Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dreams

1. Cat Skyfire - November 14th, 2007 at 9:24 am

External Stimuli - I often have dreams wherein this annoying klaxon is sounding, and won’t go away. No matter what’s going on in the dream, there’s no way to turn it off.

When I do wake, it is to the sound of the alarm clock, the klaxon of my dream.

2. mix2323 - November 14th, 2007 at 9:27 am

i love dreams and i love to dream

3. michael - November 14th, 2007 at 9:34 am

regarding point 1 and 2. a lot of people who claim to be abducted by aliens (with all the probing and what-have-you) when they go through sleep analysis it turns out they have this condition that allows your eyes to be open during sleep, especially during REM sleep and while dreaming. I forgot the name of the condition, but because the body is immobile, and they are dreaming of being abducted by aliens or some such thing, it seems extraordinarily real to them. Because they are literally seeing their dream.

4. jfrater - November 14th, 2007 at 9:39 am

Cat Skyfire: I have the same thing happen with my alarm too - and as a kid when my mother would call me to get out of bed.

mix2323: I agree - it is especially cool when you can control your dreams.

michael: wow - that is amazing - I haven’t heard of that - I don’t think I would like it very much.

5. Martin L - November 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am

I can attest to Fact #3: I’m coming up on three years smoke-free (after 33 years as a slave to the noxious weed), and particularly over the past year, my dreams have been like successful collaborations by Lynch, Kubrick AND Spielberg. Very intense and vivid, full of interwoven plots in cities full of strange architecture where I know my way around perfectly. From my present standpoint, given the choice between tobacco and cool dreams, I’ll take the dreams, no contest.

6. jfrater - November 14th, 2007 at 9:42 am

Martin L: congrats on 3 years! I am a full time smoker and I have just decided never to quit - I enjoy it too much and it gives me a good reason to fight the anti-smokers

7. evan - November 14th, 2007 at 9:45 am

Michael its called sleep paralysis, I used to have it. The first couple times it was extremely freaky. You’re eyes are open and you’re somewhat aware that you’re awake but your dreams still continue in kind of a muted way. It’s like you’re awake and your dreams are taking place in your room and you’re still paralyzed and unable to move. Scary stuff, you get a distorted tunnel vision and hearing was weird/altered. Strange lights, images, sounds stuff like that, and again you try to move and can’t. You’re correct most doctors attribute UFO abductions and such as episodes of sleep paralysis.

8. smac - November 14th, 2007 at 9:45 am

My dreams tend to include supernatural or mythical beings - such as giants, living skeletons, and zombies. I guess this would be a common theme like those mentioned in #5. My dreams also tend to be quite violent. This used to freak me out, but I’m used to it by now.

I hope nobody thinks i’m too insane now. I’m only slightly crazy - i just have messed up dreams.

9. kristin - November 14th, 2007 at 9:46 am

someone told me that you were paralyzed when you sleep, but i didnt believe them until now, but that makes me wonder how do people sleep walk if they are paprlyzed?

10. dangorironhide - November 14th, 2007 at 9:51 am

I love having lucid dreams, its like daydreaming, but more a lot more realistic and fun. I can remember those dreams for ages after I wake up. Theres one I had years ago I can still remember.

Someone should do a list of ‘10 facts about lucid dreaming’ or something like that.

11. jfrater - November 14th, 2007 at 9:52 am

smac: that is interesting - I almost never dream of supernatural beings - in fact, I can’t remember a single dream in which I did.

kirstin: I would presume that they are not in the REM state when sleep walking - there are four stages of sleep - paralysis may not occur in all four stages.

12. dswissmiss - November 14th, 2007 at 9:54 am

Any references for #4? I think dream interpretation got a bad rep with Freud since his theories seemed to be based on complete guesswork (as were most of his theories IMO). I’d be interested to know what modern psychology has to say about this.
With regards to #1, I once woke up while my body was still paralized. I couldn’t move a muscle for about a minute…freaked me out!

13. Shane - November 14th, 2007 at 9:59 am

You are only paralyzed during REM sleep, during stages 1-4 muscles are still active. It is more true to say that you are paralyzed when you ‘dream’ because most dreaming is done in REM sleep. Some dreaming is done in the earlier stages however so even this is not completely true.

14. jfrater - November 14th, 2007 at 10:01 am

dswissmiss: I am not sure what modern psychology says, but I think that a lot of reputable people do consider that some of the symbols may be interpreted but probably only by the person dreaming - the method of which is not to interpret the dream itself, but the feelings elicited by the dream. I have also woken up while paralysed - it is an incredibly awful feeling - I think it is related to the feeling you sometimes get of needing to drag yourself out of a sleep.

15. jfrater - November 14th, 2007 at 10:06 am

Shane: ah - thanks for clarifying that

16. Shane S. - November 14th, 2007 at 10:16 am

I remember taking a nap in college and “waking up” still paralyzed. I could not tell if I was still dreaming, but dreaming about being stuck on a couch and not being able to move, or if i was actually awake enough to detect my surroundings, but was still paralyzed from dreaming. Either way, it scared the crap out of me! All I wanted to do was get up, but I couldn’t!

17. EAL - November 14th, 2007 at 10:24 am

A lot of times in my dreams, I slowly realize that I am dreaming because of some small detail that is different, and upon seeing this detail, I notice more and more things that aren’t right and that are pretty bizarre, and then my dream usually ends

18. Ravyn - November 14th, 2007 at 10:27 am

I love dreams. I used to remember them so well. I have recently been able to recall dreams more and more and keep a dream diary. Dreams are fun to decypher. You never know what you will get but most of the time when you figure it out you will know exactly what part of your life it is aimed at. I also tend to have “series” dreams where it’ll have a to be continued ending and then a few days or weeks later I will have the follow up dream. Like I have said before in another list, I tend to have prophetic dreams. Oh the dreams we dream….

19. Joel Wideman - November 14th, 2007 at 10:28 am

#3 contradicts #4. #4 is total BS anyway. Dreams are simply a side effect of the purging process the subconscious mind goes through. Making any sense of them whatsoever is your conscious mind trying to sort them out.
#10 is absurd as a fact. Yes, it’s true, of course. But why would lacking a certain sense mean you can’t dream? Not to mention that we dream with all our senses.
#7 Nope. A researcher recently spent an extended time without sleep, or any negative effects other than tiredness. He also avoided stimulants. It’s possible that the negative effects associated with sleep deprivation are due more to the method used to stay awake.
#6 isn’t the whole story. If it were true, human imagination wouldn’t exist. We create faces and such BASED on what we know, but we do a lot of mix and match.
#5 also is not the whole story. People who claim to dream exclusively in black and white only remember the dreams that were influenced by old television shows. They have many more dreams that are in color, they just don’t remember them. Much like people who claim not to dream at all.
Bonus: Yes, you can snore and dream at the same time.

20. TerranRich - November 14th, 2007 at 10:30 am

As for sleep paralysis, I used to be able to relax myself just before sleeping, to the point where I’d slip into sleep paralysis. It’s like this switch, where all of a sudden you’re in complete fear. You also sense a presence nearby, something ominous and evil. You also hear a weird light buzzing sound, and your vision is kind of… I don’t know, it’s like the contrast is turned way up. Pretty freaky stuff. I can’t do it anymore, mainly because after having a kid, I just want to sleep.

21. mix2323 - November 14th, 2007 at 10:36 am

TerranRich: i have the same problem when i sleep on my back i hate it

22. TravelerDante - November 14th, 2007 at 10:57 am

As a clinical psychology graduate, I can affirm what Joel said about #4. Dreams have no hidden meanings. The brain is simply firing off neurons in a seemingly random way in an attempt to form memories and give the conscious mind a rest, which is an organ just like any other that requires energy and rest to function properly. The concept of dream analysis did not even really exist in any form other than anecdotally before Freud, and most of the legitimate, modern psychological community now agrees that Freud’s theories were total bunk. Freud is hailed as the father of modern psychology not for the theories themselves, but for the method and thought processes he used to formulate conjectures.

23. bucslim - November 14th, 2007 at 11:05 am

I dream of Jeannie. I mean, some hot chick with a big rack that pops out of a jar and calls me master. She can get me things I really need, like an iPhone or some nachos, then pops back into the jar when Sportscenter comes on.

Err, what were we talking about?

