Let’s begin with the famous quote by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, “Dream is not which you see while sleeping, it is something that doesn’t let you sleep”. But here we will be talking about dreams which we see while sleeping. Dreams have perpetually been an engaging and captivating topic for researchers and psychologists. Isn’t it?
We all have dreams, some funny, some scary or some are just strange and have no logic or relation with reality. We have also seen that many times we completely forget our dreams as soon as we wake up. There are so many amazing and fascinating facts about dreams. Here we have mentioned some which will surprise you for sure.
Interesting facts about dreams
1. In the Mandukya, Upanishad, which is a part of Veda scriptures of Indian Hinduism, out of 3 states that soul experiences during its lifetime dream are one and other two are waking state and sleep state.
2. The Dream word is believed to be derived from the old English word Dream which means Joy, mirth, or music.
3. 88% of people dream in colors and 12% people dream in black and white. And the majority of people chose soft pastel colors that appeared in their dream.
4. One more hypothesis is elderly people above the age of 55, dreamt in Black and white about 25% of the time. Scientists believe that this is because of the exposure to black and white television more than the colored ones.
5. One hypothesis is that dream regulates mood. An interesting fact about dreams is, In the Hall study the most common emotion which was experienced in dreams was anxiety, followed by emotions like abandonment, anger, fear, joy, and happiness. This is clear that negative ones are much more common than positive ones.
6. One crazy fact about dreams is that external factors, even good or bad smell can play an important role in positive and negative thoughts
7. The longest dream duration is 45 minutes and that usually occurs in the morning.
8. When someone dreams about being lost in a house, signifies their inability to decide a clear direction in life proposed by fourth-generation psychic medium Linda Lauren.
9. Blind people see images in their dreams.
10. Seeing oneself naked in dreams means feeling vulnerable or unprepared. Sometimes it means freedom and a sense of a new beginning, it depends on the things which are happening in the dream
11. Like humans Birds also have REM that suggests they also dream. Reptiles too may dream.
12. Fishes don’t dream.
13. You can have four to seven dreams in one night, well that’s a lot.
14. Our best sleep happens between the age of 8 to 10 years old, according to psychology today, and then it worsens from here.
Physiological facts about dreams
15. We spend one-third part of our life sleeping ie. in normal lifespan people spend an average of 6 years dreaming.
16. Most of the time we dream about the people or situations or thoughts linked to the previous day or two.
17. During REM sleep most of the muscles in the body become paralyzed so that we don’t act on our dreams. This is a good thing as we know one can dream the nastiest things possible.
18. Men and Women are different in so many aspects be it Physically or the way they perceive things. There is a significant number of differences in the way of the things about which they dream. Although according to research, approx 4% of men and women dream about sex.
19. Men dream about sex with multiple partners two times more than women’s and women are twice as likely to sex dream about public figures compared to men.
20. A study shows that sleep position also matters in the type of dream one sees. You’re more likely to dream about sexual things if you sleep face down. It can also be associated with dreams about being locked, being naked, or swimming, etc.
Psychological facts about dreams of someone
21. One study published in Frontiers of Psychology found a link between dream recall and the brain matter density of the medial prefrontal cortex(MPFC). It was reported that participants with higher white matter density found out to have higher dream recall.
22. In several studies, it is found that men reported dreaming about weapons more than women while women dreamt about clothing more than men.
23. Another study suggests that men dream about aggressive and physical activity types of things whereas women dream about feminine stuff or more conversational things.
23. One study showed that women tend to have longer dreams that feature more characters than typically appear in dreams, men dream about other men twice as often as they do about women while women dream equally about both the sexes.
24. A mind-blowing fact about dreams is If you are stress-free, healthy, and content in life you are less likely to dream or you will have happy dreams.
25. A sleep eating disorder is also real. Commonly know as SRED. It involves involuntarily eating or drinking. While few people don’t remember anything others are completely aware.
