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Cannibal wrote on 2012-04-29 09:50
When your head hits the pillow, for many it's lights out for the conscious part of you. But the cells firing in your brain are very much awake, sparking enough energy to produce the sometimes vivid and sometimes downright haunted dreams that take place during the rapid-eye-movement stage of your sleep.
Why do some people have nightmares while others really spend their nights in bliss? Like sleep, dreams are mysterious phenomena. But as scientists are able to probe deeper into our minds, they are finding some of those answers.
Here's some of what we know about what goes on in dreamland.
1. Violent dreams can be a warning sign
As if nightmares weren't bad enough, a rare sleep disorder — called REM sleep behavior disorder — causes people to act out their dreams, sometimes with violent thrashes, kicks and screams. Such violent dreams may be an early sign of brain disorders down the line, including Parkinson's disease and dementia, according to research published online July 28, 2010, in the journal Neurology. The results suggest the incipient stages of these neurodegenerative disorders might begin decades before a person, or doctor, knows it.
2. Night owls have more nightmares
Staying up late has its perks, but whimsical dreaming is not one of them. Research published in 2011 in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms, revealed that night owls are more likely than their early-bird counterparts to experience nightmares.
In the study 264 university students rated how often they experienced nightmares on a scale from 0 to 4, never to always, respectively. The stay-up-late types scored, on average, a 2.10, compared with the morning types who averaged a 1.23. The researchers said the difference was a significant one, however, they aren’t sure what's causing a link between sleep habits and nightmares. Among their ideas is the stress hormone cortisol, which peaks in the morning right before we wake up, a time when people are more prone to be in REM, or dream, sleep. If you’re still sleeping at that time, the cortisol rise could trigger vivid dreams or nightmares, the researchers speculate.
3. Men dream about sex
As in their wake hours, men also dream about sex more than women do. And comparing notes in the morning may not be a turn-on for either guys or gals, as women are more likely to have experienced nightmares, suggests doctoral research reported in 2009 by psychologist Jennie Parker of the University of the West of England.
She found women's dreams/nightmares could be grouped into three categories: fearful dreams (being chased or having their life threatened); dreams involving the loss of a loved one; or confused dreams.
4. You can control your dreams
If you're interested in lucid dreaming, you may want to take up video gaming. The link? Both represent alternate realities, said Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan University in Canada.
"If you're spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it's practice," Gackenbach told LiveScience in 2010. "Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams." Her past research has shown that people who frequently play video games are more likely than non-gamers to have lucid dreams where they view themselves from outside their bodies; they were also better able to influence their dream worlds, as if controlling a video-game character.
That level of control may also help gamers turn a bloodcurdling nightmare into a carefree dream, she found in a 2008 study. This ability could help war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Gackenbach reasoned.
5. Why we dream
Scientists have long wondered why we dream, with answers ranging from Sigmund Freud's idea that dreams fulfill our wishes to the speculation that these wistful journeys are just a side effect of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Turns out, at least part of the reason may be critical thinking, suggests Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett who presented her theory in 2010 at the Association for Psychological Science meeting in Boston.
Her research revealed that our slumbering hours may help us solve puzzles that have plagued us during daylight hours. The visual and often illogical aspects of dreams make them perfect for the out-of-the-box thinking that is necessary to solve some problems, she speculates.
So while dreams may have originally evolved for another purpose, they have likely been refined over time for multiple tasks, including helping the brain reboot and helping us solve problems, she said.
Source.
The part about gamers and lucid dreaming is really interesting... I've never had a lucid dream, at least not one that I remember... how about you guys?
I've also almost always been a night owl, and I can't say I've ever had more nightmares than my mom or sisters, who sleep significantly earlier than I do. Maybe I just don't remember those, either.
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Cucurbita wrote on 2012-04-29 09:56
I can't lucid dream at will. They sometimes come though. And its not nearly as controlled as I'd like it to be. But I can sometimes guide the direction of my dream.
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Spellcard wrote on 2012-04-29 10:59
I find this true actually..
My mother has violent dreams at times. She remembered having a dream something about a ghost. That day she told my brother to call one of his friends (old friend) When he called he found out that he passed away.
