Parts to this article relate to:
1) Dreams
2) REM - Sleep
3) The Stages of Sleep
4) Linking Dreams and the Paranormal
5) Dreams - A Gateway to the Psychic World
6) Dream Trivia Facts
Part 1 - Dreams
One third of your life is spent sleeping. In an average lifetime, you would have spent a total of about six years of it dreaming. That equates to more than 2,100 days spent in a different realm.
The scientific study of dreams is called Oneirology. Scientists also believe that birds, reptiles and other mammals also dream. Dream interpretations date back to between 4000-5000 BC in Mesopotamia where they were documented on clay tablets. Dreams can last a few seconds to 20 minutes and people are most likely to remember them if awakened during the REM period.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), considered to be the “Father of the study of dreams” believed that nothing you do occurs by chance, that every action and thought is motivated by your unconscious at some level. Freud believed that the unconscious expresses itself in a symbolic language.
Part 2 - REM sleep
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a normal sleep stage characterized by the rapid and random movement of the eyes. Rapid eye movement sleep is classified into two categories: tonic and phasic.
In 1953, Dr Nathaniel Kleitman, a Professor of Physiology at the University of Chicago and his student Eugene Aserinsky identified and defined Rapid Eye Movement (REM) while experimenting on students and later on Kleitman’s daughter.
Criteria for REM sleep includes; rapid eye movement, low muscle tone and a rapid, low voltage EEG. REM sleep in adult humans typically occupies 20-25% of total sleep, about 90-120 minutes of a night's sleep.
REM sleep is considered the lightest stage of sleep and normally occurs close to morning. During a normal night of sleep, humans on average experience about 4-5 periods of REM sleep, they are quite short at the beginning of the night and longer toward the end.
Many animals and some people tend to wake, or experience a period of very light sleep, for a short time immediately after a bout of REM. The relative amount of REM sleep varies considerably with age. A newborn baby spends more than 80% of total sleep time in REM.
During REM, the activity of the brain's neurons is quite similar to that during waking hours and for this reason, the REM sleep stage may be called paradoxical sleep.Those who are awakened right after a REM sleep are able to recall their dreams more vividly than those who slept through the night until morning. Often responses will be that they were in the middle of a dream.
Several theories are proposed in relation to REM sleep;
Memory: Certain memories are recalled during sleep. Stimulation of CNS development: as a primary function. This theory provides the neural stimulation that newborns need to form mature neural connections for proper nervous system development defensive immobilization. Shift of gaze: The theory of shifting your gaze whilst dreaming.
It is also suggested that deprivation of REM may lead to psychological disturbances, although mild, but may include anxiety, hallucinations, low appetite leading to eating disorders, irritability, depression and at times, aggression.
The stages in the sleep cycle are organized by the changes in specific brain activity.
Part 3 - The Stages of Sleep
Stage 1:
You are entering into light sleep. This stage is characterized by non-rapid eye movements (NREM), muscle relaxation, lowered body temperature and slowed heart rate. The body is preparing to enter into deep sleep.
Stage 2:
Also characterized by NREM, this stage is characterized by a further drop in body temperature and relaxation of the muscles. The body's immune system goes to work on repairing the day's damage. The endocrine glands secrete growth hormones, while blood is sent to the muscles to be reconditioned. In this stage, you are completely asleep.
Stage 3:
Still in the NREM stage, this is an even deeper sleep. Your metabolic levels are extremely slow.
Stage 4:
In this stage of sleep, your eyes move back and forth erratically as if watching something from underneath your eyelids. Referred to as REM sleep or delta sleep, this stage occurs at about 90-100 minutes after the onset of sleep. Your blood pressure rises, heart rate speeds up and respiration becomes erratic as brain activity increases. Your involuntary muscles also become paralyzed or immobilized. This stage is the most restorative part of sleep. Your mind is being revitalized and emotions are being fine-tuned. The majority of your dreaming occurs in this stage. If you are awakened during this stage of sleep, you are more likely to remember your dreams.
These stages repeat themselves throughout the night as you sleep. As the cycle repeats, you will spend less time in stages 1 to 3 and more time dreaming in stage 4. In other words, it will be quicker for you to get to stage 4 each time the cycle repeats.
Part 4 - Linking Dreams to the Paranormal
Dream Telepathy
Telepathy is defined as the transfer of information from one mind to another without any apparent channel of communication. Dream Telepathy is the transfer of dream content, the exchange of ideas, images or contact in dreams. It involves gaining access to information to which you should not have been able to have access to.
Precognition & Déjà Vu
Precognition Déjà Vu, are to be aware about an event before it actually occurs. Precognitive dreaming involves seeing images or idea forms in dreams that pertain to events that have not yet unfolded in our own world. The essential ingredient is that the information comes about events that at some later time unfold and the dream image is present.
Mutual Dreaming
A mutual dream is a special case of telepathy in which two people meet in a dream, engage each other in some way and wake in their separate worlds.
Lucid Dreaming
It is being sufficiently aware in your dream that you can guide the content. You are at least vaguely aware that you are in dreaming as you dream. For example, you might think "I must dream this", and then decide to leave your current dreamscape and go flying elsewhere. In a fully lucid dream you think clearly and remember clearly. You become awake in the dream. This is the basis of astral travel.
OBE - Out of Body Experience
Sometimes confused with lucid dreams but with a number of different characteristics. Commonly you experience leaving your physical body and appear to float outside of it.
Often these experiences coincide with a physical crisis, such as a severe illness or a NDE (Near Death Experience) described as being intensely real. Often regarded as 'astral' meaning starry body. OBEs do not always require such extreme circumstances, and many healthy people claim the ability to leave their physical bodies, and to astral travel at will.
