You’re running fast, through a thick, dark forest. You hear footsteps. You stop, and turn around but see no one. You try to clam yourself down. As you take a few steps forward, you hear a noise. From behind a tree Scooby-Doo jumps out holding a knife! Then suddenly you wake up in a sweat and realize it was only a dream.
Everyone dreams every night. Most people think they don’t dream, but they actually just can’t remember their dreams. At night a person’s mind is more active, recalling events and emotions that took place during the time they were awake.
The fourth stage of sleep, or the REM stage, is what allows us to dream. About 90-100 minutes into sleep our eyes start to move rapidly under our eyelids, our blood pressure raises, the heart rate speeds up and brain activity intensely increases. Our mind starts to look at the day’s events and fine-tune our emotions. The brain also paralyzes involuntary muscles so the body can focus on the mind only.
The sleep cycle is likely to repeat itself many times throughout the night. However as the stages repeat it takes less time in stages one, two and three allowing stage four to control the mind most of the night.
When we dream it may seem like the events are random and meaningless but they are the exact opposite. Our mind puts our past experiences and emotions to work and uses them in our dreams.
Fact: We only dream about what we know. According to Listverse.com and other dream websites people can only dream about what they have seen before. Your mind is incapable of making up faces therefore the killer in your dream last night was someone you have already
seen.
Fact: 12 percent of people with vision
dream in black and white.
Fact: Sounds that happen around us while we sleep invade our dreams. People often get woken up with an alarm clock but while they were dreaming the sound incorporates itself into the dream. Emotions are also incorporated into dreams. If you are thirsty your mind includes that into the dream.
Dreams often have many different symbols that can seem confusing. However the best way to understand what a dream means is by interpreting it through your life’s events. Although there are websites like Dreamdoctor.com to help interpret what dreams mean, specialists suggest applying what happened in your dream to your own life. Because everyone’s mind thinks differently, they believe dreams can only be fully interpreted to the dreamer.
Senior Shannon Curran thinks that sometimes, “Dreams are better than reality.”
“After a long day of school and sports it can be nice to fall asleep and let our mind do its own thing.” She smiled, “If I’m having a bad day I look forward to going to sleep and dreaming.”
Junior Jackie Noyes also agrees that dreams can be better than reality. “With the stress and drama of school, family and friends it is nice to dream. It can be relaxing and exciting.”
Dream specialists have come up with ways to help people remember their dreams more often. Having a normal sleep routine helps. Going to sleep and waking up should always be around the same time. You should also try to have a clear mind before you fall asleep. And when you wake up in the morning try to stay in bed for a few minutes. This allows the brain to recap dreams and often people can remember their dreams more vividly.
Many theories suggest that dreams are reality and reality is a dream. Although most people do not believe that, advocates have come up with interesting concepts. Supporters believe that everything is in our imagination and because it is in our minds we can control it.
Jackie Noyes admitted, “I don’t believe that those theories are true but it is really interesting to think about.”
Many people agree with Jackie because they think that if life were a dream, it would not make sense. But for all we know, this might be a dream right now.