26. According to psychological facts, the inability to fall asleep at night means someone is dreaming about you.
27. According to Stanford University we likely only dream about faces we’ve already seen in person or tv.
Scientific facts about dreams
28. The Scientific study of dreams is called oneirology.
29. Sigmund Freud was the one who developed the psychological discipline of psychoanalysis and wrote about dream theories and their interpretation in early 1900.
30. We dream during REM ie. Rapid eye movement is the time our brain is highly active in particularly the forebrain and midbrain.
31. According to a study 95% of the time, we forget our dreams as soon as we wake up. The reason behind this is explained by an experiment ie. when a Brain scan of a sleeping person was taken it was shown that the frontal lobes which are responsible for memory formation are inactive in REM.
32. Babies are the most adorable souls that you can’t deny but when we talk about babies they spend almost half of their sleep dreaming that’s why you can often catch a toddler smiling or suddenly start crying while sleeping.
33. Most people might have experienced that during the night time, many external stimuli may try to disturb the senses but the brain often interprets the stimulus and makes it a part of a dream to ensure continue sleep.
34. A lucid dream is one in which you are aware that you are dreaming even though you are still asleep in a way you can control or direct your dream. It is a combination of Consciousness and REM sleep.
35. Doctoral research reported in 2009 by psychologist Jennie Parker alumni of the University of West of England suggests that women’s dreams can be categorized into 3 types of dreams fearful dreams, dreams about the loss of dear ones, or just confused dreams.
Creepy facts about dreams
36. We could have written about sex dreams as a separate heading. Nevertheless, Men aren’t the only ones who have wet dreams, women can release vaginal fluids from arousal and even orgasm when they have a sexual dream. Most sex-related dreams are about intercourse.
37. If you have Nightmares very often so much so that it is affecting your ability to function, you may have a condition called Nightmare disorder.
38. Sleep paralysis is in simple words it is the inability to move when you are in a state between sleep and awake.
39. It is also said that women who have nightmares during pregnancy have easier births than those who don’t.
40. A common dream in women is struggling to get a bathroom, According to Elisa Robyn Ph.D., an academic dean and prosperity astrologer, this is because they usually have to deal with so much at a time or they can’t let go of feelings.
41. There is a sleep disorder called REM sleep behavior disorder which causes people suffering from this disease to act their dreams sometimes with Violent thrashes, kicks, or screams. These signs should not be avoided as they can be an early sign of brain disorders like Parkinson’s disease or dementia.
Scary facts about dreams
42. A scary fact is a medication such as antidepressants and narcotics also affects the frequency of nightmares.
43. Children mostly dream about encounters with animals or monsters, falling, being chased by something, or physical tension.
44. Kids have more nightmares between the ages 3 and 6 and it gradually decreases after the age of 10.
45. Our elders always advise us to sleep early they have their logic but night owls are more likely to have Nightmares than others.
46. Your dream can be affected by whether you smoke or are in depression or surrounded by negative feelings.
47. The Raramuri of northern Mexico believes that dreams are the result of one’s soul waking or sobering and it is the time that we see the world more clearly than usual. There is also a practice in Raramuri families in which they wake up and discuss their dream in the night.
48. Animals might not experience dreams as we Humans do ie. they may not wake up, recall images or attach a story to dream.
49. No One can hear your scream when you’re having a nightmare, because you can’t scream or for that matter move.
50. If nightmares have no obvious cause doctors recommend good sleep hygiene, and someone is becoming scared to sleep and nothing seems to be helping they should professionals help.
While there is still a debate that whether our dreams mean something or serve no function. Several theories that exist in our dreams mean some of them are Psychoanalytic theory, Activation – synthesis theory, and Continual- activation theory. Which are a whole lot of different concepts alone.
Experts may not have agreed to one solid postulate about dreams but we are very much sure that we all dream and it is best this way. There are so many things to be discovered about dreams till then keep dreaming !!