24. carny666 - November 14th, 2007 at 11:07 am

#3, quitters, happened to me, just like the article says, 4 weeks after quitting I had a dream where I was smoking and wow did I feel guilty. #5 I think is kind of ridiculous, dreams are your imagination, if you dream you are wearing red pants you wake up remembering that, at that point try and remember what colour shirt you were wearing. If you are not focusing on it in a dream then it has no relavence and therefor not imagined or remembered.

25. MzFlyFemme - November 14th, 2007 at 11:56 am

Awesome Post! Definitely added a few wrinkles on my brain with this one.
I can definitely relate to #1. I have actually had a few nightmares where I am only partially aware that I am sleeping, however, when trying to wake myself up I realize that my arms, legs & torso are virtually immovable and do not respond to my mental thoughts. Thie 1st time it happend I was really scared and it brought my nightmare to a whole other level. But after I’ve experienced it a couple times I realize I just have to wait a few moments for my body and mind to catch up to one another…haha

26. chadster - November 14th, 2007 at 11:58 am

This isn’t fair… my dreams almost never make any sense. They are completely random, so much that i can’t even explain most of them. How can they prove 6 btw…

also my psych teacher in high school told us that when one dreams of the open ocean, it alludes to sexual fantasies for his or her mother?!?!

27. Charly - November 14th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

Jfrater: You said something about controlling your dreams. I think thats a little bit scary. That means that you are sleeping, but you are aware of what happens in your mind, so you are inside your own mind. What if then you can’t find a way out??? Maybe you can confuse the reality with your dream, and you think that your mind is the real world, and then you never wake up again….

SCAAAAAAAAARYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

28. jfrater - November 14th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

Charly: heh maybe I am The One?

29. DiscHuker - November 14th, 2007 at 12:32 pm

not to be a dissenter, but how can we know “facts” about dreams? we can speculate, sure. but facts…?

30. jfrater - November 14th, 2007 at 12:44 pm

DiscHuker: You are right - but it sounds better than “Top 10 currently accepted but occasionally disputed psychological opinions on dreams”

31. aplspud - November 14th, 2007 at 1:02 pm

I agree somewhat with DiscHuker, we can’t really know facts about dreams. Which means that the clinical psychologists with their fancy degrees really don’t know any more than anyone else. Its all speculation. More and more we find chemical responses that cause things like sleep paralysis, but what is really REALLY happening in the brain may always be a mystery.

Joel: If black and white dreams are based on television shows, does that mean that no one ever dreamed in black and white before television? Also, staying awake is not the same thing as being woken up constantly throughout the night. In addition, “one researcher” does not qualify as a theory buster.

TravelerDante: Dreams can definitely have a “hidden meaning” if the unconscious is pondering something that the conscious mind isn’t willing to understand. I agree that Freud’s one size fits all approach to dream interpretation has been basically disregarded, but that doesn’t mean that dreams are merely neurons firing off at random intervals.

My dreams are extremely linear and very often deal with something in my daily life that is troubling me. Of course, I sleep very poorly because my mind is almost never at rest. Every therapist I have ever seen has been amazed at how explicit my dreams are, how much I remember, and how much the are affected by my life.

Another note, that paralysis hormone is what is attributed to causing the sensation of having something or someone sitting on one’s chest upon waking, an experience that is traditionally blamed on Incubus (the demon, not the band).

32. deameree - November 14th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

How could item #6 be proven? I’d be fascinated to know…

(Seems to be you’d have to prove that nobody has ever invented a face in a dream. How do you prove billions of negatives?)

33. Joe - November 14th, 2007 at 1:18 pm

I talk in my sleep alot. I used to date this girl who would try to ask me questions when I did this to see if I was running around on her. I would inevitably wake up at some point in mid sentence with her looming over me hanging on my every word. She’d always be so ashamed at getting caught she would never tell me what I said.

Crazy far out girl was that one.

34. Xavier - November 14th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

Another example of how external stimuli invade our dreams, when your alarm goes off and it is incorporated into your dream as maybe a fire alarm or security alarm. So many time has this happened to me that I’ve switched my alarm to the radio (which is like having the radio talk host suggest to me what to dream about haha).

By the way, I love Dali.

35. evan - November 14th, 2007 at 1:23 pm

i often fall asleep with the tv on, so when i awak im usually dreaming about something related to whats on the tv. ie ill wake up while having a dream about being in WW2 and look at the tv and itll be saving private ryan or something on.
lately because of tivo, ive been waking up to a lame espn workout show lol.

36. benetnash - November 14th, 2007 at 2:33 pm

I have a lot of recurring dreams that I’ve had since I was a little kid, and they are the dreams I remember most…I still remember the original ones from when I was a kid.

And a few instances of outside stimuli…I often have dreams about trying to find a bathroom and I can’t find one or when I do find one, it’s usually a huge room with tons of tiny, unaccessible stalls or there’s no privacy and then, I wake up having to go real bad. There was also one time that in my dream I was being continually stung by a hornet in the palm of my hand and I couldn’t shake it off. When I woke up, my hand was pounding…I don’t know what was actually happening. And if I sleep in some way that my arms fall asleep (usually up across my head, or one might be under my side), in my dream, I have no arms…and that’s usually not what the dream is about, I just happen to not have any arms.

37. TravelerDante - November 14th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

aplsud: Tarot cards and horoscopes have hidden meanings too if you look hard enough for them and believe in that sort of thing. Just because you think your dreams are your unconscious mind pondering what your conscious mind isn’t willing to understand doesn’t mean it is. The best scientific evidence we have to date is murky on the subject, as dreams are highly individualized, often sharing common themes that we as humans in general have hard-wired into our brains but expressing those themes in entirely idiosyncratic ways; ergo, it is honestly impossible to objectively determine the answer to this question, so the answer comes to this: do you believe that your dreams have hidden meanings? Then they do. Good luck figuring them out. I for one don’t tend to believe in that kind of stuff. Our brains are organic computers, and IMO dreams are nothing more than the short-term memory banks cleansing themselves.

38. Kelsi - November 14th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

TravelerDante: “The concept of dream analysis did not even really exist in any form other than anecdotally before Freud, and most of the legitimate, modern psychological community now agrees that Freud’s theories were total bunk.”

That’s not true, many Native American cultures relied heavily on dream interpretation for many things.

Good list though. I dream frequently about being chased, and a new theme has been emerging involving my younger brother protecting or helping me. I have also dreamed about supernatural creatures, such as tiny mutant trees come to life, posessed multicolored cartoonish donkeys, and vampires. The vampire dream was really cool actually. =p I have never dreamed about riding that I can remember however, which is strange since it completely consumes my life.

I often have a LOT of trouble waking up to my alarm. This began over the summer and continues. I thought it was because I was used to it, so I used my cell phone, bought a new alarm clock, set two alarms, and so on. I frequently don’t remember my alarm going off the first time and wake up half an hour later afer hitting the snooze button several times. I should probably look up some information on this. It has caused me to miss class on more than one occasion, and I’m not sleep deprived.

39. amanda - November 14th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

Charly- I can also control my dreams. Just last night I changed a dream. My son was about to be killed, and I changed it. I don’t know how Ido it, but I do it often.

Traveler, my mother in law is a practicing neural psychologist, and she believes that dreams are a way for our unconscious to help us discover things about ourselves that we would otherwise ignore. For instance, I’ve had a reccuring dream for years about being trapped in a trunk underwater. There are fish and mermaids swimming all around me, some happy, some sad, some angry, and etc. After using me as a guinea pig for a psychological battery, she found that I have an emotional block. I prevent myself from experiencing emotions, and instead I just take a deep breath, and push them down. So is it just a coincidence that I’ve had dreams for years about being trapped underwater with emotions surrounding me?

40. Joel Wideman - November 14th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

aplspud, television certainly wasn’t the first source of black and white images. But unless you had seen such imagery - like, say, early photographs - how would you know what anything would look like without color? It is not naturally occuring.
People forget a great deal of what they dream. We dream many times throughout our sleep, and in fact have several separate dreams in the space of what we remember as one continuous dream. We remember only the most recent and most significant parts. Dreaming in black and white would definitely stand out, as it is so unnatural.
And I wouldn’t be so eager to dismiss clinical psychologists. After all, we barely understand physics and yet you don’t dismiss physicists, do you?
The discovery of one researcher - and I wish I could find the study so you’d understand it was a respected scientist and not some kid on a WoW bender - IS enough to suggest that what we know about sleep isn’t necessarily correct.
I’m not sure why you brought up staying awake vs having sleep interrupted.

