About the Brain & Dreaming

We dream often in our sleep, but sometimes the dream is not powerful or strange enough to retain in the memory. When you enter REM or deep sleep, your brain is dreaming to remain active.

The Facts

• Most dreams last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes.
  It was once believed that people only dream in black and white, but this is not true.
  Even though you don't remember them, everybody has several dreams a night.
  During a typical lifetime, an average person spends about 6 years dreaming.
  Blind people have dreams that are based on other senses.
  If somebody is snoring, he is not dreaming.
  Some animals, including elephants, sleep standing up but lie down for REM sleep.

  ( source: http://health.howstuffworks.com/dream3.htm )

Function

• While you are sleeping, your body goes through five different sleep cycles, over and over until you wake up in the morning.
  Light sleep is the first stage and is the easiest to awaken from. From here, you slowly drift into a slightly deeper sleep. The third and fourth sleep stages are moving into deep sleep, and your brain activity gradually slows down. About 90 minutes after the first stage of sleep begins, you move into REM.
  During the unfolding of the sleep cycle, your brain activity slows down and when you enter REM, you are experiencing the slowest brain waves, known as Delta waves. Your heart rate and breathing become more rapid during REM, and (as stated in the name) your eyes experience frequent movement as you dream). The rest of the body is paralyzed.
  The sleep cycle repeats itself numerous times throughout the night, and lasts about 120 minutes before starting over again.

Benefits

• In 1960, William Dement conducted a study in which the subjects were awakened every time they entered REM sleep. The subjects who did not enter REM sleep displayed mild disturbances, including anxiety and irritability and difficulty concentrating.
  Further studies have discredited any theories that lack of dreaming or REM sleep is connected to a loss of memory, but common knowledge tells us that if we don't 'get enough sleep, if we don't feel well rested, chances are high that we will go throughout the day being moody and a little "off."
  In summary, we don't need REM sleep for our brains to function, but we won't function well without a good night of several repeated sllep cycles. This allows our physical bodies to shut down and our brain to finally take it's break.

Misconceptions

• If you don't remember a dream you think you had, that doesn't mean you didn't have one.
  Dreams are more likely to stand out if they are powerfully emotional, such as reuniting with an old friend or flame--or a nightmare. A dream can also stand out if it is particularly absurd. For example, if you dream about turning watermelon seeds into dragons by holing them underwater for 45 seconds, chances are you will remember this dream for several weeks, looking for interpretations that may not even exist.
  It is also misconceived that those memorable dreams (consider the ones you don't remember) actually mean something.
  If you dream you are eating a giant marshmallow, this might mean you are hungry. If you dream about reuniting with somebody from your past, this might actually mean that in your subconscious mind, you would like to reunite with that person. History has shown numerous reports of "premonition," where a person actually is reunited with a person shortly after dreaming about the union. There are many logical explanations for this, but there are illogical explanations as well. They are all tough to prove.
  So it may not always mean something meaningful when you dream. Even the most absurd dreams could just be a combination of various facts or thoughts that occurred throughout the day prior, maybe even without your conscious awareness. Again, it is possible that some dreams could be interpreted as meaningful. But you can also take a tomato sandwich and intrepret some kind of prophecy hidden in the bread.

Significance

• You don't stay in REM sleep throughout the night. You dream more than one dream every night, and if you do remember a dream, you most likely only remember one. However, you do dream every night.
  Without fully completing at least one sleep cycle (it is OK to wake up during light sleep once REM has completed), a person will not be pleasant company. Also, if somebody has not had a good night's sleep, this is not the time to have an important conversation with that person.