REM Sleep Produces Vivid Dreams

Dreams has always been a fascinating topic. The vivid dreams people remember and talk about are REM dreams. These types of dreams occur almost continuously during each REM period. People also dream while they are in NREM sleep. These dreams are typically less frequent and not easily remembered like REM dreams. When we dream in REM sleep our dreams are like a story and are more visual, vivid, and emotional than NREM. People who are born blind or become blind before the age of 5 usually don’t have visual dreams. Instead they have vivid dreams involving other senses.

I’m sure everyone has heard the expression “dreams last for a split second”. The fact is, that’s not true. Researchers have discovered that it takes about as long to dream a dream as it would to experience the same thing in real life. Now we will look further into our dreams.

Have you ever met someone who say they never have dreams? According to researchers everybody dreams unless they are drinking heavily or taking drugs that suppresses REM sleep. You have the best recall of a dream if you are awaken during the dream. The more time that passes after the dream ends makes it harder to recall. If you wake up ten or more minutes after a dream is over you more than likely won’t remember it. When you wake up and you remember a dream, if you don’t write it down or mentally rehearse it your dream will fade quickly from your memory. Do you think people would be better off if they remembered more of their dreams? According to the sleep researchers probably not. If your dream memories were as vivid as memories of your real events, you probably would have a difficult time differentiating between events that actually happen and those you dream about.

Have you ever had a recurring unpleasant dream? You are not alone. Many people have unpleasant recurring dreams. Themes involving being chased or falling are the two of the most common. Is there anything that can be done to stop recurring dreams? Some people have been taught to use lucid dreaming to get resolutions to their unpleasant recurring dreams. Lucid dreams is a dream where you are aware that you are dreaming and can often influence the content of the dream while it is in progress. Only about ten percent of the population claim to have had this ability at one point or another.

It is amazing what goes on in our brains while we are asleep. But the fact is, dreams will forever be a part of our lives. While some things about dreams can not be explained, what we do know is amazing and unless you have lucid dreams, there is no way of controlling what you dream.