41. Joel Wideman - November 14th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

Charly, I’ve never had that problem. I have lucid dreams. The whole point is that you’re aware you’re dreaming. The moment you forget that, you lose control. People who lucid dream on purpose have little tricks to remind themselves that they are dreaming. The hard part is staying in the dream, as lucid dreaming occurs in a mental state very close to being awake.
Lucid dreaming is probably even less understood than more typical dreaming. If it’s more effort, why do we feel more refreshed upon waking?

42. James - November 14th, 2007 at 3:25 pm

I used to dream of a house with monsters serially when I was a child, also had dreams where I battled the devil (yet I am not christian now) yet I can see patterns from those dreams repeating in my life (im 32 now). I had one recurring dream around age 6 or 7 where everyone in the world had gone crazy and had been taken over by a huge eye in the sky. If you looked at it, you were possessed by the eye. Me and this huge monster were running from the crazy people, the monster made a mistake of looking up in the sky at the eye and started bowing up and down then it came after me. I always awakened after this. Anybody have anything similar?

43. Arkz_Archduke_of_Geeks - November 14th, 2007 at 3:31 pm

.. is it a problem if i have lucid dreams without trying

44. Joel Wideman - November 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pm

Sorry for not getting these all in one really long post, but I’m addressing issues I get the email notice.
If you look at your dreams as expressing hidden thoughts, you’re looking at it backwards.
Sleep consists of several stages of consciousness. There’s the deepest stage, where no dreaming occurs. It’s complete downtime. It is impossible to wake directly from this state - your mind MUST go through higher stages to become awake.
There’s the next deepest stage, right below where dreaming occurs. Not much is going on here, but this is the place your mind rests between dream “snippets”.
The REM stage. This is where the subconscious mind is throwing out all the garbage, which generates all the stuff you remember as a dream. It is possible to wake up from here, and you won’t even remember what you were just dreaming because your mind wasn’t awake enough yet.
The semi-conscious stage. This is where your conscious mind looks at what your subconscious mind has been spewing and says “WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!?” Because your conscious mind is very literal, it tries to assign meaning to it. To the point where it will edit what you’ve been dreaming and try to suggest to the subconscious what it thinks it should see next. From here we can either wake up the rest of the way and remember the dream we just had, or go back down to the deeper stages.
The highest stage of sleep is actually full consciousness, though only aware internally, and we always pass through it on our way to waking up. Usually it’s so brief we don’t notice - one moment we’re dreaming, the next we’re awake - but it is possible to keep returning to this state before going back down for REM. That is lucid dreaming.
We bounce up and down through most of these stages repeatedly the entire time we’re asleep, even several times throughout a single dream. We stay in one stage or another for only a short time usually, but some stages we sort of hover in for a long time depending on where we are sleep-wise.
And we know all this because each of these stages coincides with brainwave activity, which we can measure. This explanation is a bit simplified, as there’s some more stages at the bottom end.

45. Joel Wideman - November 14th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

Arkz, only if for some weird reason you don’t want to have them. The rest of us wish we could have them without trying.

46. dswissmiss - November 14th, 2007 at 4:20 pm

I feel like most dream interpretation theories rest on this idea that you have an unconscious part of the brain separate from the conscious. I really think this should be questioned as there is no evidence for the existence of a fully reasoning subconscious brain. Just because your head is filled with memories you are not currently focusing on, does not mean that these thoughts are being mulled through and incorporated into your world at a subconscious level, no?
It just seems to me like another Freudian theory that stuck with our culture even though modern psychology has left it long ago. Not to be too negative though, I still think we should have an open mind about this.

47. Bryce - November 14th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

a lot of times when im dreaming and remember soudns from it i recognize them sometimes from commercials on tv from when i left it on when i slept. its weirddd

48. deedee0323 - November 14th, 2007 at 5:02 pm

It’s weird…sometimes when I have a nightmare or a sad dream, I start to tell myself in my dream that it’s a dream and I need to wake up…then I do!

49. Fallenangel - November 14th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

They say you can’t dream until you’ve reached the 15 minute REM phase, or something about there, but I have had vivid dreams with less than 9 minutes of sleep, my dear you haven’t touched on prophetic dreams, one that I am well familiar with.

50. Ashley - November 14th, 2007 at 5:22 pm

I used to have dreams when I was younger that I was really busting to go toilet… finally I made it to the bathroom but all of a sudden everything was warm and I had wet the bed… Lucky that one doesn’t happen anymore

Also, I used to sleep listening to the radio, one night I had a dream that I was in a radio ad!!

My boyfriend and I will sometimes wake up at about 4 or 5am and speak to eachother for a bit / go toilet and then go back to sleep. We agreed that after going back to sleep for that last hour or so we always have very vivid dreams.

Such an interesting topic..

51. aplspud - November 14th, 2007 at 5:50 pm

Joel: The study in #7 is about people being woken up repeatedly without the chance to dream. You were talking about someone just staying up. They are different. For instance, I know if I can only get 7 hours of sleep, I am going to be insanely irritable all day. But if I get 6 hours, or 8.5 or more hours, I’m fine. Probably because of where I’m being woken up in my sleep cycle. Likewise, if I just stay up all night, I’m usually ok the next day.
By scientific method, you’re partially correct that one dissenting study can mean the previous theory isn’t “necessarily correct” but it doesn’t mean the new study is correct either. And to have an experiment on only one subject without any control is usually discounted.
And I didn’t dismiss clinical psychologists. I was referring specifically to dream study. I’ve participated in many medical and psychological studies, as I am actually very scientific minded. But I think here are some things that are either beyond our understanding, or at least beyond what we can understand at this point in our evolution. I think its fascinating that we can measure brainwaves and make images of what is happening physically in the brain while dreams are occurring. But that doesn’t account for what makes up dreams, what the images are, where they come from.

52. aplspud - November 14th, 2007 at 6:00 pm

TravelerDante: The difference between Tarot and astrology and dreams is that in the former, one is taking an outside, physical element and attempting to match it up to certain behaviors and events in a person’s life. Dreams on the other hand are coming solely from within. Why did my brain create that story, image, event? I think we are interpreting “hidden meaning” in different ways. I’m not implying that everything one dreams has to be a symbol for something else. But I do think dreams are a way for our brains to grapple with something we are either struggling with in our life, or are unwilling or unable to process consciously. Sometimes. Not always. If its simply a reset of the short term memory, why, for instance, would I as an adult have recurring dreams about my elementary school? What kind of purging is that? But as you said, we can all believe what we want to believe.

53. marc - November 14th, 2007 at 6:03 pm

I have to take issue with calling these facts. I mean really can anyone know for sure?

#6 Only dream about what we know.. How was this verified? Have they analyzed every person in the dream and determined, somehow, that well yes they had seen them before?? What about creative works produced?

#3 Quitters have more vivid dreams..
Nicotine leaves your body after 3 weeks. All that remains is your idea, your thought about smoking. Checkout http://www.allencarrseasyway.com/

Carl Jung said - People you dream about signify those characteristics in yourself that they symbolize.

54. HollyTamale - November 14th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

Once in my pre-cal class, I had to go to the bathroom really bad but I fell asleep during the first five minutes of class and didn’t go. While I was asleep, though, I had a dream that I did ask to go and I was walking into the bathroom stall. I’m lucky that a really loud girl was sitting next to me and I woke up because i’m pretty sure I would have wet my pants.

55. Jack11 - November 14th, 2007 at 8:13 pm

Ok, I don’t remember who said what and I’m too lazy to look but anyways.

Whoever said you can’t dream in the deepest stage of sleep is wrong. The dreams in NREM sleep (Stages 1-4) “tend to be more like thoughts about daily occurences and far shorter than REM dreams.” (Foulkes & Schmidt, 1983; Takeuchi et al., 2003)

According to the Psychology book I have open in front of me, people do not necessarily have to go through the higher (or lighter) stages of sleep before awaking. Naturally, yes that happens, but you can awaken someone even if their in deep Non-REM Stage 4 sleep. The book does say they are more difficult to awaken, and upon awakening they are commonly disoriented and confused.

I don’t think anyone else has stated this (at least not clearly). The 4 stages of sleep and REM sleep comprise the sleep cycle, which is repeated 4 or 5 times throughout a single night’s sleep. A normal sleep cycle takes an average of an hour and a half, with Stage 4 sleep being longer in the beginning of the night and REM sleep being longer in the last part of the sleep period, just before awakening.