I find 3 true.
2..I don't find true. I'm a serious Night Owl and I haven't had a nightmare in a very long time.
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Sumpfkraut wrote on 2012-04-29 12:05
Quote from Spellcard;851354:
My mother has violent dreams at times. She remembered having a dream something about a ghost. That day she told my brother to call one of his friends (old friend) When he called he found out that he passed away.
That's not what has been implied by the paragraph about violent dreams. Read it again.
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Chiyuri wrote on 2012-04-29 12:16
I had quite a few lucid dreams but non were in third person view.
Also, I usualy need a certain event to cause the dream to shift to lucid dreaming. Once I shift to lucid dreaming, I can remember the entire dream's content when I wake up, even the part before I was lucid.
To get lucid dreaming more often, you need to get used to spotting the oddness of dreams.
For me, I can't run in dreams. If I try running, I easily lose balence, run in slow motion and can't go fast at all. When I dream, I started to notice that oddness when I have to run. That usualy is the event I have that trigger lucidity.
Now once lucidity kick in. Do Not Go Against The Dream's Flow. If you try to forcefully change the dream's flow, you will wake up almost right away. You need to "continute" the dream and slowly bring it in the direction you want it to..
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Claudia wrote on 2012-04-29 13:37
Yeah, I think I can 'lucid dream'.
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RebeccaBlack wrote on 2012-04-29 13:48
I do have lucid dreams reasonably often. I guess it starts to become natural as time goes on, the biggest problem is that I often wake myself up in the excitement even if I'm quite tired at the time. It kinda creates a cycle where I'm afraid of waking up as soon as I realize I'm dreaming, actually waking me up as a result.
I've realized nightmares were just dreams a few times and didn't turn them around because I thought I was locked in somehow. Hard to explain. I'm not sure if that counts just because I realize it's a dream.
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Piero wrote on 2012-04-29 14:02
I barely ever dream for some reason, but I'd like to be able to control it the next time I do dream.
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MareneCorp wrote on 2012-04-29 14:08
I only occasionally have lucid dreams, but I have a lot more violent dreams than anything else... ._.
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Xemnas wrote on 2012-04-29 14:53
Almost all my dreams become lucid dreams effortlessly after a few(dream) minutes.
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Sekwaf wrote on 2012-04-29 18:22
I'm making an effort to become a lucid dreamer... So far only one success, and it was brief. Most nights I can't even remember my dreams. Odd since I'm an avid gamer, and read fiction almost non-stop, and participate in the theatre; most of my activities focus on hearing about, participating in, or creating an alternate reality...yet no luck being lucid...
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Sinned wrote on 2012-04-30 00:08
I've been able to lucid dream since I was in elementary school. When you realize you're conscious, but your body isn't responding but you feel the external stimuli affecting you, you're pretty much there.
I've been able to invoke lucid dreaming by napping then forcing myself to sleep usually. Either that or nap then have a really late sleep afterwards.
Some of the stuff in the article I'm suspicious of since I did a paper on lucid dreaming but /shrug
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Elena wrote on 2012-04-30 00:39
I've had different levels of lucid dreams. Sometimes I can control things really well, and sometimes I just know I'm dreaming but I can't do anything to save myself from whatever's coming after me.
All I can do is cream at my body 'WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP". o-o
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Kayate wrote on 2012-04-30 00:50
Quote from Elena;851734:
I've had different levels of lucid dreams. Sometimes I can control things really well, and sometimes I just know I'm dreaming but I can't do anything to save myself from whatever's coming after me.
All I can do is cream at my body 'WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP". o-o
Lol cream
Back to the topic, I have had lucid dreams before but I'm not really able to control it comepletly only at some parts also seems to me that I have a higher chance of having a lucid dream when I go to sleep after I finish playing a game.
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Elena wrote on 2012-04-30 01:00
MAYBE THAT WAS FREUDIAN...
Maybe.
*cough*
What I learned is that dreaming can be caused by many things. Sometimes it's just your brain being random, sometimes its related to an actual problem you're having, and sometimes it has to do with your desires or fears. I'm pretty sure there's no one thing that's right all the time.