Lately I have been wondering about dreams. What do they mean, what do they hide?Someone once told me that it is your spirit traveling outside your body. However, I thought that was silly, then I started to wonder, could it be? Besides, I probably dream every night, though, it is really hard to remember what you dreamt. Then, I asked myself, why do we dream? Where do they come from?
So, I went ahead and researched a little about dreams.
I found out that in earlier civilizations people used to believe that dreams were an alternative world, another place where one could enter when in the state of sleep. Others believed it was the departure of the soul from the body, or the split of soul and body. Well, this is the past, what is it that experts believe now?
Well, different people have different ideas about dreams. According to Freud, dreams are a desire. Something you lodge for. However, other people think that these are memories or of our brain trying to solve problems.
Anyway, I also found out that dreaming is likely to occur in your deepest state of sleep(REM sleep). This doesn't mean that you won't dream during a light sleep stage, but that it is very less likely. There were some studies made not so long ago (1960) that showed what happens when you don't have any or enough REM sleep. It was found that people tend to gain appetite, irritability, and lack of concentration. So I suppose, everyone needs a lot of sleep!!!
Now, when you think that you didn't have any dreams, are you right? Actually, I was really surprised by this, but that is incorrect, you dream A LOT over one night. Well, maybe not that much, but several times a night. Actually, the average time that a person spends dreaming in a lifetime is 6 YEARS!!
Okay, so if we dream so much, why cant we remember? Well, experts have found that 5 minutes after you have had a dream, you will have forgotten 50 % of that dream. Ten minutes after, you will have forgotten 90%. L. Stumpell believed that the fact that dreams are vague and unique in their own way, it makes it harder to remember plus really EASY to forget. Another reason is because most of the time dreams are not repeated.
There are some things that could be done to help you remember your dreams. Here are some tips I found around the web:
- Tell yourself that you will remember your dreams before you go to sleep.
- Keep pen and paper so you can write down your dreams when awakened.
- Set an alarm every 1 or 2 hours. Wake up, and write your dream down. (it is more likely that you will forget by morning) - I will try this, and experiment a little. Ill let you know my results by the end of next week.
- First thing you do when you wake up is rethink about your dream. Don't move, forget everything else and focus on your dreams, and make sure you write them down because you will probably forget after 10 minutes.
Okay, so I guess this is for now. Try doing this, and let me know how it goes. Did you remember anything important? Are your dreams interesting? Did this help?
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