Dreams

What are dreams?

The word "dreams" has two different meanings. The first meaning of this word would be the moments we experience while sleeping. We usually call those moments dreams. When we experience moments while we sleep, we call that action dreaming, when someone dreams a dream or a moment that happened to us while we were asleep. Another meaning would be some moment in our life (while we are awake) that we wish to experience. If someone asked you: "What is your dream?", you would think of another meaning of this word. When we think about our very desired moments, we are daydreaming.

How does dreaming work?

When we sleep, sometimes we remember what we dreamed. We dream all the time, but it is not so often that our subconscious mind remembers what we dreamed. What does a dream look like? Dreams are a very strange phenomenon, which happens to us randomly, that is, which we remember randomly. Also, dreams are a phenomenon in which we notice random events and appearances of some things, living beings or persons. In fact, all this causes our waking life, let's say, events from everyday life. Dreams can be a reflection of the past or a prediction of the future. They can be dreamed in different ways, you can dream a scene of an event from the first or third person, some dreams can be controlled (lucid dreams) and some cannot. Dreams are usually divided into nightmares and ordinary dreams.

When we fall asleep, we enter NREM sleep, which can also be called orthodox sleep. The NREM phase lasts most of the sleep from when we fall asleep until we wake up and is divided into 2 types of orthodox sleep. The first type would be light orthodox sleep, in which the person changes positions typically forty times during the NREM phase. The name of the second type of NREM phase is deep orthodox sleep, in which the brain and muscles relax to the extreme. The REM phase comes after the NREM phase. The REM phase enables dreaming, which lasts approximately 15 to 20 minutes, after which the NREM phase occurs again. We can remember the dream if we wake up from the REM phase, after ten minutes after waking up from the REM phase, we will forget the dream completely.

Types of dreams

As mentioned, dreams are a very random phenomenon, which can be divided into several major types. These can be: nightmares, ordinary dreams, lucid dreams and sleep paralysis. These types are distinguished by the type of dream (scary, strange, reflective or foreboding dream), the way of the dream (first person, third person, control over the dream, how real the dream seemed). Nightmares are scary dreams in which we can find some reflective meaning (eg our fears, stress, terrible events from the past). Also, nightmares act as a real event over which we have no control, and the person, or point of view, can be either first or third. Ordinary dreams are not scary, sometimes they can be strange, or reflective or foreboding dreams. In ordinary dreams, the point of view is either first or third person. There is no control over ordinary dreams, and an ordinary dream does not even seem so real.

More about lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis coming soon in the next post...

How does daydreaming work?

We daydream by imagining some scenes in our head while we are awake. Those scenes can be either real or a fantasy, it all depends on what we dream about. Someone may have the power to imagine images that seem real, and someone may not even have the ability to imagine images (aphantasia). Someone imagines about their goal that they want to achieve, and someone about a better life or something they like to do.

How does daydreaming influences on a person?

It is another thing that is natural to humans, but which again can have a good and a bad influence. The good influence of daydreaming can create motivation for that person to reach a goal, since daydreaming can also be about a goal that a person really wants to reach. Dreaming revolves around human's desires and needs, it explains the nature related to humans. This phenomenon can have a good effect on insomnia, because daydreaming can relax the muscles and focus the brain on something simple, something that the person wants, and relaxed muscles release the possibility of entering sleep.

Excessive daydreaming can lead to serious problems, such as maladaptive daydreaming. This phenomenon can be found as a coping mechanism, in some cases it can have a good effect on the human psyche, but in most cases it leads to maladaptive daydreaming. Maladaptive daydreaming is a mental health problem that causes a person to get lost in complex daydreams. Usually this kind of daydreaming is some kind of addiction that starts with the coping mechanism and makes the daydreaming scenes real.

If we were to talk about people who are aphantasiatic, they do not have the ability to dream and remember in images, which would mean that daydreaming has no effect on them.

The difference between daydreaming and dreaming

Daydreaming are moments that we imagine in our head while we are awake, and dreaming are moments that happen to us while we are asleep (in the REM phase). So the word "dream" has two meanings, which must not be mixed up, due to misunderstanding.

The end

Do you prefer daydreaming or dreams? Do you have any thoughts or experince on maladaptive dreaming? Share in the comments any nightmare or a really weird dream you had! :)

Published by cilica