aren't doing is reading! Yes, books and signs might pop up, but you aren't reading any of them because you won't make out any words or letters. This is because reading is a conscious activity! remember - your brain is the product of a long period of evolution. However, humans have been reading only for about 5,000 years. Your subconscious is not equipped for this. When you are asleep, your conscious mind is taking a break. You can’t even read a clock in your dreams. And it gets weirder…You can’t see yourself in a mirror! If you look into one in your dreams, the image will be blurred or resolve into another person.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
5. Sensory Incorporation
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 5 - It may seem strange, but it actually should make some sense. For you to dream, your body needs to be relaxed. If your body is disturbed by some external sensations such as noise; or internal sensation, such as bladder pressure - your subconscious will be affected by this. Anything like that will bring you out of a dream state. To get back to it, your subconscious has to be completely undisturbed. So, you need to shut off the noise, or go to the washroom - before your mind will be able to start dreaming again
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
6. Men And Women Dream Differently
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 6 - Researchers have discovered that women and men dream differently, and they dream about different things! Several studies have documented that men dream about things like - for example, weapons - far more often than women do. Women, on the other hand, dream a lot more about things involving clothes. Furthermore, men's dreams contain a lot more aggression and physical activity, while women's dreams more often have to do with emotional themes such as exclusion or rejection. Also, a lot more conversations are being held in women's dreams than in men's.women's dreams are also a bit longer and involve more people than men's dreams. What might seem somewhat surprising, is that in men's dreams, men appear twice as often as women.women's dreams, for some reason, are more balanced: men and women appear roughly as often.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
7. Fifty Percent of dreams are negative
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 7 - According to research, negative emotions emerge in many of your dreams. Your dreams are, in a sense, fair about this all: about half of them are positive, but half is also negative. Negative dreams tend to involve emotions such as anger, fear, insecurity, and sadness.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
8. Dreams Can Be A Sign Of Anxiety Or Underlying Stress
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 8 - Our dreams show that humans everywhere seem to have a lot in common! No matter where we are born or where we grow up, our dreams often involve being chased, attacked or falling. Other common themes are feelings of being frozen or immobilized or arriving late. Sometimes we even dream about appearing naked before others! While the meanings of such dreams can differ depending on a person's particular circumstances, these dreams can often be connected to feelings of anxiety or stress. If you experience unpleasant dreams, try to pay more attention to taking care of yourself. Also, try to deal with circumstances that are causing you stress.
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
9. Premonition Dreams
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 9 - There are some really astounding instances in which people have foreseen things in their dreams that would happen to them. These dreams often turned out to be surprisingly accurate. Were these dreams a glance into the future were they just a matter of circumstance? Well, some pretty strange cases of premonition recorded in history! For example, many of the 9/11 victims dreamed about the coming terror attack mark Twain dreamed about his brother's death Abraham Lincoln dreamed that he would be assassinated. The verified dreams of 19 people foresaw the sinking of the Titanic
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| Psychology Facts About Dreams |
10. Dreaming In Black And White
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 10 -Your dreams might be very vivid and colorful. A lot of people have such dreams. Yet some people say that their dreams are black and white. Why?
Studies have established that ‘age and the media’ one is exposed to, might play a role in what colors occur in people’s dreams. For example, older people grew up with black and white television and photography. Many of them have monochromatic dreams: it’s the way they picture people and events external to themselves. Younger people, on the other hand, have known nothing but color photography and television.
11. Dreams Recharge Your Creativity
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 11 - OK, so dreams might contain some subconscious messages, but what use can they really be? Well, dreams can help you in various aspects of your life - every day. Researchers suggest that dreams are especially helpful in developing your creative capabilities. Artists often remark on how useful their dreams are in their creative processes. But dreams can help anyone - by providing creativity toward solving everyday problems. Just as you use your waking imagination when you are trying to be creative, dreams do precisely this while you are asleep. While you sleep, your subconscious is dealing with and working out problems. The process is actually quite similar to the creative process you use when awake. In other words, the creative process continues when you’re asleep, and your dreams actually help improve your creativity. As you may be aware, dreams can even directly provide you with inspiration. Let’s say, for example, that you’ve just dreamed something really amazing, or you experienced something challenging, or you relived some emotional event. These kinds of dreams can help connect you to strong feelings, and thus, help you be more creative.
