20 Interesting Facts About Dreams
“Dreams can come true,” at least according to Gabrielle. Whether that’s fact is up for debate, but what we do know about dreams is really quite eye-opening. There are some very interesting facts about dreams that you probably aren’t aware of.
Everyone dreams, it’s just that we don’t always remember what it is we were dreaming about when we wake up. They can be horrible nightmares, pleasant experiences, and even sexy if you end up having a wet dream.
They are a normal part of sleep and have been happening as far back as the Mesopotamian times when the civilization based many of their decisions on dreams. The Romans thought they were messages from the gods, advising mortals on how to live their lives. Even today, nobody is really quite sure why we dream or what to make of them, although recent studies seem to point to dreams as being a way for us to process emotions.
One thing that is for sure is that there are many interesting facts surrounding dreams, what they mean, how we interpret them, and why they can often turn into nightmares. So read on and discover 20 facts that will blow your mind.
20 Interesting Facts About Dreams
1. You Forget 90% of Your Dreams
How often do you wake up from a dream and have no recollection of what you were just dreaming about? Well, the answer is about 90% of the time. After being awake for five minutes you forget half your dreams, ten minutes later and you’ve forgotten 90%.
The two main reasons for this are both evolutionary. If cavemen dreamt about jumping off a cliff when chased by a lion to survive, if they did that in real life they would probably end up dead, so the quicker dreams are no more the better it is for your life. The other theory put forward by Francis Crick (one of the co-founders of DNA) asserts that dreaming is a way to unclutter the mind and get rid of useless memories.
2. Dreams Are More Visual Based
If you remember your dreams, you’ll probably remember images or things that happened. But what about sound? While there can be sound in your dreams, it’s normal voices rather than anything else. Studies show that auditory experiences are very rare and it’s all about the visuals.
3. Blind People Dream
Of course they do. Just because they can’t see doesn’t mean they can’t imagine things while sleeping. While they obviously don’t dream in color as people with perfect vision do, their dreams are believed to be quite vivid. They also have nightmares too.
4. Sex Dreams Aren’t That Common
While you have more likely than not experienced a sex dream in your life, they are much rarer than you might think. Research by Science Daily found that just 4% of people have sex dreams. Most people that remember their sex dreams don’t have a lot of details to share, besides their dreams featuring a bit of sex and foreplay, like kissing and touching. There isn’t much emotion in these dreams.
5. Everybody Dreams
Facts about dreams don’t come much more obvious, but some of you might be surprised to know that everybody dreams. Every man, woman, and child dreams. If you think you aren’t dreaming, it’s because you have forgotten your dreams. Dreams can be about anything, from a weird lucid dream to a sex dream.
6. REM Is When We Have the Most Vivid Dreams
Rapid eye movement sleep (or REM sleep) is a unique phase of sleep where there is lots of rapid eye movement, even though you’re asleep. Your entire body goes through a period where everything is less responsive. It is during these moments of REM sleep that we have our most vivid dreams.
Some say REM is important to survival during sleep although the precise function is still not known. The general consensus is that it helps with retaining memories. although there are many other theories behind the reason for REM sleep. Bottom line; it makes dreaming much more fun, as a ludic dream is more enjoyable than a nightmare.
7. Your Muscles Are Paralyzed While You Dream
As strange as it sounds, while you are experiencing REM sleep, your muscles are paralyzed. This is to stop you from acting out your dreams, which could result in you falling out of bed and severely hurting yourself, which isn’t a good thing.
8. Waking Up With an Erection Has Nothing To Do With Sex Dreams
Morning wood is something that most men experience. Known as nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT), it actually has nothing to do with thoughts of sex or lusty feelings. It is more likely due to a hormone shit or brain relaxation. Men of all ages can wake with a hard-on, from young boys to adults and elderly gents. You can experience anywhere between three to five erections during your sleep. Although those who suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED) are less likely to wake up with a hard on.
9. You Only See Faces of People You Have Seen Before
You might think that limits the number of people who can pop up in your dreams, but just remember that along with family, friends, and celebrities, any face you have looked at during your life can make an appearance in your dreams. So there are thousands of people who might make an appearance, you just won’t remember that you glimpsed them on the subway when you were nine years old.
10. Not Everybody Dreams in Color
Around 12% of people only dream in black and white. Everybody else has visual dreams in color. Early studies concerning dreams believed that most people saw visuals in black and white, but these days only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. You can blame color TV for that.
11. You Dream More in the Morning
This is when you experience REM more often than not, so if makes sense you would have more dreams during this period of time.