Awake
Stage 1 NREM sleep (Average 10 minutes)
Stage 2 NREM sleep (As long as 20 minutes)
Stage 3 NREM sleep (As long as 40 minutes, after the first stage 3 that is shorter than 40 minutes)
Stage 4 (As long as 30 to 40 minutes)
REM (A few minutes to an hour)

Now, going to the sleep deprivation argument going on right now. Here is what my textbook say has to say.

Sleep deprivation, or loss of sleep, is a serious problem, which many people have without realizing it. People stay up too late at night during the week, get up before they’ve really rested to go to work or school, and then try to pay off the “sleep debt” on the weekend. All of that disrupts the normal sleep-wake cycle and isn’t good for anyone’s health. Some typical symptoms of sleep deprivation include trembling hands, inattention, staring off into space, droopy eyelids, and general discomfort, as well as emotional symptoms such as irritability and even depression.

How serious is missing a few nights’ sleep? Sleep researchers conducted a study in which healthy adults between the ages of 21 and 38 were randomly placed in one of four restricted sleep conditions (Van Dongen et al., 2003). Participants began the experiment with at least three days of regular sleep and then were either allowed to get only four hours, six hours, or eight hours (this was the control group) of sleep each day for 14 days. A fourth group of participants was totally deprived of sleep (by being kept awake by the researchers) for three days in a row. Measurements of the participants’ cognitive abilities and physical alertness were taken every two hours during the scheduled “awake” times. The results showed that even in the six-hour sleep condition, participants’ abilities to function mentally and physically were as negatively affected as if they had been entirely deprived of sleep for two nights. All participants in the sleep-deprived and no-sleep conditions were seriously impaired in their functioning and were relatively unaware of the seriousness of the impairment. That the participants did not seem aware of their problems in functioning may account for the impression many people have that a few nights of poor sleep is not that serious. The results of this study seem to indicate that even moderate sleep loss is a serious problem.

The above is from the book “Psychology” by Saundra K. Ciccarelli and Gleen E. Meyer

56. jfrater - November 15th, 2007 at 12:58 am

Jack11: wow - thanks for going to the trouble to post all of that - very informative.

57. Joel Wideman - November 15th, 2007 at 1:30 am

Two questions, Jack11.
Aren’t the “dreams” in NREM usually forgotten?
You are disoriented after waking from stage 4, isn’t that because your brain is still getting through the other stages?

58. rbR - November 15th, 2007 at 5:38 am

Was wondering, do colorblind people dream exclusively without color?

59. jfrater - November 15th, 2007 at 5:56 am

rbR: color blind people generally can see color - just differently from non-color blind people. I would guess that they dream in the color set they see in real life.

60. Joel Wideman - November 15th, 2007 at 6:14 am

People who are colorblind see two different colors - red and green, for example - as the same color. An interesting phenomenon, which seems exclusive to women (which explains a whole lot) is that a small percentage of women can perceive a color the rest of us cannot.
And don’t even get me started on synasthesia.

61. Vicky - November 15th, 2007 at 8:18 am

I remember I once had a horrifying experience for whatever reason. I was three and I was dreaming about eyeballs floating all over the room and when I woke up I was still seeing them. And for some reason I hate olives because of it.

62. SlackJack - November 15th, 2007 at 8:29 am

I cant believe everyone is agreeing with #1. Sure, there are times of being “paralyzed”, but what about sleep-walkers?? What about sleep-drivers??? What about the ones we hear about that think they are wrestling someone (or something) and almost kill their mate?? I’ve been known to punch my wife while dreaming I’m protecting my family from an intruder. #1 is bunk.

By the way, some day I hope to be as smart as Joel Wideman.

63. Ozhan - November 15th, 2007 at 8:46 am

Everyone dreams about “being chased” but tell me, do you feel tired afterward?

64. Fallenangel - November 15th, 2007 at 8:53 am

I must say JFrater, I love the topic you picked for this list. I’ve always had an interest in my dreams. I’ve even opened myslef to Carl Jung, and Freud’s ideas on matters of the psyche in regarding dreams. I’ve gotten books to help explain symbolism, most are not too far off. This is fun hearing about what people have to say, think, and have experienced. Thank you very much for this one. Oh and I agree, I’d like to enjoy the intelectual abilitis of Joel Wideman as well, and interprising as Jack11. Thank you two as well.

65. aplspud - November 15th, 2007 at 9:05 am

SlackJack: My understanding about sleep walking, etc. is that for some reason the chemicals that keep you paralyzed are not created or stop working. I have a history of sleep walking, talking in my sleep, and once I punched my boyfriend while dreaming of fighting off Republicans.

66. AndyB123 - November 15th, 2007 at 9:12 am

A guy named Roger woke up one night. He sat straight up in bed, and uttered a few words. He wrote them down and went back to sleep. He told the guys in his rock band about it, and they liked the line so much that they used it for a song. The song ? Smoke On The Water.
About Sleep Paralysis - I’ve experienced it twice. It wasn’t scary at all. I can understand that some people freak out, since you’re seeing strange things, and you can’t move. But it’s not dangerous, and it’ll pass. Interesting list, by the way.

67. evan - November 15th, 2007 at 9:13 am

“dreaming of fighting off Republicans.” lol too funny

68. Fallenangel - November 15th, 2007 at 9:25 am

It is funny AndyB123 should mention the ’smoke on the water’ reference, I’ve woke up many times with the lines for a poem in my head, I’ve learned to write them down, other wise I will only have a vague recolection of them when I actually wake up. Also, I was told Smoke on the Water was about a fire one night at a place that Deep Purple played burned to the ground.
This is from Wikipedia:
The lyrics of the song tell a true story: “on December 4, 1971, Deep Purple had set up camp in Montreux, Switzerland to record an album using a mobile recording studio (rented from the Rolling Stones and known as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio - referred to as the “Rolling truck Stones thing” in the song lyric) at the entertainment complex that was part of the Montreux Casino (referred to as “the gambling house” in the song lyric). On the eve of the recording session a Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention concert was held in the casino’s theatre. During the gig a fire broke out: “In the middle of Don Preston’s synthesizer solo on “King Kong”, the place suddenly caught fire. Somebody in the audience had fired a flare gun into the ceiling, at which point the rattan covering started to burn.”[1][2], as mentioned in the “some stupid with a flare gun” line. There is an undocumented version of the story that claims the blaze was a result of faulty wiring, but whatever the cause, the resulting fire destroyed the entire casino complex, along with all the Mothers’ equipment. The “smoke on the water” that became the title of the song (credited to bassist Roger Glover, who related how the title occurred to him when he suddenly woke from a dream a few days later) referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched the fire from their hotel across the lake. The “Funky Claude” running in and out is referring to Claude Nobs, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival who helped some of the audience escape the fire.”
I love the concept, I’m sure it’s more than relevent in other aspects of creative genius.

69. anesb - November 15th, 2007 at 10:17 am

I thought this list was great. Though I didn’t realize there were so many sleep experts reading this site. I just hope this site doesn’t turn into all those other blogs and websites, where the people commenting seem to know everything and ruin any sort of fun. The last thing this awesome place needs is 20 comments saying “First!!” or “Photoshoped!!” Ugh.

70. BB - November 15th, 2007 at 10:58 am

Just a quick note to Joel, color blindness is found mostly in males not females!
In the United States, about 7 percent of the male population - or about 10.5 million men - and 0.4 percent of the female population either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and green differently (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2006). It has been found that more than 95 percent of all variations in human color vision involve the red and green receptors in male eyes.

71. alisa - November 15th, 2007 at 11:34 am

I can relate to number 2. About 3 years ago I was dreaming I was walking on the top of a tall brick wall, and i was yelling “Pieces, Pieces, Pieces of me!!” But actually..that song was playing on the radio while I was dreaming. It’s by Ashlee Simpson. haha.

72. TravelerDante - November 15th, 2007 at 12:14 pm

aplsud: I am well aware of the difference between astrology and tarot cards versus dreams. You’re missing the point of my argument. The point is, people will believe what they want to believe, and if one honestly believes there are “hidden messages” and meanings that can be coded and dissected by their themology, then one will find them. Similarly, according to your definition of hidden meanings, our dreams are a way of dealing with stressors in our concious lives. Why then would one have dreams of flying unicorns and chasing giants when one’s relative has just died? The dream content is blatantly different in content and context than the stressor. Are you then saying that dreams have symbology or don’t have symbology? My answer to your argument is: if dreams have significance to our waking lives, why arn’t all of our dreams responsing to those significant waking events?

