Dreams

[C Elegans]

We all dream while sleeping (and sometimes when awake ) Studies of other mammals show that many other species seems to dream too.

Dreams occur most frequently during the phase of sleep called REM, (rapid eye movement), but we can dream also in other 4 sleep stages.

Do you usually remember your dreams? How do you view dreams, are they just "day-rests", by products of biochemical activity, or our brain's way to consolidate memories and throw out the rest? Or do dreams have a deeper meaning, perhaps a window to another dimension or a message? Are there different kind of dreams, do you think?

[Dottie]

I fail to see any deeper meaning with my dreams, and i dont think there is one. What usally is present however is some element from the past days. I often dream about people I have recently met for example. Not all dreams have such elements though, atleast not such that are easy to find.

I cant draw any conclutions about what dreams are though, Il leave that to CE&Co

Is REM sleep occuring right before you wake up? In any case that time is were I am most likely to remember my dreams.

Another note about remember dreams, If you write down a dream when you wake up, and try to memorize it during the day you start to remember dreams more and more often. I ve tried this and it works quiet well, unfortunatly i was to lazy to keep it up.


Question to all: How often can you realize that you are dreaming without waking up? I almost always wake up very soon after i've figured it out...

-Edit-
Question nr 2: Have you had any dreams repeating over and over again? I had a nightmare when i was younger that i dreamt rather often... anything like that?

[Georgi]

Originally posted by C Elegans
Do you usually remember your dreams? How do you view dreams, are they just "day-rests", by products of biochemical activity, or our brain's way to consolidate memories and throw out the rest? Or do dreams have a deeper meaning, perhaps a window to another dimension or a message? Are there different kind of dreams, do you think?

It's very rare indeed that I remember my dreams. Even if I remember them on waking, I'll forget them very quickly if I don't write them down. And the few dreams I remember seem to be related to recent experiences - not really any deep messages there I wouldn't necessarily rule out the possibility of dreams being some kind of a subconscious message to yourself... but I don't think I've experienced any dreams like that.

[Vinin]

Well when u realize that ure dreaming, ure not dreaming anymore.

Also I believe that dreams have a deep signaficance on our everyday life. There are many times in life where I felt dejavu wasgoing on but in fact i had dreamed those exact events a few nights before. Also recently I had dreamed about a beautiful blonde girl who had come to me, and lo and behold I met this girl just today, we've hit it off and I got some digits. So yes dreams mean a lot to someone like me.

[C Elegans]

Sleep is going in approx. 90 minute cycles, first stage one when we fall asleep, then into deeper sleep, 2,3,4 and then back again 3,2,1. REM sleep occurs at the end of each sleep cycle, between stage 2 and 1. The first hours when we sleep, the deep sleep stage 4 is longer and the REM stage is quite brief, but later, the REM periods are longer, so we usually dream most intensly when we have slept several hours. The reason why we remember our dreams best when we have just awoke is partly because we dream more, and partly because it's much easier to remember your most recent dream.

Training to remember your dreams better is easily done in the fashion Dottie describes.

I'm seldom aware that I dream when I dream, but when I am, I usually take the opportunity to do stuff I can't do in reality, like flying It doesn't last very long though - I think the reason why you tend to wake up soon after realising you are dreaming, is that the realisation occurs because you are already on the verge to the awake state.

[THE JAKER]

I remember my dreams a fair portion of the time, but sometimes by a couple hours later I'll forget, which always makes me sad. I think that dreams are just completely unfettered imagination - not necessarily a message from outside, but just a chance for your mind to work. I've had dreams of stories and of melodies, when I have dreams like this I always make a special effort to not forget - I think a lot of interesting creative work has come from dreams.

I often think about how much dream material we don't remember each night - considering you can have a involved and convoluted dream in just a few minutes it makes you wonder what you missed.

I always notice cats and dogs dreaming. I really wonder what they think it means, after all they do not I presume have the shared understanding of how dreams occur that us humans do, i.e. your parents telling you "you had a dream, none of that really happened". Sometimes I've seen a cat wake up from a scary dream and look around - I wonder whats going through their mind. Do they understand what has happened at all?

[C Elegans]

@Dot: Recurring dreams, especially nightmares, are quite common both in adults and children. Sometimes is the same dream repeating itself, sometimes it's a common theme that repeats itself (like being hunted or falling from heights). As a teenager, I used to dream every now and then that I was a serial killer. I was different persons every time (I think), I was never me in the dream, I was usually a man but sometimes a woman. I killed different people in different ways, sometimes by strangling, sometimes with knife, etc. Highly unpleasant dreams to awake from. This kind of dreams ceased after a few years, luckily, after a friend of mine offered a very nice explanation of why she thought I was having them

@Jaker: Perhaps you should try to write down or in some way leave yourself a reminder? I know several artistic people who dream pictures, melodies etc who tries to scribble down a few notes not to forget what they dreamt.

Regarding other animals, good question. I wish we had a way to communicate with them as to understand their experiences. I have no idea how a cat would experience his dreams - probably like another state of reality, with no clear idea that it hasn't really happened.

[THE JAKER]

Originally posted by C Elegans
Regarding other animals, good question. I wish we had a way to communicate with them as to understand their experiences. I have no idea how a cat would experience his dreams - probably like another state of reality, with no clear idea that it hasn't really happened.