NDEs - Near Death Experiences
For the many whom have narrowly escaped death or even clinically died and then come back to life, have reported NDEs. Typically they report leaving their physical bodies (OBE), experiencing a life review, traveling through a tunnel towards a bright light, meeting deceased friends and relatives, encountering a spiritual being, and then returning to their physical bodies. NDEs often have profound effects on those who have them, often changing their views of life and death and fundamentally altering their religious beliefs.
Spiritual Dreaming
In which you experience or gain special insight into the spiritual or religious aspect of life. You may experience meeting guides or other beings, possibly friends or family members who have died.
Part 5) - Dreams - A Gateway to the Psychic Realm
By definition, a dream is referred to as a series of thoughts, images or emotions that takes happens during sleep. Dreams are known to unify the mind, body and spirit by allowing the conscious & unconscious elements of our mind and emotions to mingle and have free roam. Aside from this, dreams can also be more than a self awareness tool. They are believed to be the connection to the psychic realm.
On a metaphysical level, dreams and their significance have been important to many cultures across the world since the time of our earliest ancestors; and many people have always taken into thought what their dreams imply.
Dreams have been also long regarded to echo lost memories, concealed emotions and prophetic signs or psychic connections. Yes, dreams are a strong connection to the psychic world.
In a study published on the 15th May 2013, scientists detailed how they monitored a number of participants during various stages of sleep and gave them complex tasks, such as bringing objects from the dream world back to the real world. Kevin McCaffrey, a neuroscientist and researcher who helped conduct the study, said that anyone was capable of retrieving objects from dreams, so long as they concentrated really hard.
What he quoted was; “What people haven’t realised until now is that this alternate universe that we might call dreamland, is actually a very real place that people do go to when they sleep,” he said. “It is a place where internal emotions very tangibly affect the external environment, the laws of physics don’t apply”.
“We really need to find a new term for ‘real world’, because actually, the dream world is just as real.” When asked what he thought implications of such a discovery were, McCaffrey said he wasn’t yet sure, but that he expected them to be large. “Well I think you’ll find it’s a double edged sword,” he said. “For people who’ve accomplished great things in their dreams, it’ll be nice to be able to say with some confidence that they’ve actually done it".
“On the other hand, for those who have had traumatic experiences in dreams and have been able to console themselves with the thought that they weren’t real…well, they might not be able to say that anymore.” McCaffrey added that while he knew many would find the study alarming, even disturbing, he personally thought it was exciting.
Part 6) - Dream Trivia
By definition, a dream is referred to as a series of thoughts, images or emotions that takes happens during sleep. Dreams are known to unify the mind, body and spirit by allowing the conscious & unconscious elements of our mind and emotions to mingle and have free roam. Aside from this, dreams can also be more than a self awareness tool. They are believed to be the connection to the psychic realm.
On a metaphysical level, dreams and their significance have been important to many cultures across the world since the time of our earliest ancestors; and many people have always taken into thought what their dreams imply.
Dreams have been also long regarded to echo lost memories, concealed emotions and prophetic signs or psychic connections. Yes, dreams are a strong connection to the psychic world.
In a study published on the 15th May 2013, scientists detailed how they monitored a number of participants during various stages of sleep and gave them complex tasks, such as bringing objects from the dream world back to the real world. Kevin McCaffrey, a neuroscientist and researcher who helped conduct the study, said that anyone was capable of retrieving objects from dreams, so long as they concentrated really hard.
What he quoted was; “What people haven’t realised until now is that this alternate universe that we might call dreamland, is actually a very real place that people do go to when they sleep,” he said. “It is a place where internal emotions very tangibly affect the external environment, the laws of physics don’t apply”.
“We really need to find a new term for ‘real world’, because actually, the dream world is just as real.” When asked what he thought implications of such a discovery were, McCaffrey said he wasn’t yet sure, but that he expected them to be large. “Well I think you’ll find it’s a double edged sword,” he said. “For people who’ve accomplished great things in their dreams, it’ll be nice to be able to say with some confidence that they’ve actually done it".
“On the other hand, for those who have had traumatic experiences in dreams and have been able to console themselves with the thought that they weren’t real…well, they might not be able to say that anymore.” McCaffrey added that while he knew many would find the study alarming, even disturbing, he personally thought it was exciting.
Part 6) - Dream Trivia
- In a poll, 67% of Americans have experienced Deja Vu in their dreams, occurring more often in females than males.
- The original meaning of the word 'nightmare' was a female spirit who besets people at night while they sleep.
- Five minutes after the end of the dream, 50% of the content is forgotten, after ten minutes 90% is forgotten.
- 10-12% of people only dream in black and white. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today only 4.4% of the dreams for those under 25 years of age are in black and white.
- People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion.
- The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Negative emotions are more common than positive emotions.
- A study showed that 42% of people felt they had a dream about something that later came true.
- Jet lag is the inability to sleep caused when traveling across several time zones causing biological rhythms to get out of synchronization.
- Animals dream too. Studies have been done on many different animals and they all showed the same brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans.
- Some sleeping tablets such as barbiturates, suppress REM sleep, which can be harmful over a long period.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_eye_movement_sleep
http://www.boredpanda.com/15-interesting-facts-about-dreams-dreaming/
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/freud
http://voices.yahoo.com/deciphering-meaning-psychic-dreams
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/dreams-are-real-say-scientists
http://asdreams.org/telepathy/faq_paranormal.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_eye_movement_sleep
http://www.boredpanda.com/15-interesting-facts-about-dreams-dreaming/
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/freud
http://voices.yahoo.com/deciphering-meaning-psychic-dreams
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/dreams-are-real-say-scientists
http://asdreams.org/telepathy/faq_paranormal.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream
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