In response to your argument about recurring dreams, the reason you have recurring dreams is that those neural pathways in your brain are very strongly connected, and as your brain is purging itself of unneccessary “information” (if you will) these neural pathways are lighting up. The thoughts in our brains are generated by chemical reactions between the neurons and all it takes is one or several neurons lighting up one or several of the neurons along this pathway to generate that thought (i.e. stimulation along the strongly connected neural pathway will stimulate the whole pathway).

Kelsi: I meant in the scientific community, sorry I didn’t clarify. Many cultures have thought dream analysis was significant, but I meant in the modern psychological community.

Amanda: I hope your mother-in-law was not performing experiments on you, because it is considered highly unethical to perform experiments and analysis on one’s relatives; practicing psychologists have lost their licenses and their business for similar situations. And yes, if you’re asking me, it is just coincidence. I’ve already stated that people will believe what they want to believe, but the evidence that we have just doesn’t support this idea of dream symbology.

73. JOE ROSSON - November 15th, 2007 at 12:21 pm

I love to dream, when I go to bed I say to myself, well I wonder what I will dream about tonight.One strange thing is that I am in a wheelchair from a diving accident 6 years ago and in my dreams I can always walk, I am never in the chair.

74. aplspud - November 15th, 2007 at 12:26 pm

TravelerDante: You, like Freud, have a very one size fits all approach to your reasoning, ie if it doesn’t always fit the rules, then it cannot ever be that way. But that’s your choice not to believe. For such a pragmatist I would have expected fewer grammatical errors.

75. TravelerDante - November 15th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

By the way people, general statement here: The ideas of Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung are considered antiquated and outdated in modern psychology. Please don’t pick up these texts now and think that 60 years ago, 80 years ago, these experts had any real idea about the human mind. There are a few ideas these men had that had some merit (e.g. defense mechanisms, the subconcious, etc.) but the vast majority were created, not based on falsifiable scientific evidence, but pure speculation and interpretation on the part of these men. The method that they went about forming these conjectures makes them no more qualified to speak on many of these topics than George Bush or George Clooney. Sad but true. They had some good ideas, but there was just no evidence at the time to back up their claims.

76. TravelerDante - November 15th, 2007 at 12:36 pm

aplsud: I particularly appreciate the ad hominem arguments. Since you can’t better argue your position, you choose to attack me. For someone who claims to be scientific minded, your are not very open to debate. As for your idea that I have a “one-size-fits-all” approach, that is simply untrue. I am a scientist, and I base my beliefs and arguments on falsifiable scientific theories and proven scientific facts. If the evidence shows that one explanation is better than the others, then that explanation is the best one. If you call this “one-size-fits-all” than you are sorely mistaken and should perhaps take another look at why you have the beliefs you do.

77. aplspud - November 15th, 2007 at 1:16 pm

Sorry, I was merely applying my expertise the same as you.

78. TravelerDante - November 15th, 2007 at 1:23 pm

It doesn’t seem like it. I’m trying to argue a point and you are trying to point out my occasional sub-par grammar. There seems to be a difference of intellectual scope here. I’ve already said that people will believe what they want to believe, regardless of what the evidence and scientific reasoning shows. It’s the same way with religion. A devout person will continue to believe no matter how many inaccuracies and inconsistencies their cosmology and morality shows. If you want to believe that your dreams have meaning, then by all means, don’t let me talk you out of it, as long as it helps you to deal with whatever is bothering you in your waking life.

79. Joel Wideman - November 15th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

SlackJack, that’s when there’s not enough of the hormone that paralyzes us while asleep.
And if you do a lot of reading, you’ll know twice as much as me, because I’ve forgotten half of everything I know.

80. Ralph - November 15th, 2007 at 2:47 pm

One of the others on here mentioned the non-private bathroom situation dreams. I have this almost once a month. In the last one I had all the toilets were in the dining room of a Denny’s (that might be saying something as well). I finally decided to just go ahead and go. However I woke up before anything happened.
I have always attributed these dreams to the real life stress involving shitty situations and just being unable to do anything about them.

81. Fallenangel - November 15th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

Traveler: Thank you for pointing that out about Freud and Jung. I never really thought about it before. Luckily I never subscribed myself to their opinions solely. There are multitude of possibilities in the vastness of our lack of knowledge to vehemently refuse any posibility of what we may or may not know. There are always going to be things that are out of our control, or scope of knowledge. This may be a subject in which only the tip of the ice berg is ever presented to us. This is not a definate science and with such a malleable subject to stand on, I see no reason why anyone should conform to one idealology. I love hearing what you all say. This is quite informative and entertaining.
P.S. you two, it’s just a forum, no corners please

82. amanda - November 15th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

Traveler- She was still a student when I got my battery, so no ethics codes have been broken! It was an assignment for an assesment course. She is doing her post-doc work now. She decided to go back to school after raising her family. Anyway, you make very good arguments, but I prefer to believe that dreams are important. It makes sleep more interesting! And about Jung and Freud. How could there be scientific evidence to back up their work when they were the pioneers? Although most of their work is now antiquated, modern psychology would not exist without their brilliant minds.

83. Jack11 - November 15th, 2007 at 5:22 pm

Joel Wildeman: Perhaps people are going through the upper stages of sleep when awakened, and that accounts for the disorientation, but they are awake. And from my own personal experience of being woken up in the middle of the night (no idea what stage I would have been in) the disorientation usually doesn’t last much longer then a few seconds. My book says nothing about that, so perhaps you’re right.

And yes, dreams in NREM sleep are usually forgotten. Not always, but they are usually forgotten. In my case, dreams in REM and NREM sleep are usually forgotten, I hardly ever remember my dreams except for maybe once a month or so. haha

I was just saying what I had been taught in my psychology class and what I have read in my textbook. I have obviously not spent much time going in depth about it.

Fallenangel: Thanks for the compliment!

84. Jack11 - November 15th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

Traveler is right about the Freud and Jung thing. Yes they pioneered psychology, but that doesn’t mean everything they thought was correct. Freud for example pretty much believed everything had to do with sex. If someone had a problem, they were sexually deprived. Ok, it’s a bit of an exaggeration but still.

85. gemmy - November 16th, 2007 at 1:30 am

Thats very interesting about being paralyzed while you sleep. I have been dealing with some severe sleeping problems for many years now. There have been a few times where I have had nights where I could swear I was so awake and alert yet I could not scream nor move a muscle. I remember it detail for detail to this very day about an ex of mine comming into my house drunk in the middle of the night screaming and yelling at me and ready to attack, but I couldnt do a thing to protect myself. It was so wierd and freaky.

86. Dyvahdoc - November 16th, 2007 at 4:18 am

As a licensed clinical psychologist with a doctoral degree I felt the need to comment. Shouts out to jfrater for his excellent work (I LOVE THIS SITE!) and the person who quoted her textbk (how industrious)! A mere degree in clinical psychology does an expert make. There really is nothing more infuriating than reading pseudo-intellectuals make declarative statements without providing suitable credentials. Anyway. To allay most concerns “modern psychology” as it has been referred to here, generally does accept that dreams do have some meaning to the dreamer. There are several ways of viewing dreams within the field: a) viewing dreams as a way of the the mind processing the day’s events; b) each individual seen in the dream is actually the dreamer, so when trying to interpret the dream, doing so from each perspective, c) noting places, objects, animals and interpreting thoses for symbolism, etc., etc,.
P.S. Kudos to those pointing out that pioneers promote theories that psychology is founded upon! As sex focused as he was, Freud has many points upon which we continue to ponder.

87. jfrater - November 16th, 2007 at 4:25 am

Dyvahdoc: Thank you And thanks for the comment - it is always excellent when someone qualified to comment does so - it helps us all understand the subject with clarity.

88. Raffaele - November 16th, 2007 at 6:34 am

Freud was wrong about dreams, just like he was wrong almost about any other topics in psychology.

