Dreams are Our Allies, Even if We Don’t Remember Them
Dreams create the link between our subconscious and conscious mind and can affect our emotions and thoughts after waking up.
We spend a third of our lives sleeping. There are four stages in sleep: deep, light, waking and REM, meaning rapid eye movement or the dream state. REM happens around 20 to 25 percent of a normal, 7 to 8 hour sleep period and goes through 3 to 5 cycles each night. Each REM episode becomes longer as the night progresses, with around a 90 minute total before waking.
Deep sleep is a physically restorative state when our muscles repair and cells regenerate. This state precedes REM and during it, our heart and respiratory rate decreases.
When we enter dreaming REM, our heart rate and blood pressure rise to a semi awake level. Respiratory rate speeds up and can become erratic, according to our dream’s content. Our brain consumes more oxygen and it’s activity increases to an almost awake level. This state is when new learnings from our day are committed to memory. It’s also when we are most likely to retain information or messages from dreams and bring them to a conscious, awake plane.
The other day I was searching through bookshelves for a particular book when I came across the…
