We may not remember our dreams, but everyone is thought to dream between 3 and 6 times
per night with each dream lasting between 5 and 20 minutes.
These stories and images that our minds create as we sleep can be entertaining, romantic,
disturbing, frightening, and sometimes downright bizarre.
There has been a lot of research looking into dreaming, so we can understand what’s going
on in the depths of our subconscious whilst the lights are out.
What are the factors that influence our dreams and do we have anything to do with them?
These are some of the topics we’ll be exploring today, in this episode of The Infographics
Show - How Can You Control Your Dreams?
Around 95 percent of dreams are forgotten by the time you get out of bed, yet dreaming
can help you learn and develop long-term memories, and blind people dream more than people with
sight do.
So how much control do we have over the dreaming process?
Before we answer this question, let’s first take a look at why dreams happen in the first
place.
No one knows for sure why we dream but there are several theories which include: dreams
representing unconscious desires and wishes; dreams interpreting random signals from the
brain and body during sleep; and dreams consolidating and processing information gathered during
the day.
Whatever the reasons, dreaming is a vital part of maintaining a healthy mind and in
one study, when researchers woke subjects just as they were drifting into a dream state
they found negative effects of not dreaming that included increased tension, anxiety,
depression, difficulty concentrating, lack of coordination, weight gain, and even hallucinations.
So whether good, bad, or crazy dreams, they are all important.
We often wake up from a dream, remember it instantly and then it’s gone.
But when do dreams actually happen?
Was it really happening in our mind just before we woke up?
There are actually 5 sleep cycle phases:
Stage 1 is known as light sleep, where your eye movement slows down and muscle activity
is reduced.
At stage 2 the eye movement stops all together and brain waves become slower, with occasional
bursts of rapid waves called sleep spindles.
This stage forms as much as half of your total sleep.
At Stage 3 the brain waves are extremely slow, and what are known as delta waves start to
appear.
At stage 4, the brain produces pretty much only delta waves.
This stage is what we know as "deep sleep."
There is no eye movement or muscle activity.
If you wake someone who is at this stage they may feel disoriented until their consciousness
is back online.
And stage 5 is known as rapid eye movement or REM.
Breathing is faster, irregular, and shallow, and the eyes jerk rapidly in various directions.
Heart rate increases, and blood pressure rises.
This stage accounts for about 20% of all sleep time and when people start to wake during
REM, they often remember their dreams.
So can you control this REM state and more importantly the bizarre mind activity that
comes with it?
The simple answer is yes, and it’s known as lucid dreaming.
It’s the ability to know you’re dreaming while you’re dreaming.
A lucid dreamer is able to go to sleep at night, and wake up within a dream.
Once lucid, they can explore and even change elements of the dream.
Most of us have had this happen a little but usually by accident and only for a few seconds,
but when a person purposefully enters a state of ludic dreaming, they have far more control.
And recent research at the University of Adelaide in Australia has found that a specific combination
of techniques can increase a person’s chances of having lucid dreams.
Psychology Professor Dr Denholm Aspy's study involved three groups of participants, and
investigated the effectiveness of three different lucid dream induction techniques:
1.
Reality testing – This involves checking your environment a number of times each day
to see whether or not you're dreaming.
2.
Wake back to bed – For this you are woken after 5 hours and remain awake for a short
period, before going back to sleep so you can enter a REM stage, where dreams are more
likely to occur.
3.
And MILD which stands for mnemonic induction of lucid dreams – This also involves being
woken after 5 hours of sleep but developing the intention to remember that you are dreaming
before returning to sleep, by repeating the phrase: "The next time I'm dreaming, I will
remember that I'm dreaming."
There were 47 people involved in the study and they achieved a 17% success rate with
controlled lucid dreams.
Among those who were able to go to sleep within the first five minutes of completing the MILD
technique, the success rate of lucid dreaming was much higher, at almost 46% of attempts.
The results could have been more impressive explained Aspy, saying, "Reality testing is
practiced throughout the day, and even though you're forming that intention, when you go
to sleep there's still a gap between when you last do a reality test."
Ok, so that’s a controlled environment but surely there are some simpler ways to have
an influence over our dreams?
The Huffington Post had some suggestions in an article on Lucid Dreaming.
These included keeping a dream journal so you can start to identify the patterns of
your dreams.
For example, you might have a frequent dream about your pet, the ocean, schools or even
snakes.
Once you identify those personal dream signs, they will become landmarks when you enter
a dream state, which will give you more of an opportunity to become lucid and in control.
Also try asking yourself the question, “Am I dreaming?”
throughout your day.
By repeating the mantra you will begin to ask the same question while in a dream and
again you’ll be more likely to take control whilst dreaming.
Are
you already able to control your dreams?
Let us know in the comments.
Also be sure to check out our other video, How to fall asleep in 60 seconds!
Thanks for watching and as always, don’t forget to like share and subscribe.
See you next time!