Dreams are produced by our mind that tries to give a meaning to random thoughts caused by chimical reactions that happen in our brain while we sleep. It’s us that give a meaning to our dreams, just like we do with our memories, and not viceversa. This is a good explanation to many phenomena like the so called ‘premonitory dreams’ or the ‘revelation dreams’ where we are sure to have understood deep meanings (of live, of science etc) that evaporate when we get awake, or telepathic dreams etc

Beside this I don’t believe that dream have special meanings more than any other random thing that we produce like free association and similar

89. Bracey - November 16th, 2007 at 6:38 am

Haha I have awesome dreams where I’m a Vampire hunter or a Rock star and such like. Even when I have horrible dreams I wake up thinking shit I wanna go back lol. The only dream I can say I woke up in panic is where my son had died and he was a ghost talking to me then he got sucked back into the spirit world screaming “Daddy help”. Just typing this now the hairs on my neck are standing up

90. Josh - November 16th, 2007 at 7:16 am

I have to disagree with bonus #1. Since I snore lightly (or so I think) every night and I do indeed dream. Last night I had a dream that my teeth were tiny and half shaped so they’d break off easily. I know a person like that! The point is I thought I snore pretty regular — maybe not. I know that when I’m in an alcohol induced sleep I do not dream. Also quite frequently I dream that I’m back in the military and it’s almost never good. Although I have an honorable discharge and no negative feelings toward the military.

91. chandlersford - November 16th, 2007 at 7:24 am

Am I dreaming this?

92. heavenly-johnson - November 16th, 2007 at 7:57 am

I’m interested to know how anyone could possibly know that ‘we only dream of what we know’. It sounds like a tricky one to test.

93. jared - November 16th, 2007 at 8:22 am

I have never remembered a dream… even when I am woken up, I do not recall even experiencing them. I go to sleep and then wake up, nothing in between. I assume I dream, as everyone always says “Everyone Dreams”, but I kinda wish I knew what dreaming is like

94. paul - November 16th, 2007 at 9:30 am

Something interesting happened to me when I was about seven years old - for three nights I had the same nightmare. I would be walking down the stairs and would spot some kind of monster at the bottom, I would turn around and go back up the stairs only to see a monster at the top too. So I was stuck. And very scared.

I would be stuck there terrified for what seemed like a couple of minutes before waking up in a sweat.

On the fourth night I was stuck on the stairs again, but this time I said to myself ‘don’t be silly, this is obviously a dream’. I’d become conscious that I was dreaming. I walked towards the monster at the bottom of the stairs and he simply disappeared.

I never had that dream again, and from that point on I have regularly been able to control my dreams (lucid dreaming). Not always, but often.

That’s why I adore dreaming - I can do anything I want - I fly, I swim, I run at extreme speeds, I jump across huge chasms, I visit and converse with relatives that have passed away, I can choose. It’s amazing.

On the downside, I do occasionally get sleep paralysis, which can be terrifying. This usually happens if I stay too long in bed and I’m slipping in and out of sleep. If I lay on my back during that time I can almost guarantee sleep paralysis. So I avoid sleeping on my back at all costs.

Still, dreaming is amazing, sometimes I have dreams that are almost like watching a film - they seem to have plots that make sense. I wake up and feel amazed that MY brain can come up with such creative stories and stunning visuals.

95. infornography - November 16th, 2007 at 9:54 am

I used to have 100% control over my dreams and knew that I was dreaming (at least for the portions that I could remember when I woke up). This got tedious after a while. If there is a god, he gave us free will because controlling everything yourself gets boring and he needed some uncontrolled variables to keep from going insane.

#4 is total bunk. Neurons strengthen their connections when they fire. Whatever connections lead to their firing have a stronger influence next time. When you sleep, your brain has a bit of an electrical storm as your brain strengthens the neuron connections that are above a certain threshold and then your semi-conscious mind tries to make sense of it and fills in the gaps with other details.

The result of this is that your dreams are usually largely influenced by the events of the past day or week or whatever has been on your mind or even the memories that are close to whatever has been on your mind. Without proper sleep you will have a hard time remembering things as your brain will not have had an opportunity to convert the short term memories into long term ones.

This is why college professors stress the importance of a good night’s rest before a test and the fact that cramming just before the test is less effective than studying the few days before.

96. Phil E. Drifter - November 16th, 2007 at 10:48 am

Re: External Stimuli, I can tell you that I remember a dream I had in my youth (i’m 30 now) where I was running around and around a school bus (which is strange because I went to a catholic school and never once needed or used a school bus to get there)…anyway, running around and around a school bus because I heard my mother calling me, in the dream from my perspective I felt like I was chasing her around the bus, following where her voice was coming from, and eventually I woke up and my mother was still calling me and I realized in that instant that it was her calling me in real life that I had been hearing in my dream.

97. Ken - November 16th, 2007 at 11:07 am

I have asthma, and I often dream of having an asthma attack, which my dream inhaler fails to remedy. Eventually I wake and take my real medicine.

98. jfrater - November 16th, 2007 at 11:09 am

Ken: wow - I can only imagine how awful that must be.

99. Ovidiu C. - November 16th, 2007 at 11:15 am

Teeth falling out. Ha. I tought I was the only one dreaming that. I used to dream that *all* my teeth were falling out. I actually saw a documentary that said you should take heed of such dreams, because it could really happen. During the night the brain can “pay attention” to the stimuli the body sends. The funny thing is, after visiting a dentist (who removed tons of calculus from between the teeth and the gum) those dreames stopped.

100. Valerie - November 16th, 2007 at 11:37 am

Hi. I dunno why the Psych grad didn’t say this, but there’s actually a hormone, a chemical that is sent out by the body during REM sleep that paralyzes you, causing you not to physically react to what you’re dreaming. People who sleep-walk lack this hormone. There are also things called night terrors. There’s a different between the two, but I can’t remember. Look it up.

101. nepawoods - November 16th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

The list is baloney. “Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts - did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces - they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember?”

Evidence? Proof? Can anyone suggest any possible evidence? I have a dream about a face I don’t remember ever having seen before … what possible evidence can there be that I did see it before, but forgot?

102. jfrater - November 16th, 2007 at 12:05 pm

nepawoods: by your reasoning that we must have proof for something to be real, I presume you don’t believe in evolution or the big bang - as they are also unable to be proven? In this list I am simply stating what the general psychological view is at the moment.

103. nepawoods - November 16th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

“In this list I am simply stating what the general psychological view is at the moment.”

I’m asking how there could possibly be evidence for this? Not solid proof, just a shred of evidence. Prove to me that the face I dreamt, I also saw somewhere.

How about a citation? Provide a link to where this is discussed by reputable experts.

104. Chad Reitsma - November 16th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

Dreaming is so awesome! But even more awesome than that is something called “Lucid Dreaming” the act of realizing that you are dreaming while you’re dreaming! Go look it up!!

105. Amanda - November 16th, 2007 at 2:54 pm

The external stimuli thing happens to me when I have to pee while I’m sleeping. I keep dreaming I’m going to the bathroom but can’t get there, and it’s very frustrating, because I keep thinking I woke up and try to go to the bathroom and I still can’t get there. :/

106. scott - November 16th, 2007 at 9:41 pm

i always dream that i try to punch someone but my fist goes slowmo and it never reaches the person, i wake up and i punch someonthing to make sure i can , and another is i dream i turn off my alarm clock, but it doenst stop, and it always makes me sleep in

107. scott - November 16th, 2007 at 9:41 pm

oh yeah and i use to dream i could breathe underwater

108. sjmarshy - November 17th, 2007 at 2:35 am

good list
only one thing, body is only paralyzed during REM sleep, otherwise it moves and twitches about

109. ajm - November 17th, 2007 at 5:14 am

For years i could not work out why i was always squinting in my dreams, like I was trying to focus on whatever it was infront of me. Then for some reason I worked it out - I dream without my glasses on!!! I am really shortsighted and wear my glasses all the time (except for when I sleep and shower.) How weird is that? I wonder what would happen if I had laser surgery on my eyes - would my dreams become more clearer?

110. jfrater - November 17th, 2007 at 6:00 am

ajm: that is really weird - I am shortsighted too but I don’t seem to recall it being the case in my dreams

111. Cathy - November 17th, 2007 at 1:44 pm

I’ve often dreamed full length, detailed, colorful dreams…woken up to visit the frig for some water, gone back to bed and went right back into the same dream. Anyone else?

Also, I remember once reading that once you awaken and move around, you forget your dream…but if you stay perfectly still upon awakening, you will be able to recall your dream.
I have since tried it and find it to be true.
Any opinions on this one.

Thank you all in advance, for you sharing. This site is wonderful.

112. paul - November 17th, 2007 at 1:51 pm

@Cathy

If I half wake up and then go back to sleep I can go back into my current dream, but not if I get up and walk around. Sometimes, I really which I could.

