What determines who you see in your sleep?
What inventions have come from the imaginative realm of the dreaming?
Find out as we look at Amazing Facts About Dreams.
#12 Lost To Memory Have you ever been woken up in the middle
of a wondrous dream only to go right back to bed, try to pick up where you left off,
and suddenly come up short?
Well, you’re certainly not alone.
Studies have shown that people tend to forget between 90 and 95 % of all their dreams!
The brain is incapable of processing and retaining the memories of these dreams as the frontal
lobes, where memories are formed, are inactive during Rapid Eye Movement, or REM, when dreams
occur.
#11 Illiterate Slumber Whether strolling past street signs or flipping
through a novel, you might have a bit of a hard time remembering anything you read while
dreaming.
That’s because you most likely didn’t read anything at all.
When the mind enters a dreamstate, the portions of the brain meant for processing logic and
utilizing intellect switches off.
This is what allows the mind to become a sporadic fantasy realm while sleeping.
But it also hampers our ability to derive the meaning of symbols we know, like numbers
and letters.
Should you be able to induce lucid dreaming though, which is a mindstate in which you
can actually exert some control over your dreams, you may find yourself nose deep in
a novel.
But even then, you still won’t actually be reading.
Instead, when you go to read a book or billboard in your dreams, you’re most likely interpreting
a message from your subconscious rather than actual text.
In the dream, what you read will make sense but in reality there’s little sense to be
made of the distorted message that appears.
#10 Black & White Dreams can be vivid, whimsical affairs, often
inspiring creativity and artistic thought.
Not everyone gets that magically vibrant encounter, however, as some people actually dream in
grayscale!
Currently, it’s said that around 12 % of people only have dreams in black and white.
The majority of people actually dream in soft pastel tones, strangely enough.
It wasn’t always like this, though.
In fact, it was the opposite.
Studies dating back over a century show that people between 1915 and 1950 mostly dreamed
in black and white.
But by the time the 1960s rolled around, the tides would turn as more and more people began
to dream in color.
Research suggests this change of pace to come from the advent of color television and the
shift by many from the black-and-white TVs the world was used to.
To further support this theory, only 4.4 % of the planet’s under-25 population dream don’t
dream in color.
If the theory regarding the relation between dreams and television is correct, then it
would make sense for a generation that’s grown up with constant color screens to mostly
have brilliantly colored dreams.
#9 Gendered Dreams They say men are from Mars and women are from
Venus, and while this phrase may not be factually accurate, there is certainly a world of difference
between the dreams of these two genders.
While men tend to dream of aggressive, physical subject matter, women are more likely to dream
of conversations and themes of exclusion and rejection.
Studies show that women’s dreams include many more references to clothing than men,
who have a much higher probability of dreaming about weapons than their female counterparts.
Even the genders of characters throughout your dreams can shift depending on your own
gender.
Males are more likely to see other men while women maintain a more even split throughout
their dreams.
Women actually see more characters in their dreams than men do in general!
They also have slightly longer dreams on average.
These differences in dreaming are simply statistical, however, and don’t include all men and women
in their generalizations.
Thus, it’s still perfectly normal for a woman to dream of wielding a katana and a
man to visualize a lengthy conversation at the shoe store!
#8 REM Paralysis During rapid eye movement, or REM, people
experience a deep state of sleep in which the voluntary muscles of the body are paralyzed.
This depth of slumber only occurs for about 25 % of the sleep cycle, ranging between 90
minutes and 2 hours a night.
The motor neurons of the brain lack the stimulation required to use your body during this temporary
condition, effectively inducing paralysis.
This obviously isn’t an issue while fast asleep.
However, sometimes REM can continue once awoken!
Throughout this period, the body will remain unable to move while the mind is conscious
in a condition known as sleep paralysis.
The ordeal can be massively frightening, however after about 10 minutes at most, muscle control
should revert to normal according to experts.
#7 Blind Slumber The visual components of dreams are a highly
integral piece in expressing the concept of dreaming through media.
Stairways that twist horizontal, neon colors scintillating across the setting, and biological
oddities are all typical tools storytellers will use to translate the paradoxical chaos
of the dream state.
Imagine dreaming without the visuals though.
This is what people suffering from congenital blindness, or the lack of sight since birth,
were thought to have experienced for years.
A recent study, though, shows signs that these individuals may actually visualize concepts
in their dreams...they just wouldn’t know if they did.
There’s no way for a person who’s never seen a color to know what it is, and other
visuals fall into this same realm of recognition confusion.
Still, by comparing the REM occurring in the congenital blind and those that have gone
blind after birth, the movement was relatively the same and coincides with reports from both
groups that their dreams contained visual components.