12. Dreams Have Changed History
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 12 - So, you now know that dreams serve to refresh and support the creative process.
History shows that many dreams directly led to ideas that changed the world!
For example:
• Larry Page came up with his idea for Google
• Dimitri Mendeleyev came up with the periodic table of elements
• Elias Howe was inspired to invent the sewing machine
• James Watson envisioned the DNA double-helix
• Tesla got the idea for an alternating current generator
13. It's Possible To Control Your Dreams
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 13 - Have you ever had a dream while you were sleeping and were aware that you were dreaming at the time? That kind of dream is referred to as a “lucid dream”.It is thought that lucid dreaming arises from.
a state that combines both consciousness and R.E.M. sleep. While you are in such a state, you can often control the contents of your dreams about fifty percent of people remember having a lucid dream at least once in their lives; and some people have lucid dreams over and over again.
14. You Always Dream, You Just Don’t Always Remember
Psychology Facts About Dreams: Number 14 -Yes, always - even if you don’t remember a single dream. Most people have several dreams each time they sleep. These dreams can concern any number of scenarios and differ in intensity. Yet, many people just don’t remember them once they wake up. Over half - about 60% in fact - don’t remember anything of their dreams after five minutes of waking up. After just ten minutes, most people forget about 90% of the details from their dreams. So what you remember of your dreams, is only a small fraction of what you actually dreamed. But there is an exception. If you happen to wake up suddenly while you are in the R.E.M. phase of sleep, you are often able to remember quite a lot of your dream's content. Of course, dreams can also stick with you if you have a particular dream repeatedly, or if they contain some very strong emotions.
If you want to remember more of your dreams, keep a notepad by your bedside. As soon as you wake up, write down anything you can recall. Once you’ve recorded your dreams, you can refer to your notes and see whether any themes are recurring. You can even try to identify any messages your subconscious may be communicating to you!
15. You can problem-solve in your dreams
Psychology Facts About Dreams: there are actually stories of people figuring out how to french braid or solve some other mind-boggling puzzle in their dreams in fact as unbelievable as it might sound some of the greatest inventions we know of today can be attributed to a dream, for example, it's where Larry Page got the idea for Google where NikolaTesla was inspired to create his alternating current generator and were Dmitri Mendeleev came up with a periodic table of elements have you ever solved a problem in a dream this is exactly where the phrase sleep on it comes from sleeping on something often gives us a new perspective on a problem we're facing the famous pro golfer Jack Nicklaus even cured a bad playing streak by figuring out in a dream that he was holding his club all wrong
16. You're more likely to have negative dreams than positive ones
Psychology Facts About Dreams: here's a dream we've all had you're really stressed out and upset because you can't seem to finish something because there are too many obstacles getting in the way a lot of former waiters confess that they still have dreams where they can't reach their tables to take some guests orders it's a terrible feeling to wake up from an anxious dream like this but there unfortunately much more common than happy fun drinks in general the most frequently felt emotions and dreams are anxiety anger sadness and fear
17. You can control your dreams
Psychology Facts About Dreams: being able to control your dreams is something called lucid dreaming it's basically a combination of simultaneously being in a state of REM sleep which is when you dream and in a state of consciousnessthere's a whole club of people who engage in it and they've come up withall kinds of techniques you can use tocontrol your dreams for example you canenter your dreams while still beingawake which is called the wild or wakeinduced lucid dreaming method if you'reinto a less complicated soundingapproach you can also try countingbackwards from 100 while repeating anaffirmation like I'm going to have alucid dream as you drift off to sleep asfor why people try to achieve luciddreaming well isn't it obviousyou can do anything you want whether itbe flying passing through walls ortraveling to different dimensions andtimes if you're not sure whether or notyou're in a dream try reading somethingor telling the time most people can'tread texts or clocks in their dreamsbecause they look like gibberish in thedream world this trick will also helpyou start lucid dreaming right away tryyour best to remember this trick thenext time you go to bed and let me knowhow it goes
18. You only remember about 10% of your dream
Psychology Facts About Dreams: are you one of those people who just don't dream it all well many claims this it's far from the true reality is we all dream on average about four to seven dreams per night it's just that up to 60% of people don't remember them at all