I never get up as soon as I wake up, I usually stay awake in bed for at least twenty minutes before I get up and I tend to remember my dreams quite well.

113. Joel Wideman - November 17th, 2007 at 4:56 pm

That’s one of the tricks some use to lucid dream. I can’t do it, because once I wake a rarely can go back to sleep.
Another thing that helps remember is writing the dream down. Have a pen and paper beside your bed and write down the dream without getting up.

114. Bugsy - November 18th, 2007 at 11:38 am

I keep a note-pad next to my bed to write down what I dreamed.

The pad is almost empty after two years except for lines of text which make no sense.

115. DistantThunder - November 18th, 2007 at 2:52 pm

Some random thoughts from my own experience:

I’ve experienced the situation of sounds coming into dreams. Once my wake-up alarm became the siren of a fire truck in my dream. Eventually the dream shattered and I woke up with the alarm still sounding.

Often in my most vivid dreams I come to realize I am dreaming, and then I can do whatever I want. Many of my dreams involve an endless being chased and barely (but always) escaping sequence. But once I realize I’m dreaming, it turns fun … cause then I can throw lightning from my fingertips or whatever I want in my dream, and it always ends happily.

Sometimes I relive the same sequence of events over and over. Each time I learn from my previous encounter with the imaginary scenario, but invariably the situation gets more and more difficult (scarier or more threatening) until I wake up. Usually this happens all in one night, not between nights.

Many of my nightmares seem to be tied to external stimuli. For example, the most common cause is getting chilled. If I sleep comfortably and warmly, I have very restful sleep. But many times when I’ve had a bad dream, I’ve awakened to realize my covers have rolled off and I’m shivering under the fan, or else maybe I have a stomach ache. I’ve heard that heart attack victims have higher rates of subsequent bad dreams, especially after surgery. I wonder if this is because pain and circulatory problems create the nightmares. The nightmares (in my dad’s case after his heart attack and bypass surgery) had no connection to the heart attack or the consequences of it; they were just weird nightmares about all kinds of crazy things.

There are so many common themes in dreams (google it), it seems inconceivable that it is just all random junk. People seem to have certain kinds of dreams when they are going through certain kinds of situations, and many elements or scenarios are VERY common. I was shocked when I first discovered that many of my supposedly strange dreams were exactly the kinds of dreams many other people had all the time. So I think there is meaning in dreams, although not necessarily that everything symbolizes something, or that our mind is offering us deep wisdom about anything.

116. Dirk - November 20th, 2007 at 12:10 pm

External stimulii: I guess I’m not the only one dreaming that I am somewhere (e.g. a party or restaurant), that have to pee, search for the toilet, finally find it, and start peeing… to wake up some moments later, peeing in my bed…

Or am I the only one?

117. antony hawkins - November 22nd, 2007 at 2:14 pm

i have dreams where i can do what ever i want but i dont realise its a dream. if i knew it was a dream i would be running free, no rules to hold me back, i just wish i knew i am dreaming when i am dreaming.

118. kyle - November 22nd, 2007 at 4:15 pm

sometimes i can controll my dreams… they are more interesting

119. chook - November 22nd, 2007 at 8:41 pm

i fell asleep on the couch when i was 3 or 4 and was having a crazy dream about these blue dots who were killing my mum. i started sleepwalking, but my family thought i was awake. i remember vividly, waking up and my dad was brushing my teeth. i freaked out so much! it’s been 9 years since then, and i still experience reoccuring dreams about blue dots, at least once a month.

120. Rounin - November 27th, 2007 at 10:13 am

There is a myth among Vietnamese people that if you play with your shadow during the day, you will be sat upon/laying on top by a ghost at night when you sleep. Well, I’ve had a few of those experience. It is strange and a bit scary at the same time because I am aware of my surrounding, yet I can’t move. I can hear people talking, but when I try to yell out, no sound escape my lips.
Also, I always have that type of dream when sleeping next to a mirror. Since I found out that the two things are related, I removed all mirrors in my bedroom, and now I rarely experience that anymore.

121. drake - November 27th, 2007 at 10:33 am

Is anybody else ever amazed at the distortion of time-perception while they are dreaming? I mean, it happens to me sometimes when I wake up and look at my clock and it says something like 8:17am and then fall sleep and have a very lengthy and involved dream where lots and lots of stuff happens but when I wake up the clock says that I was sleep for only 2 or 3 minutes. I just wonder, do brain processes run at a different speed when we are dreaming? If not, then how can events in dreams seem like they are running in normal time while in reality they must be running in fast forward?

122. Kelsi - November 27th, 2007 at 11:07 am

Drake: I know exactaly what you mean! It is very strange. It takes longer to explain the dream to someone than it did to dream it. =p

123. Angela - November 27th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

just this summer i began to be able to wake myself up if i was getting to a point in my dream where it was becoming a nightmare, and sometimes i feel pain in my dreams, but i think its just the memory of a pain i felt, also, today in my dream i had a headache and when i woke up i had one also. Dreams are extremely fascinating, i want to write my dreams down but i am too lazy to do so =P, actually, i did write my dreams down once, those were really weird XD

124. Jose - November 28th, 2007 at 12:23 pm

Beautiful!

Regards from Brazil

125. KT - November 29th, 2007 at 12:11 pm

When I was younger, I would have the same dream for weeks at a time. I could also control my dreams, to a point. I was aware in the dream that I was dreaming and I could wake myself up if I wanted. This has gone away as I have gotten older, but my son, who is 13, says that he can do this. Seems like it may be something that children can do. I’m a very deep sleeper. Takes a lot to wake me up, not sure if that has an effect on anything. My recurring dream for the last 15 years or so, (not nightly but once every few months or so) involves a house. It’s like I find a hidden doorway from my home into another home, very, very nice home, until you go into the living room and you immediately sense something. It’s nothing you see, it’s more like just a sense of something there that’s evil or very bad and the dream ends with me leaving the house and realizing why we aren’t living in it. Wonder what that’s about? Basically, I think dreaming for humans is much like defrag for computers. It’s giving your brain a chance to sort out all the junk, file away what’s worth keeping and delete the rest and if you don’t get this REM sleep, all of your memory will be used up and you will be so scatterbrained you can’t do anything.

126. Fran - November 29th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

I have had external stimuli a lot! I would dream that zombies were eating my head and I’d wake up with my arm around the back of my head and me hand just resting on top of my head. Another time, I fell asleep reading a comic book and slept over the pages… It was awesome because I dreamt that the characters came alive and that I was inside the comic strip.
Since I was a kid until about 2 years ago I would have sleep paralysis. It was so scary! Especially because I would see what was happening in tunnel vision (sort of ) and I would try to move and every time I tried it felt like there was something on top of me pushing me down harder. I would panic and it would freak me out. I used to think that it was ghosts because I could see my surroundings but I couldn’t see whatever was crushing me. Then I started relaxing every time it would happen, and try to convince myself that it wasn’t ghost, it was angels or something and now it doesn’t happen anymore(even though my conscience mind doesn’t believe in angels). Weird.

127. mooster - November 30th, 2007 at 5:52 pm

Surely #4 is pure speculation. I don’t think anyone really knows if dreams are even “about” anything, or just random scenes that our brain tries to decode into rational occurances.

128. Dan - November 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

The other night I dreamed I was a chicken, suddenly I had an intense pain in my stomach. I asked another chicken what the deal was and she told me it would pass. Well it got worse, and worse, and worser still, until it did pass and behind me I could see I’d laid an egg. I awoke to my wife punching me in the ribs saying, “Damnit dan wake up, you’re shitting all over the bed!”

129. Nick - December 1st, 2007 at 5:10 am

Lucid dreaming isn’t always so great - I had a nightmare recently during which I became lucid. I was trapped in a horrible dream, knowing it wasn’t real but unable to wake myself up. I can’t even remember what the dream was about, but I can remember how horrible it felt being trapped like that.
On the flipside, I have had some pretty awesome lucid dreams, so I won’t complain too much.

@Ovidiu C.: I never had teeth-falling-out dreams until not long after someone told me about one they’d had. Maybe I should brush extra!

130. joe - December 2nd, 2007 at 11:40 am

Dreams are weird. I NEVER remember my dreams, but i did this morning. I was locked in a little cylinder, and couldn’t escape. Then it turned out i was in a reality tv show, where i won a crapload of cash for not panicking.

131. Kind1002 - December 2nd, 2007 at 7:38 pm

great discussion! I love dreams, and reading all your stories…and wow, finally I understand what sleep paralysis is. That has definitely freaked me out before…..didn’t realize the possible back sleeping position connection?

