Do we dream every night? - Sleep Health - C-Health.
An interesting article stating that not only do we dream every night, but we also dream when our eyes aren’t doing the rapid eye movement. This is interesting to me, I had long considered only that moment where your eyes are moving to be when we’re dreaming. This report suggests that we dream during other times as well, but they are much less interesting, and mundane.
Something to note is that you have a thirty second window after you wake up to remember your dream, either by writing it down, telling someone close to you, or creating a key phrase. After those thirty seconds the chance of remember your dream from the night before deminishes. Once you make a practice of remembering your dreams it will happen more often.
Has anyone taken special note of their dreams recently? You can’t know for sure if you’re REM dreaming or not, but I’d be interested to hear if you remember your dreams. Do you have any special technique you use to remember your dreams?
Thank you.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I have a dream journal, I’ve journaled for years now. Unfortunately my dreams aren’t the kind of thing I can post about, not on a PG blog, at any rate. I’m a very passionate person and my dreams reflect that in all capacities or situations, whether sexual or not.
I don’t dream every night though. And…I dream in black and white.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:13 pm
My mind works in images more than words. I replay my dreams like a movie or a slide-show as soon as I wake up. I can usually remember my dreams that way. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I am able to continue a dream right where it left off when I go back to sleep.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I can’t remember the last time I dreamt. There again I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night either. The dreams I seem to remember now are the ones I don’t want to think about. That bad reoccuring dream. What does that say?
July 31st, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I believe that dreams are a way to to sort each days happenings. Also that spiritual insights will come to you. Answers to problems. Dreams that stand out to me, that when I wake I remember. I ask myself, ‘What could this mean? Then I ponder on it.
I used to have a reoccurring dream where a large bull would chase me. Through buildings upstairs. I would stand on furniture and it would try to stand on its hind legs and get me. Other people would be around and he would never chase them. Then the last time I had this dream, I was standing on a tall chest of drawers. He was on his hind legs. I looked down at him and said ‘Why are you chasing me?’ He replied “Because you run.” The dream ended and I haven’t had it since. I try to face my problems and find an acceptable answer that will be good for me. Not just trudging thru, or running away from them. I think this was the message. And what about visions in your dreams? Do you believe? I do.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I do not have any special techniques to remember my dreams. I like the idea of writing them down, when waking…and for a moment told myself to do it..but I won’t, my main thing in waking is getting out of the back of the house before anyone wakes up.
I either remember my dream immediately, or little bits and peices show up through the day. I kind of like when, I remember bits and peices through out the day…it’s like putting together a puzzle.
I guess it makes sense that we can dream outside of REM…as I am a day dreamer, and I don’t think you can day dream REM style…can you?
August 1st, 2008 at 1:17 am
Claudia, I hate to see you restrain yourself simply to keep this blog rating PG, don’t hold back on my account. I think it’s interesting that you dream in black and white… that leaves a world of cinematic imagination for me. I have to suggest it’s a dark and fantastical daydream. And that you’re so passionate speaks very highly of you, waking or sleeping.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:18 am
Gloria, I think that it’s very interesting that the key you use for your memory is visual, I hadn’t thought of such a thing, but it’s a really good idea. Some people are tactile, some are visual, what a wonderful way of working around the bubble.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:20 am
Julie, I’m sorry you don’t remember your dreams, I have to imagine you are dreaming, it’s such a necessary process, but that you only remember the desturbing ones is interesting. I challenge you to start keeping a dream log and see if that opens up more dreams for you and a little more control of them.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:22 am
Omaman, I’m fascinated by your dream with the bull, I think a lot of our subconscious is like that, fed by our actions and fears and I think one of the themes I aim for in this site is to really create a place where a control of our dreams gives us the ability to control our reality. I think it’s important to learn from the elements in our dreams and let them affect the way we approach reality. Your dream about running may signify escaping from stress, or conflict, and by facing that it can make you stronger. (dream interpretation is so personal though)
August 1st, 2008 at 1:25 am
Harmony, I had never looked at remembering my dreams as a puzzle process, it really is… at some point I’m tempted to post the contents of my dream journal, they look like segmented ramblings of a mad man. I know what you mean about the first thought when waking up being other things than “what was my dream” or “quick write that down” lately I’ve been trying to remember anything at all before I roll over from sleep, and it’s been difficult to catch. To me remembering my dreams has been like grabbing an oil slicked rope before it pulls away from me. I bet I could change that metaphore to something else and make it more interesting. (and thus you are right about the day dreams, it’s such a wonderful connection, thank you)
August 1st, 2008 at 6:47 am
Thanks for visiting my blog, Claudious. I have a dream that comes to me at key moments when I need to make some decisions or find myself at a turning point. I had it again last night. The gist of it is I find myself traveling some long distance away from my home, usually on something work/business related, on unfamiliar highways.
And (here’s the key) then I find myself sitting in the back seat of my own car, with my father driving. (He died in 1976.) I find him taking me away from my intended destination, or driving into dangerous situations or driving recklessly.
As I’ve interpreted it, this dream means I’ve lost control over my own destiny and I need to get back in the driver’s seat. Of course there are other recurring details that key me in to the fact that this is the dream coming around again and why it’s happening.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:21 am
Many of my dreams are anxiety-related and I can usually tell what they’re trying to indicate. Except for the other night when I dreamed I was talking to an apple that had a face. That one I still haven’t figured out.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Welcome to my lucid reality Trixie, thank you for sharing your dream with me, I think it’s interesting how you find yourself in the back seat of the car. It’s funny that now that I’m older whenever I’m in the back seat I feel so very powerless to choose our direction.
I like your interpretation, in my case I would wonder if I’m stuck traveling the path that my Father took… but that’s because I’m constantly thinking about the path that my Father took.
August 1st, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Wordgirl, I love that you were talking to an apple… I have no idea what something like that could mean, I do wonder what you talked about. That sounds like one of the most interesting conversations.
August 2nd, 2008 at 12:48 am
I dream in color. I have dreams that sometimes happen IRL later. There are several recurring dreams that come to me, most of them I don’t care for (and they are very intense). And then there are those most bizarre who-could-think-this-stuff-up kind of dreams.
What about the sounds you hear as you drift off to sleep? Little snatches of speech, etc. Anyone else have that?
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Mrs. Organic, welcome to my lucid reality, I was really hoping you’d come. One of my favorite things about keeping a dream journal is when I experience a profound sense of deja’vu or knowing that I’ve dreamt this situation before, I can look it up and have additional proof that I’m not just making things up.
I’m not sure about sounds I hear or voices as I go to sleep, I have a lot of reoccuring dreams where I’m traveling across the world, but it’s not like Earth.