Buzz
Earlier today, I took a (rare) nap. During it, I experienced a lucid dream, though most of it has since slipped from my memory. As I woke up, I reflected on my dream and thought it would be a great idea to compile a list of incredible facts about dreams for the site. So, here are the top 10 amazing facts about dreams.
10. Blind People Experience Dreams
Individuals who lose their sight after birth can still see images in their dreams. However, those born blind do not visualize images but experience equally vivid dreams involving their other senses—sound, smell, touch, and emotions. It's difficult for sighted people to fathom, but the body's urge for sleep is so powerful that it adapts to almost any physical condition to ensure sleep occurs.
9. You forget 90% of your dreams
Within just 5 minutes of waking up, half of your dream slips away, and after 10 minutes, 90% of it vanishes. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the renowned poet, had an unforgettable dream one morning—likely induced by opium. He quickly began writing about his dream in what became the famous English poem, Kubla Khan. Unfortunately, during his writing, he was interrupted by a 'Person from Porlock.' When he returned to finish his work, he couldn’t recall the rest of the dream, leaving the poem incomplete.
In Xanadu, Kubla Khan ordered the construction of a grand pleasure-dome: Where Alph, the sacred river, flowed Through vast caverns beyond human measure Leading down to a dark and endless sea. […]
Interestingly, Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the idea for 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' while dreaming. You can read more about it on Wikipedia here. Similarly, Mary Shelley’s famous novel 'Frankenstein' was also born from a dream.
8. Everyone Dreams
Every human being dreams, except in cases of extreme psychological disorders. However, men and women often experience different types of dreams and distinct physical reactions. Men usually dream more about other men, while women have dreams involving both men and women. Moreover, both genders can experience physical reactions linked to sexual content in their dreams, regardless of whether the dreams themselves are sexual; men may experience erections, while women may notice increased blood flow to the vaginal area.
7. Dreams Prevent Psychosis
In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the start of each dream, yet still allowed to complete 8 hours of sleep, experienced concentration problems, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis within just 3 days. Once they were finally allowed to enter REM sleep, their brains compensated for the lost time by significantly increasing the amount of time spent in the REM stage. [Source]
6. We Only Dream of What We Know
Our dreams often feature strangers playing various roles. Interestingly, these faces aren’t invented by our minds—they are real faces of people we’ve encountered during our lives, though we may not recognize or remember them. The frightening killer in your dream could be the same person who once pumped gas into your father’s car when you were a child. Having seen countless faces throughout our lives, our brains have a vast reservoir of faces to draw from for our dreams.
5. Not Everyone Dreams in Color
Around 12% of sighted individuals experience dreams exclusively in black and white, while the rest dream in full color. Common themes also arise in dreams, such as school-related scenarios, being pursued, running in place or too slowly, sexual encounters, falling, arriving too late, the death of someone alive, teeth falling out, flying, failing an exam, or being involved in a car accident. It's unclear whether dreams about violence or death are more emotionally intense for those who dream in color compared to those who dream in black and white. [Source]
4. Dreams are not about what they are about
When you dream about something specific, the dream is rarely just about that subject. Dreams communicate in a deeply symbolic manner. The unconscious mind tries to make connections between the dream and something similar. It’s akin to writing a poem where you compare a group of ants to machines that never stop. But you wouldn’t say, 'That beautiful sunset was like a beautiful sunset.' So, whatever symbol your dream focuses on is unlikely to represent itself.
3. You are paralyzed while you sleep
Believe it or not, your body is virtually paralyzed during your sleep – most likely to prevent your body from acting out aspects of your dreams. According to the Wikipedia article on dreaming, “Glands begin to secrete a hormone that helps induce sleep and neurons send signals to the spinal cord which cause the body to relax and later become essentially paralyzed.”
2. External Stimuli Invade our Dreams
This is called Dream Incorporation and it is the experience that most of us have had where a sound from reality is heard in our dream and incorporated in some way. A similar (though less external) example would be when you are physically thirsty and your mind incorporates that feeling in to your dream. My own experience of this includes repeatedly drinking a large glass of water in the dream which satisfies me, only to find the thirst returning shortly after – this thirst… drink… thirst… loop often recurs until I wake up and have a real drink. The famous painting above (Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening) by Salvador Dali, depicts this concept.
1. Quitters have more vivid dreams
People who have smoked cigarettes for a long time who stop, have reported much more vivid dreams than they would normally experience. Additionally, according to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology: “Among 293 smokers abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks, 33% reported having at least 1 dream about smoking. In most dreams, subjects caught themselves smoking and felt strong negative emotions, such as panic and guilt. Dreams about smoking were the result of tobacco withdrawal, as 97% of subjects did not have them while smoking, and their occurrence was significantly related to the duration of abstinence. They were rated as more vivid than the usual dreams and were as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms.” [Source]
+ Extra Facts
1. If you're snoring, you're not dreaming. 2. Children don't begin to dream about themselves until they reach around 3 years of age. From this point, they tend to experience more nightmares than adults, a pattern that usually persists until they are 7 or 8 years old. 3. Waking up during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep increases the chances of remembering your dream in much greater detail than if you wake up after completing a full night of sleep.
