What are some mind-blowing facts about our dreams?

• Negative dreams are more common than positive ones.
• The most distinct dreams happen during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which happens in short episodes throughout the night about 90 to 120 minutes apart.
• Some believe dreams can predict the future, though there isn’t enough evidence to prove it.
• You can’t read while dreaming.
• You’re more likely to remember your dreams on weekends or days when you sleep in, because each episode of REM sleep is longer than the last.
• Most of our dreams are linked to thoughts or events from the previous day or two.
• Women have more nightmares than men during their teen and adult years.
• Nightmares occur most frequently in the last third of the night.
• Many of the general population experience sleep paralysis, which is the inability to move when you’re in a state between sleep and wake.
• Everyone dreams, including pets.
• You spend an average of 6 years dreaming.
• We forget 95 to 99 % of our dreams.
• You forget 90 Percent of your dreams within 10 minutes.
• In our dreams, we only see faces that we already know.
• People who became blind after birth can see images in their dreams.
• Many Inventions are inspired by dreams

A few examples include:

The idea for Google -Larry Page

Alternating current generator -Tesla

DNA’s double helix spiral form -James Watson

The sewing machine -Elias Howe

Periodic table -Dimitri Mendeleyev

And many more..

• There exists premonition dreams. There are some astounding cases where people actually dreamt about things which happened to them later, in the exact same ways they dreamed about.
• You can have four to seven dreams in one night.
• Nobody can see clocks in their dreams.
• After your death in your dream, you wake up suddenly because your brain doesn’t know that how to response after that.
• Your mind Is more active during a dream than when you’re awake.
• Tripping in your dream and waking up with a twitch happens when your brain think that you are dying.
• You can control your dreams, and this is called Lucid dreaming.
• Dreams reveal feelings that we have repressed or hidden because dreams are a reflection of our unconscious mind.

Some sources:

45 Facts About Dreams: Sex Dreams, Nightmares, Fun Info, and More

68 (Surprising) Sleep Facts: Scary, Important, Interesting, Fun!

These Creepy Facts About Dreams Will Seriously Keep You Up Tonight

15 Interesting Facts about Dreams

What are some mind-blowing facts about our dreams?

 

1. Most of us dream every night for 90 minutes, and the longest dreams (30-45 minutes) occur in the morning.
2. Neither can we read nor tell the time during dreaming.
3. Lucid dreaming is an amazing technique to control one’s dreams as well as explore new dimensions and do amazing things like passing through walls and even flying !!
4. A category of dreams called as premonition dreaming gives us a brief insight of the future by hinting and emphasizing the scenes and moments likely to be true in future. Eg-:
5. Abraham Lincoln dreamt of His Assassination
6. Many of the victims of 9/11 had dreams warning them about the catastrophe
7. Mark Twain’s dream of his brother’s demise
8. 19 verified precognitive dreams about the Titanic catastrophe
9. Our body suffers from sleep paralysis during dreaming and hence we suffer from an inability to move.
10. We can induce dreams by dosage of mild amounts of “dimethyltryptamine drug”.
11. Even blind people and pets dream.
12. We forget most of our dreams by the time we wake up.
13. In dreams we see only those faces which we personally have seen somewhere before.
14. Most of the people have coloured dreams however some of the people dream ‘black and white’.
15. An average person dreams one to two hours every night.

What are some of the interesting facts about dreams?

 #1: Everyone dreams.

Some people claim that they don't, but in fact, they do. They just forget.
Only people suffering from extreme personality disorders don't dream.

#2: We forget 90% of our dreams.

Within the first 5 minutes of waking up, a person forgets 50% of his/her dream. Within 10, nearly 90% is forgotten.

And maybe that is the source of the Deja Vu we occasionally experience.

#3: We spend nearly 6 years of our lives dreaming
We dream almost 2-3 hours every night.

#4: The gender difference

Men usually have more aggressive dreams than women. But there is a special case in which the above statement does not hold true. First born males have lesser aggressive dreams while first-born females have more-aggressive ones.

Also, men tend to dream more about other men. Around 70% of the characters in a man’s dream are other men. On the other hand, a woman’s dream contains almost an equal number of men and women.

#5: Color v/s Black-and-white

People who grew up watching black and white television dream mostly in black and white.

#6: The stranger in your dreams

"I am the guy in your dreams. The one with a silver knife, ready to slit open your throat"

Sounds like a bad dream? One with a stranger in it trying to hack you to pieces?
Unfortunately, the guy is no stranger. He is someone you have seen in your lifetime. Our brain lacks the capability to visualize new faces (similar to trying to visualize a new color). The only reason we think of them as strangers is that we forget faces just like we forget dreams.

#7: The case of nightmares

Nightmares are common in every social culture. Ever been in a dream being chased by an angry mob or a horde of zombies or by a fierce predator? Ever found your dream-self in a humiliating public situation? Ever walked into your office in your dream only to find you forgot to wear your pants?

Don't worry. It's natural. Dreams of anxiety, falling, being chased are some of the most common ones.

#8: You can control your dreams:

You can control your dreams by a process known as lucid dreaming.
More info on Wikipedia: Lucid dream

A simple step-by-step procedure on "How to Lucid Dream".

#9: Your body is paralyzed when you are dreaming

So as to prevent you from enacting out your dream. In cases, where the paralysis is incomplete, people suffer from sleep-walking and other disorders.

#10: Blind people dream too

Blind people have dreams too. They are just as vivid as those of sighted people. The only difference is that their dreams involve more of their other senses like sound, smell and touch.

#11: A sense of insecurity

The most common dream that people have is that of their spouse cheating on them.

#12: Breaking the rules

We mostly dream about the things that are forbidden to us. For example, a diabetic is more likely to dream about gorging on sweets and chocolates.

#13: Dreams are the source of some great inventions

Some other examples of great things being conceived through dreams: Twelve Famous Dreams

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Sources:

• Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dreams - Listverse
• 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Dreams
• 12 Coolest Facts About Dreams