I too can have some pretty involved full color, full lucid dreams in a 15 min power nap in the afternoon….they always end the same way: I start wondering if it is a work day in my dream, then I realize I am possibly oversleeping (even though I always use an alarm)and I panic thinking about it being actually 5pm already, since I have been having this incredibly long detailed dream…..Bam! I wake up with an adrenaline rush to find out I was sleeping for 12 minutes….

I wake up one minute before my alarm, 95% of the time, even though I have different waking times throughout the week….even when traveling in different time zones…usually my alarm goes off randomly in my dream, waking me to see the time is one minute before I have to wake up….thus preventing me from having to actually wake up to an alarm, which I hate more than anything…

I used to be in outside sales, always driving…I would pull off for naps when I got TOO tired to to drive, and I would sleep in the front seat….I always dreamed at some point that I had fallen asleep driving and I would wake up and slam my foot on the brake….only to realize I was in a rest stop! Fun!

I find it is damn near impossible to read any printed text or magazine/ book in a dream, I have only pulled it off a few times, mostly I see what should be letters, but when I focus on them, they are moving shifting symbols for letters? or just squiggles…

I taught my kids how to control a bad dream, that you can stop it at will, it seems to have helped them with their dreaming skills.

My favorite reoccurring dream, mostly from childhood, but recently it is back: I have a magic peanut butter jar, mostly empty, no lid, and with it, in my extended arm, I can fly at will….I do not enjoy flying in my waking state, not on small planes, big planes or helicopters, I would never sky dive or bungee jump for fear of an actual heart attack in real life….but in my dream, I love it! I go all over the place, see places I have been, and new ones I explore, I can cover thousands of miles in a night it seems….

Music: I can remember it from dreams, and enjoy seeing my favorite bands live in my dreams, complete with them playing, sometimes songs that they have never played, or “new material”

I do find that I wake up tired after a long dream of walking thru the snow, or being lost looking for a friend, or being at work struggling….

132. Diogenes - December 2nd, 2007 at 8:04 pm

Kind1002: You seem to have a zooming mind on such matters. At first I thought you might be over-worked/under-compencated(sp?) Are you speedy thoughted in general? Just wondering? Do you abide by a very fixed schedule or are you receptive to what occures in novelty? i’m only asking because your comment intrigues me. I dont know.. I would love for you to elaborate further.

p.s.– I agree and have experienced most of what you say.

133. Kind1002 - December 2nd, 2007 at 8:11 pm

Diogenes: I am a zooming kind of guy yes…..coffee makes me tired, so I enjoy drinking it at night sometimes…

Fixed schedule in a sense: I work 40 hrs a week, but have loads of freedom at work.

Novelty rules…..Novelty is a big part of how I see the world, as opposed to good and bad…..It’s clear to me that we live in very novel times!

So….can you read in your dreams at all?

134. Diogenes - December 2nd, 2007 at 8:35 pm

Kind1002: Perhaps the reason I replied first of was because of a rther irksome awaking today, regarding texets, a book, and bugs.
Reading to me has never been a life long “skin” . I have never connected my thoughts or beliefs to what I have read. ,,for the most part. What I say is simply for tellng you of the dream I recall today and that I have thought about it in this way:

From what I woke up too early to was a tiny travel clock that I had placed elsewhere last night aand this morning was ticking trimple volume.. Anyway, (i’m only trying to extent this rather banal aspect of my reply} In the dream I was outside and about, maby off the sidewalk as I walkes, I saw a weatherd book on the ground and picked it up. I knew it to be of importance and stared to look through the rippled firm/ slightly stuck together/ and somewhat brittle pages. I realized that it was a book of “knowledge” that I was in search of, but HERE THERE tiny bed bugs started to catch me finger eyes and I flicked the book down and began to see the bugs expand in growth as I searched them out in horror as I knew the book that I wanted was also within my domain…

Yeh that’s most recent. otherwise I dont really dream of reading or books. The contents or abstract mulch tends to be the results in another form.
sorry if I ramble here. I just toss this out to you.

135. Diogenes - December 2nd, 2007 at 8:59 pm

dont blame you for not understanding a word of what I just said. reading over –the letter configuration makes no sense.
in any case- There are fleeting truths told and bugs in bindings. I am with you on the novelty of life. I dont know how much it is a part of my day to day ..NO! wait. …I do know and it has its way at times as mostly a buffering between -with what is considered matter of fact.
hmm.

136. Jon P - December 2nd, 2007 at 11:28 pm

When I was young I had a loft bed, about 4 feet off the ground. One night had a dream I was being chased off a cliff. After running off the cliff I fell for what seemed in my dream to be 1 to 2 minutes, and then was awoken by the impact of hitting the floor… I actually fell out of bed. This has always made me wonder how long dreams really last. Is a dream that seems several minutes/hours/days long is really just a second or two?

137. Technology Blog - December 3rd, 2007 at 3:47 am

nice dream facts…

138. Punjar - December 3rd, 2007 at 8:27 pm

I saw this sketch in the deleted scenes of robot chicken season 2 that 2 reminded me of. Some kid is getting chased by a bear and suddenly it stops and starts making alarm noises, and he’s yelling at it to stop. Then it show him asleep with his alarm going and his mom starts calling “Billy, wake up”. Back in the dream, something else shows up (I think it was a bird or something) and starts saying “Billy get up” in his mothers voice. Then Billy crosses his arms and just says “I hate you guys”.

139. carrie - December 4th, 2007 at 4:50 pm

my most vivid dreams were when i was a child. i can still see images from some of them. i had two in particular that at the time i swore were reality. i must have been about 4 or 5 at the time. one involved my sister who is younger by two years. she has a pretty big mole on her forehead by her hairline. i dreamed i was looking in the mirror and it was my mole, always had been. then i put my finger on it and the mole slid onto my fingertip. to get rid of it i wiped it off onto my sister’s forehead. i woke up feeling so guilty that i apologized to my mom who, of course, denied that this happened. to me it was reality and i could not be persuaded otherwise. the other is that my mom taught me to peel oranges into the toilet. that really pissed her off the next morning.

140. wheelnut53 - December 5th, 2007 at 8:28 am

I’ve had dreams in parts 1 2 and 3 some good some bad

141. Paul - December 5th, 2007 at 10:23 am

LOL @ wheelnut, it’s true, sequels are rarely as good as part one.

142. Ray - December 5th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

whoa that iz koolioz badoolioz

143. KT - December 6th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

the modern theory on dreaming states that it is the experience in the conscious world that helps create dreams, by neurons firing and sorting out images in the subconscious state.
I agree with this theory, but i think there are more variables in play here. i beleive we have a soul, or spirit, or source of complex energy pattern, or whatever you want to call it. i think this is what gives us our consciousness. without it, i beleive we are zombies, or a zombie-like state.
when we fall asleep, i beleive there may be some complex mechanism that releases our souls. as we travel into unknown realms, the meterial our souls are composed of absorbs some kind of information, valuable or not (another persons soul, future events, things occuring in another place). meanwhile our zombie-like brain is now free to fire neurons in a random disordered state. when we awake, our soul comes back… but the information it contains most likely will not be complimentary (will not fit) with our brain system of memory. an analogy would be converting one type of file in a computer into another type of file. perhaps some “special” people can gain this information.
this will be proved one day. if ghost particles such as dark matter exists, this theory of mine is not to far off.

144. Sarah - December 6th, 2007 at 6:45 pm

about that parylized thing everyones saying they were thinking there awake but cant move…same here lol

about 5 weeks ago [[it stopped after 2 weeks]] i keep seeing a hand coming up next to bed in the tiny little crack between my bed and the wall…im 99 percent sure i was awake and i tried to scream and get up to turn on the light, and hit it or get up but it never worked…but then i would blink a few times and it would be gone…and i KNOW it wasnt a real hand…it was really scary…one time i thought it was trying to strangle me.

you know what else is weird?
you ever have those dreams were like your falling or something, and you wake up like sweating on your stomach and your like jumped awake and scared outta your mind? I always have the same dream when that happens lol…you ever see that optical illusion, its like crazy stairs or something and there all like weird…well i always see my selfe walking up those and the railing breaks and i fall awake.

145. TOTALFUNWORLD - December 7th, 2007 at 6:27 am

Good post about facts of dream

146. Sierra - December 7th, 2007 at 1:57 pm

“1. When y