That's exactly what I mean - it's sort of like if no-one ever told you that there WAS such a thing as a dream, what would you think they were?

re: the serial killer dreams Hope you got over that OK, I think I would be scared to go to sleep. What was the explanation behind it anyway?

re: musical and fictional compositions in dreams - I try to always make some quick notes - if it's a melody then try to work it out on an instrument right then, if its a story jot it down. I've found that if I get over the initial impulse to forget then the stuff will stick with me for a long time. Objectively some of it has turned out to be pretty good work, too. It's amazing how quickly your brain can reel out all kinds of details.

[GandalfgalTTV]

When I get to wake up myself, no alarmclock, dreaming slowly becomes day dreaming, making my own imagination part of the dream. That's reallly cool, and it helps remembering what I've dreamed. And I keep this state going for quite some time before I actually wake up.

I share the deja-vu experience, I've had things happpen to me a couple of times. When I know for sure it happened only once in reality, but it was something that my subconscious had told me a couple of times before.

I think dreams are a combination, of recent events, a way for the mind to create the links that makes you remember things. Your own creativity and perhaps some premenitions throw in to spice things up. But figuring out what is what part of a dream, well I can't.

The only reacuring elements in my dreams, is the floor falling away from under me, strange thing is my legs actually experience that as well, I always wake up when that happens and my legs feel strange ( Don't know a nice word to explain it, but strange will work). But that element is easily explained. And ofcourse the opposite gender but that's normal. *No, I don't dream about farm animals.*

I don't think animals that dream, dream any differently from us, although the realisation that it ain't real may be a bit weaker, as some dreams make them do weird stuff when waking up.

And about communicating with animals, now that's something to dream about, hoping it's a premenition. But if it's ever going to happen I'm long gone before it does.

[Georgi]

Originally posted by Vinin
There are many times in life where I felt dejavu wasgoing on but in fact i had dreamed those exact events a few nights before.

Though I don't remember my dreams, I do get deja vu... so I suppose it could be that I dreamed those things, and just didn't remember them.

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by THE JAKER

That's exactly what I mean - it's sort of like if no-one ever told you that there WAS such a thing as a dream, what would you think they were?

Yep, I imagine that also humans would look at dreams at just some different state of reality if we hadn't learned as kids "it's not for real". In some native cultures, dreams are indeed looked upon that way, as entering another dimension but this dimension is "real", just different.

The serial killer dreams disappered totally, I haven't had them for 10 years At the time, I lived like a bum, I was very restless and felt very alienated from everything. My friend suggested the serial killer motive might be a way for me to conceptualise those alienation from society and humankind feelings that I constantly had. I don't know if it indeed was so, but after that discusion, the dreams never occured again

Good that you make use of your dreamt material. A friend of mine who is a designer does the same as you do, she sometimes awake in the middle of the night with some "vision", and she usually keeps a notebook beside her bed so as to be able to quickly take a few notes. Sometimes the ideas turns out to be very good - not surprisingly since the brain is working a lot also when we sleep, and it's nothing mysterious with our brains pondering material that is relevant to us when we are awake.

[C Elegans]

Originally posted by Georgi

Though I don't remember my dreams, I do get deja vu... so I suppose it could be that I dreamed those things, and just didn't remember them.

Ah, deja vu - there is a long and complicated neurological explanation of the deja vu phenomenon that doesn't contain any mystic elements. In short, the neurological hypothesis is that it's a temporary glitch in the brains sensory feed-back system. It might be so, or it might be something else. I however, sometimes have deja vu:s in my dreams, ie I dream that I have dreamt this dream before, but when I awake I realise I haven't dreamt anything similar before, not that I can recall at least. Anyone else having this?

[Xandax]

Originally posted by C Elegans


Ah, deja vu - there is a long and complicated neurological explanation of the deja vu phenomenon that doesn't contain any mystic elements. In short, the neurological hypothesis is that it's a temporary glitch in the brains sensory feed-back system. It might be so, or it might be something else. I however, sometimes have deja vu:s in my dreams, ie I dream that I have dreamt this dream before, but when I awake I realise I haven't dreamt anything similar before, not that I can recall at least. Anyone else having this?

Yes - often.

I do also have dreams of dreams that I know I've dreamt, and so on.
I also often remember my dreams wich I've made use of, seeing as I once during a big poject for school was having problems developing and programming a specific algorithm, and then in my sleep I dreamt I was programming and volia - it was the soloution, so I quickly broke the dream and woke up, wrote down the solouting down and in the morning - my problem (well this problem) was solved (by sleeping).

[GandalfgalTTV]

@CE: I like the mystic element. Must science be dragged into everything. j/k

Most of your dreams you don't remember, and of the once you do, you usually don't remember everything. So it is quite possibly I think, that one just doesn't remember.

A deja-vu with knowing why, yeah that's happened to me. But not inside a dream though.

Making us of my dream material, now there's a sure way to get to wear a straight jacket.

[Mr Sleep]

Here Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy

Me and restful sleep have never got on, there are certain situations which cause me to remember dreams, i am not sure whether i have dreams every night, i assume i do.