12 Mind-Blowing Facts about Dreams
How much do you know about dreams? Whether or not we remember them, we dream every single night and some of the facts about dreams are truly astonishing.
Our dreams can be insightful, mind-opening, spiritual, exciting, terrifying or just plain weird. Many people believe that during sleep, just like a light switch our brains completely switch off. However, this is not the case and in fact, it is quite the opposite.
Our brains are still frantically working, probably trying to make sense of this crazy world and in the process we experience dreams. Here are 15 amazing facts you should know about dreams:
1. Most dreams are forgotten
Everybody dreams, both adults and babies. Roughly we dream for around 2 hours a night. During our lifetime we dream for approximately 6 years in total!
However, as much as 95% of these dreams are forgotten quickly after wakening. Think about all the crazy dreams you’ve had recently, they only account for 5%! Imagine the craziness we’re missing out on in all those other dreams.
One reason for forgetting all these dreams may be because the changes in the brain that occur during sleep do not support the information processing and storage needed for memory formation to take place.
2. REM sleep is when all the action takes place.
The majority of our dreams, approximately 80% happen during rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep, these dreams tend to be the most vivid ones and therefore the ones we remember the most.
REM occurs in short episodes throughout the night about 90 to 120 minutes apart.
3. Not everyone dreams in colour
Around 12% of the population dreams in black and white. It is believed that it is usually the older generations who dream in black in white because they have been exposed to more black and white television/movies. Whereas today’s younger generation are used to screens decorated in colour.
4. You become paralyzed
During REM sleep most of your muscles become paralyzed to prevent you from acting out your dreams. Basically, because motor neurons are not stimulated during a dream, your body can’t move.
5. All the faces in your dreams are familiar ones
As crazy and potentially creepy as this may sound, everybody who features in your dreams, you have seen at one stage during your life.
It makes sense that friends and family commonly appear in our dreams. But all those other seemingly unfamiliar faces you have come across in your life at one stage, even if it was just walking past them on the street.
This is because dreaming occurs in the unconscious part of our mind, which is unable to construct new faces.
6. Weird is normal
The reason why your dreams can be so weird is because the part of the brain that is responsible for making sense of things shuts down during dreaming
7. Sleep position matters
Our dreams can be directly influenced by the position you sleep in. For example, you are more likely to dream about sex when sleeping face down.
8. Men and women dream differently.
Men’s dreams are more inclined to include negative emotions and aggression, while women’s dreams are more likely to contain positive emotions and friendly interactions. However, women experience nightmares more often than men.
9. Dreams can predict the future.
Some believe that our dreams are a precursor to potential future events. There are many instances recorded where people have dreamed about an event before it actually occurred.
A famous one was Abraham Lincoln, who told his family he had a dream he was going to be assassinated weeks before it happened.
10. Blind people can dream visually
In a study of people who have been blind since birth, researchers discovered that they still seemed to experience visual imagery during their dreams.
11. You can control your own dreams
Lucid dreaming is when you become conscious and aware that you are in a dream whilst the dream is ongoing. It’s thought to be a combination of consciousness and REM sleep, when this occurs you have the ability to direct the dream and control what’s happening.
There are techniques you can avail of to increase the likelihood of having a lucid dream.
12. The craziest fact of all
Researchers, scientists and psychologists don’t know for certain why we dream or what purpose it serves, even though we’ve been trying to figure it out since the beginning of time.
We know more about the state of the earth millions of years ago than we do about our own minds.
