There’s a lot we still don’t understand when it comes to sleep. We know certain changes occur in the brain, and we have a few guesses as to why, but even the experts only have theories about many aspects of sleep in general and dreaming in particular.
Sleep has long been thought of as a way to process, sort and store the day’s events, and more and more research is supporting that notion. Imagine the brain as a second gut, says Rubin Naiman, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist specializing in integrative sleep and dream medicine at the University of Arizona. “At night, the brain metaphorically swallows, digests and sifts through information, and, just like the gut, eliminates,” he says. “What the brain keeps becomes a part of who we are.” Dreaming, he says, is like the brain’s digestive system.
But there’s plenty about dreaming we only think we know. Below, a few of the little-known facts and bogus myths about dreams.
We dream all night long.
You’ve probably heard that dreams only occur during rapid eye movement or REM sleep. But we’re actually constantly dreaming, says Naiman. We’re more tuned in to dreams during REM sleep, he says, but just because you don’t “see” the dream, doesn’t mean it’s not there. As the night progresses, periods of REM sleep lengthen, so the majority of our dreams occur within the latter third of the night, he says.
Insects and fish don’t have REM sleep.
Although some dreams happen outside of REM sleep, identifying rapid eye movement in other species is about as close as we can get to predicting whether those creatures dream, according to University of California researchers. But all mammals and reptiles and some birds do experience REM sleep, and therefore likely dream, according to Popular Science.
You’re less likely to remember a dream if your alarm jolts you awake.
The trauma of an alarm dragging you into the waking world can cause you to forget where you were floating just moments before. The best way to remember your dreams, says Naiman, is to allow yourself to wake up slowly, over a matter of minutes, lolling about in your grogginess. Just don’t try too hard to hold onto those fleeting images. “If you chase a dream, it’s going to run away,” he says.
People who remember their dreams show different brain activity.
A 2014 study found more spontaneous activity in a part of the brain called the temporo-parietal junction among people who regularly recall their dreams, compared with people who rarely do. The differences weren’t just during sleep, but also while study participants were awake. Previous research found that people who remember more dreams also react more to sounds during sleep (and while awake) than people who don’t remember many dreams.
Read more: http://earthweareone.com/9-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-dreaming/