#6 Symbolism Personal life experience is the driving force
behind your dreams, but research has shown that some dreams are universally shared.
Certain themes occur in the minds of most, no matter what age, location or other difference
a person might claim.
They can range from dreams involving public speaking, running late to an appointment,
or simply using the restroom.
But others are bit more extravagant, or worrisome, and all of them having some sort of underlying
meaning.
Dreams about flying, for example, are a double-edged sword as dreamers can either feel a sense
of freedom or fear as they soar at terrifying heights.
Experts say dreams of flying often represent a desire to escape from something weighing
you down in life, or can represent one’s own perceived independence.
It all depends on the dreamer and what they’re going through at that time.
#5 Emotional Experience Conceptually, dreams have a fairly positive
connotation.
They represent creativity, wonder, potential, and achievements.
Realistically, though, dreams can be a source of some incredibly negative emotions.
A wide range of feelings occur while sleeping, playing a major part in the course of a dream
and as such this detail has generated interest from sleep researchers.
One study, that took place over 40 years, collected dream data from 50 thousand college
students with the hopes of examining the emotions felt by the subjects, among other details.
The study found that the most common emotions experienced were all negative.
Feelings of anxiety, sadness, fear, and anger were all frequently reported, with sentiments
like compassion, happiness, and love all trailing far behind in the results of the study.
#4 Reality Incorporated The occurrences that come to pass within a
dream are often the result of the information loitering in the back of your mind, making
its way to the surface by strange means.
Yet odd mental stimuli aren’t the only variables that can alter dreams.
Any sensory disturbance that happens in the real world where you’re fast asleep will
have an effect on your dream too!
If a neighbor’s blasting music that can be heard through the wall, perhaps you’ll
dream of attending a concert.
If a roommate flips on a light switch, maybe your nighttime dream will suddenly switch
to dawn.
If you pass out with a donut in your mouth while on a road trip, as the driver drinks
a fresh-smelling cup of coffee...then you might just dream of being a police officer
on patrol!
No matter what sense is tantalized without disrupting your sleep, it will undoubtedly
wiggle its way into your dream.
Perhaps the most famous example of this is the old summer camp gag involving water and
a sleeping person’s fingertips...though we don’t suggest giving that one a try.
#3 Innovative Minds Flying pigs, a surprise vacation in space,
falling in love with a cactus...there are countless objects, events, and creatures that
may wander into your dreams.
There’s no way of knowing what will come to you once you fall asleep.
Sometimes it will be something ridiculous like the above-listed paradoxes.
And sometimes, it might just be something world-changingly realistic.
A number of the world’s greatest inventions have actually been developed from the dreams
of those who invented them!
One object constructed from dreams is the sewing machine, which came to be after inventor
Elias Howe dreamt of being impaled with a spear continuously until he noticed a hole
in the tip.
This led to his realization that a sewing machine needle would require the same.
Other inventions and innovations include Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Descartes’ Scientific
Method, the discovery of Benzene, Google, the song Yesterday by The Beatles, and the
concept of James Cameron’s Terminator franchise.
So pay close attention to your dreams, who knows when they’ll lead you to strike it
rich!
#2 Future Sight If you’ve ever dreamt of an event or experience
only to encounter a similar scenario days later, you might have had the glancing thought
that you’ve developed psychic powers.
And you wouldn’t be alone.
Studies have shown that anywhere between 18 and 38 % of the world’s population has apparently
experienced a precognitive dream, and around 70 % of people claim to have felt the strangely
familiar feeling of deja vu.
But these percentages, while impressive, don’t quite paint a full picture of reality.
Many of these supposedly clairvoyant visions are vague in nature.
Information leading up to major events are often publicized somewhere.
Details like this linger into the subconscious, so it’s probable that the idea of what is
to come is on the minds of many.
Combine that factor with the sheer billions of people across the world, and someone, or
even hundreds of people, will inevitably have a coincidentally fortune-telling dream preceding
an event.
Thus, these experiences are less likely the ability to see the future as they are the
product of pure, random chance.
#1 Familiar Faces The human brain is a powerful organ capable
of creating incredible things.
But equally as incredible and complex as the mind is the human face and all the possible
looks it might have.
Because of this, it’s pretty difficult for our brains to spontaneously generate faces
in our dreams.
This is why so often we will remember people we know or recognize appearing while we sleep,
sometimes engaging in strange foreign tasks.
Luckily, the average person witnesses hundreds of thousands of faces in their lifetime, giving
your brain a wide pool of resources to work with!
What are the strangest dreams you’ve experienced?
Let us know in the comment section below!