Interesting Aspects of Dreaming
Most of us wake up screaming from our sleep. When we wake up with a terrible dream. Or if we dream beautiful things, we don't want to wake up at all, we try to go back to sleep to continue the dream.
Sometimes just as we fall asleep, we fall out of bed and wake up with a jump. Everyone has experienced this. Isn't that interesting?
We tell these dreams, good or bad, to our environment, sometimes we try to interpret them. Does it really make sense or is it a clever memory from our subconscious?
More interestingly, we narrate this dream for hours as if we had it all night, but we only see it for a few seconds. A little research would be nice.
We're All Dreaming
Whether we remember our REM adventures or not, we all actually dream. A study conducted in 2015; revealed that although people claim that they do not dream, they do not actually remember their dreams. However, there is some neurological basis for not remembering dreams. A study in 2014; revealed that REM activity in the brains of people who claim not to dream is slightly different.
If You Watch Black and White Television, You Can Have Black and White Dreams
A 1942 study revealed that people have black and white dreams. Of the 277 university students who participated in the study, 71% stated that they rarely had colored dreams. In 2001, researchers repeated the same study once more, finding that only 18% of participants reported having black-and-white dreams. In 2008, British scientists; They set out to investigate why some people dream in shades of gray and found that people who watched black-and-white movies as a child were more likely to have colorless dreams throughout their lives.
REM Dreams Are More Aggressive
Dreams are not only seen in the REM stage, but REM and non-REM dreams have qualitative differences. A study conducted; showed that people see more socially friendly relationships in non-REM dreams, but aggression increases as soon as the REM phase begins.
Gun Users Are More Prone to Violent Dreams
Is it possible to be exposed to violence infiltrating your subconscious? A study comparing Canadian soldiers with people addicted to Call of Duty and other violent games; revealed that soldiers had more frequent violent dreams than game addicts.
Women Have More Nightmares Than Men
Or the reports want us to believe it. According to a study; this gender-based condition begins around age 10. Okay but why? This situation; It is interpreted as the higher frequency of women being better at remembering dreams and showing high neurotic levels, a trait compatible with having nightmares. In particular, women who stay up late at night have more nightmares than women who wake up early in the morning. A study done; It shows that the link between having nightmares and staying awake until late at night is most common between the ages of 20 and 29.
Pregnant Women Have Freak Dreams More Often
Compared to non-pregnant women, expectant women; they have more bad dreams, especially in the ninth month of their pregnancy. A study done; It was found that expectant mothers had a poor quality sleep period in the last period of their pregnancy, which could lead to nightmares. When looking at the whole society; Our dreams contain more negative emotions than positive ones.
We Have the Ability to Observe What a Dreamer Is Seeing
It may sound like science fiction, but it's true. In 2013, scientists discovered that using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) can track what people see in their dreams. Whether we are asleep or awake, patterns of brain activity correspond to the same mental images. So, by observing, for example, the brain activity of conscious people who dream of red apples, scientists can work on timid thoughts and figure out who is lost in "red" fantasies.
Fragrance Shapes Our Dreams
Since our sense of smell is mostly closed during sleep, we rely on fire alarms to prevent fires. But according to a study conducted in 2008; Oddly enough, smells affect the emotional mood of our dreams. German researchers found that people exposed to the smell of rotten eggs had more negative dreams, while people exposed to aromatic scents had sweeter dreams.
Why Do We Dream?
This leads us to the question of what exactly the purpose of dreams is. No one has made a point-blank explanation for this situation, but there are various theories on the subject. Some theories focus only on the physiological aspect of the event and believe that dreams are simply the manifestation of our brain activity during our sleep. It has no more meaning to them, that is, our dreams have no real purpose.
Other theories focus on the more psychological aspects of dreams. According to Sigmund Freud, dreams help people do things they cannot do while awake. So, Freud says that our dreams help us to reveal our hidden passions. Carl Jung, on the other hand, believes that our dreams are the same thoughts we have when we are awake.
Freud and Jung put forward these theories in the Victorian Age. But today, many psychologists adopt a theory of bridging the psychological and neurological aspects of dreams. In 1973, Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley; They focused on the hypothesis that "dreams are the result of random electrical stimulations of the brain". Hobson and McCarley argued that dreams are images of our experiences stored in our memory. However, these random electrical impulses are not consistent with all stories, but are a series of fragmentary images. While a person is awake, the brain takes these fragmentary images and creates a meaningful whole story from them.
