1. If you live to be
70 years old, you will have spent six years in dreamland.
Isn't this just unbelievable? Spending six years of your life in essentially an imaginary state of mind, I actually love that because sometimes dreams can be the best part of my day! That’s two to three hours a night - just under a tenth of
your life. This might seem like a waste of time until you hear what dreams can
do.
2. You can solve
problems in your sleep.
When we are trying to solve a problem we tend to develop
what psychologists call a ‘mind-set’. This makes it harder to see unexpected
solutions but when we sleep our brains work differently, meaning you can wake up
with the answer. I always knew a good sleep was all I needed to solve all of life's problem... this is most definitely also the reason why people use the expression - "let me sleep on it" or "everything will be better in the morning" - which it does always seem to be.
3. Art and inventions
come to people in their sleep.
This is connected to the mind-set idea, but things have been
developed by an unconscious mind, such as the idea for Google, the model for
DNA, the sewing machine and even the periodic table - amazing right?!
4. We have more, not
less, brain activity at night.
If your dreams sometimes seem a little bizarre and
unregulated, that’s because mostly they are. When we dream, our brains continue
to be active, but our regulatory capacities are lowered. This results in a lot
more brain activity.
5. People over 60 are
more likely to dream in black and white.
Remarkably, studies show this to be true, while people under
40 rarely do. This has been attributed to the switch from black and white to
colour TVs. I think this is one of the funniest facts, I wonder if our children will dream in HD from all the HD televisions, computers, etc. Will the dreams of the future be different again?!
6. You can’t read in
a dream.
Perhaps you’ve experienced this: you’re reading an exam
paper and find yourself scanning text that is meaningless. This is because it
is almost impossible to both imagine a finished page and read it at the same
time.
7. The first known
dream dictionary dates to around 1275 B.C.
The Dream Book is an Egyptian papyrus from the time of
Ramses II, housed at the British Museum in London. Like many people today, the
ancient Egyptians believed dreams could be interpreted. One famous example
says, ’if your bed catches fire in a dream, it means you are driving your wife
out of the marriage’ - aren't dream interpretations some of the most bizarre things you've ever read? I know they are for me.
8. Nightmares happen more to kids
than adults
Nightmares
are a bad dream that often occur in many children, however they are most common
in children aged 3-6 years. At this age children tend to develop normal fears
and a child’s imagination can be very active. There are many things you can you
do to reduce the occurrence of nightmares in your children’s lives including
creating a cosy, safe environment for them to sleep in. My son isn't three yet but I have lots of nightlights for him which project stars onto the ceiling and play lullabies, these make him drift off into a peaceful sleep, the sea sounds of one even make me fall asleep! There are many things you can do to help your child have a peaceful nights sleep, from reading them bedtime stories to investing in a children’s midsleeper cabin bed to prove to them
there is no monsters under the bed, plus those types of beds are so cool looking too and great space savers!
9. Some people can
engage in lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming involves the regulatory part of the brain
responding to the random stimuli that make up dreams and shaping the events as
desired. Lucid dreaming can be very pleasant, as the dreamer still feels the
dream is coming to them rather than from them. And good news for everyone - you
can train yourself to do it, although I'm pretty sure I already do this as sometimes I can wake up and be confused as to whether I was dreaming or if it was reality!
I loved reading this post.
ReplyDeleteI love dreaming and I completely agree that you can solve problems in your sleep, I always tend to sleep on problems too.
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I didn't know about many of these facts. So cool! I did learn in college though that the brain is most active while sleeping. It's when it decides what's going to be put into long-term memory and what's going to be forgotten. I have learned over my lifetime that, when I first wake up, I'm the most open to new ideas and ways of solving problems that are different from my "mind set". I love that time of the day and try to keep from waking suddenly so this period of time can happen. Thanks for the intriguing post. :)
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