12. Women Also Have Wet Dreams
It’s not just men who wake up wet and sticky after an erotic dream. Women can also have wet dreams. While there isn’t as much research into women’s wet dreams, what is known is that they can have them at a young age and the secretion from the vagina isn’t as messy as that from the penis, so many women might not even know they have had a wet dream.
13. Reoccurring Dreams Mean Something
If you find yourself waking up from the same dream over and over again, there’s probably a reason why. Reoccurring dreams are said to manifest from unresolved problems or traumas in your personal life. Until you work out what they are and fix them, you will continue to have the same dream over and over again.
Some of the most common types of reoccurring dreams include falling, being chased, drowning, and monsters or animals coming after you. The interpretation of these dreams differs for everyone. It’s something you have to work out yourself or by seeing someone who is an oneirologist, which is a person who studies dreams.
See more about - 10 Creepy Scary Drawings and Paintings That Will Give You Nightmares
14. Dreams Are Strange for a Reason
Not for some psychological reason, but biological. The part of the brain responsible for making sense of everything shuts down when you are sleeping, so when you dream, things are often disjointed and a little weird.
15. What You Experience During the Day Impacts Your Dreams
It makes sense that things you did during you day before you hit the hay are what you end up dreaming about. As these events and moments are fresh in your mind, they make perfect fodder for your brain once you fall asleep. So try your best to not let what has happened during your day affect you so you can have pleasant dreams.
16. People Who Are Anxious Dream More Negatively
This is another interesting fact that makes a lot of sense. If you are suffering from anxiety in your daily life, it’s going to carry on in your dreams. Negative emotions result in negative dreams. If you carry stress and negativity into your sleep, you are more likely to have a bad dream.
“Our dream emotions are not just a totally random creation of our brains and minds, but they are related to our waking ill-being and well-being,” Pilleriin Sikka of the Turku Brain and Mind Center at the University of Turku told PsyPost. “Those who are more anxious in their waking life also experience more negative emotions in their dreams, whereas those who have more peace of mind while awake have more positive dream emotions. This also means that the content of dream reports may reflect a person’s mental health.”
17. Sleep Paralysis Is a Thing
As scary as it sounds, many people experience sleep paralysis. While the body often stops moving during REM sleep, it can occur at any time while you are sleeping. Sometimes this happens on a much stronger scale, which is known as sleep paralysis. This impacts 8% of people. Those who experience this often are awake but can not move, which is as terrifying as it sounds. 75% of sleep paralysis episodes also involve hallucinations, which is not ideal.
18. You Are More Likely To Have Sex Dreams Sleeping On Your Stomach
If you really want to be having more sex dreams, with the possibility of waking up wet and sticky down below, sleep on your stomach. A study from a few years back by Hong Kong’s Shue Yan University researcher Calvin Kai-Ching Yu found the people participating in his research had more sex dreams lying face down. The only bad thing is that you are also more likely to pinch a nerve and wake up with a sore neck or a headache.
19. Kids Have More Nightmares Than Adults
This is another dream fact you are probably not that surprised to learn. As a kid, there are many more things to be scared of, especially as you don’t really know how bad it gets as an adult. An estimated 10% – 50% of children aged 3-6 years have nightmares, which is quite a lot of kids.
While there isn’t a nailed-down reason why a child might have a scary dream, there are many factors that contribute to nightmares, including childhood trauma. The good news is most kids stop having nightmares once they reach ten years old. Although some kids’ nightmares evolve into night terrors.
These generally happen during the first third of a child’s sleeping when they are in a deep sleep. The thing to remember is to not wake a child during these episodes, as they are still asleep. You just need to be there ready to comfort them when they wake. If these night terrors continue it’s best to see a doctor.
20. You Can Learn To Control Your Dreams
Become the master of your own dream world by learning to control your dreams. Just don’t expect to have Freddy Kruger-level powers that allow you to enter other people’s dreams. When you have a lucid dream, which is a dream where you are more aware of the fact that you are dreaming, you can manipulate what is going on.
What influence you can have on your dream varies, but it is often seen as a good thing as it gives you the chance to change the narrative, especially if your lucid dream is turning into a nightmare. Dr. Denholm Aspy at the University of Adelaide in Australia specializes in lucid dreaming and explained his thoughts to Medical News Today.
“If you can help someone who’s having nightmares to become lucid during that nightmare,” he said, “then that gives them the ability to exert control over themselves or over the nightmare itself.” He went on to say that “Some people take on superpowers or special abilities, [so] they can fight back against the attacker. And then you can also try to escape, so things like flying away, or even doing techniques to deliberately wake up from the nightmare.”
See more about - 15 Haunting Photos Taken Before Disaster Struck