19. Animals probably dream
Psychology Facts About Dreams: have you ever watched your pet wag its tailor move its paws as it was sleeping you probably assumed they were dreaming right turns out you may be right while science is still trying to figure this one out it's been proven that all animals experience cycles of REM and non-resleep and even show the same brain activity as humans do during dreaming my own dog not only moves his paws while dreaming but he also barks actually little Wolf's under his breath wakes me up all the same though
20. Cave paintings are a most likely prehistoric dream
Psychology Facts About Dreams: journals according to the complete book of dreams by Julia and Derek Parker some experts suggest that cave paintings are actually records of dreams cavemen probably recorded their dreams because they thought that what they had seen was some sort of a magical or divine message I have to keep that in mind the next time I dream about being chased kangaroos and clown suits yeah
21. Dreams are symbolic
dreams speak a very exclusive and symbolic language so they're rarely what they seem the Parkers complete book of dreams describes dreams symbolism in areally cool way saying every dream is a message from yourself to yourself expressed in a code that only you can learn to understand and interpret basically you are what you dream and only you can decipher all those absurd little movies playing in your head as you sleep
22. Blind people can dream visually
even if someone is blind from birth their dreams can be just as intense as a sighted person only there's one exception they involve all the other senses except sight as for blind people who lost their sight later on most still retain the memories of their sighted experiences and can still have visual dreams
23. Many dreams are universal across-culturally
some of the most common dreams are of being chased being attacked falling repeating an action over and over again being frozen with fear and being late for something contrary to popular belief or cliches dreams of flying or being naked in public isn't common
24. Men and women dream differently
according to psychologist and dream study expert dr. Patrick McNamara men and women don't dream a lot first of all men's dreams include other men about 70% of the time women's dreams however involve both men and women equally all these other men and the guys dreams are usually strangers and the atmosphere is much more aggressive women dream more about people they know in places they're familiar with sorry guys you win some you lose some
25. In dreams we only see faces that we've already seen before
speaking of strangers and dreams their faces are actual face as you've seen in real life you see our mind isn't as good as inventing faces as it is recognizing or remembering them so that random stranger who held a door open for you like eight years ago their face could have made it into one of your dreams by now
26. Dreams are good for your creativity
some experts say that dreams have no purpose at all while others believe they're essential to our emotional mental and physical well-being, in any case, they are an excellent way to reboot our creativity that's why a lot of people swear by keeping a dream journal not only could it potentially help you work through an issue or figure something out but you could be the next big inventorHeyit helped Tesla out remember
27. Your brain is more active when you're dreaming than when you're awake
you might think all of you resting at night but your brain is actually more active during sleep than when you're awake this boost in activity happens during the REM stage of sleep which is also considered paradoxical because while all this activity is going on in our brain and body our muscles become more relaxed and our voluntary muscles become immobilized speaking of which
28. You experience sleep paralysis during your dreams
among the many things that go on during REM sleep the most interesting is the combination of body paralysis and dreaming but it does make a lot of sense if you're running from something in a dream you won't be able to physically get up and run out of your bed if your body freezes itself it's like a built-in safety feature kind of like a seat belt
29. The brain can incorporate reality into dreams
if there's something happening around you while you'redreaming like drilling, for example, you might start dreaming that you're at the dentist getting a cavity filled whoa to talk about an anxiety-inducing dream yep your brain is capable of pulling in a completely unrelated piece of reality and making sense of it in a dream
30. You can thank TV for the fact you dream in color
studies were done from 1915through the 1950s researchers found that the vast majority of people only dreamed in black and white but everything changed in the 1960s and people slowly started dreaming in color a lot more scientists believe that this could be attributed to the invention of color television so is there something or someone you dream about often
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