10 Curiosities About Dreams That You Are Going To Love

From time immemorial dreams have been a source of enigma  for human beings. The curiosities about dreams have always been present. For many years it was in question whether or not the scenes that paraded while we slept were real. Over the course of several centuries they were given a magical, or mystical explanation, always associating them with a reality that was beyond comprehension.

Greek mythology is very eloquent in this regard. For the ancient Greeks, the god Chaos, who was the twin brother of Thanatos, or Death, had two sons. One was Nicte, or the night and the other was Erebus, or the darkness of hell. These two brothers had a son: Hypnos, god of sleep. In this way, chaos  and death gave rise to night and darkness. And from that unique combination dreams were born.

In turn, Hypnos had three children: Morpheus, Iquelo and Fantaso. Morpheus is the one that appears in the dreams of humans. Take the form of anyone. Therefore, any human figure that appeared in the dream was nothing more than another personification of Morpheus. Iquelo did the same with animals and Fantaso with inanimate objects. For the Greeks, human dreams were nothing more than a trick of the gods.

These are not the only curiosities about dreams out there. First it was mythology  and then science that adjudicated or revealed fascinating facts. The following 10 curiosities about dreams are some of the most interesting.

1. The unusual increase in brain activity

The only thing we rest from when we sleep is from consciousness. Far from resting, our brain  works intensely during dreams. Even in the deepest phases, when there are slow waves, the activity does not stop for a second.

What does happen is that in some phases of sleep there are certain brain regions that work in a slower and more coordinated way. However, during the so-called REM phase there is a real burst of activity. In fact, if an encephalogram is done during that stage, we find that it presents a pattern very similar to what we would find if we did it to an awake person.

2. We spend about 6 years of life dreaming

Whenever we sleep, we dream. There is no other alternative. Those who say that they do not dream, do so simply because they do not remember what happened after they closed their eyes. Once we are asleep, there is no way we can stop dreaming. At last we have answered one of the most shared curiosities about dreams.

Research indicates that the sleep stages themselves occur in periods of 5 to 20 minutes. If all those fractions are taken and added together, this results in that we spend about 6 years of our life dreaming. For this statistic, life expectancy at that time was taken as a reference.

3. The dreams of men and women are different

Some studies have found subtle differences between what men and women dream of. The contrast between one and the other occurs above all in terms of the content of dreams. Scenes and characters vary from genre to genre.

According to some studies, men dream more about scenarios and situations where there are acts of aggression. Women, on the other hand, have slightly longer dreams. In them the details would be more numerous and the situations more complex.

4. Not all dreams are in full color.

Another of the most shared curiosities about dreams is whether they are in color or in black and white. From the information of the dreamers, it is estimated that eight out of 10 dreams are in color. Everyone has black and white dreams. However, a small percentage never manage to dream in color, or at least do not seem to remember it.

In one experiment, a group was asked to select the group of colors with which they associated the dream. This request was made to them immediately after they woke up. Almost all respondents indicated pastel shades. It can be concluded, then, that we tend to dream in pastel colors.

5. Negative emotions are more common

During dreams we not only visualize scenes and characters, but we also experience many emotions. This is fully demonstrated in Calvin Hall’s extensive research on dreamers. This researcher managed to collect 50,000 stories related to dreams.

As expected, he confirmed that while we sleep we experience all sorts of emotions. However, what is surprising is that the emotion most referred to was anxiety. And there was a clear predominance of other negative emotions, such as fear and anger during dreams.

6. There are universal dreams

Scholars of the subject have revealed that there are some recurring dreams. The most curious thing is that they are presented equally in very different cultures. That is why we speak of “universal dreams” or of contents that we all dream of at some time.

One of the universal dreams is that of persecution. Also, almost all of us have ever dreamed that we are attacked by someone or that we fall into the void. Dreams of being bullied at school or of being naked in front of large numbers of onlookers are also very universal.

7. Former smokers dream more vividly

According to a report in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology , people who smoked for a long time and then stopped have more vivid dreams than normal. This means more realistic and detailed.

In an investigation conducted with 243 people who had quit smoking, 33% reported having dreams related to cigarettes. This happened between one and four weeks after being abstinent. 97% stated that they had never dreamed of cigarettes before quitting.

8. Only familiar things and people appear in dreams

One fact that has been established is that we never dream of people we do not know. The brain does not invent any faces. Those who parade in dreams are people we have seen at some time, even if only in passing.

No matter how absurd the characters that appear during our dreams, they are never about unknown people. The same goes for objects. Sometimes artifacts appear that seem completely new to us. However, they are a decomposition or deconstruction of known objects.

9. External stimuli intervene in dreams

After carrying out some studies, the phenomenon known as “incorporation of the dream” was verified, one of the curiosities about the most surprising dreams. It refers to the fact that on some occasions the contents of the environment end up integrating with those of the dream. They are amalgamated in a way that could be called “coherent.”

This happens when, for example, the person is dreaming that he is at school, in a class. Suddenly the bell of an alarm clock rings, and the dreamer associates it with the bell that ends the class.

10. There is paralysis while sleeping

In this case we are not talking about the so well known, and so feared, “sleep paralysis”. What we are referring to is a physiological event that occurs whenever we sleep. Some glands secrete a hormone that induces sleep. The neurons then send signals to the spinal cord to relax. As sleep progresses there is no longer just relaxation, but paralysis.

This brain mechanism has a purpose. A person could start “acting” during their sleep at any time. This would involve some risks, under certain conditions. That is why the paralysis induced by this process ensures that the body remains at rest until awakening.

Science has not yet unraveled all the enigmas and curiosities about dreams. What’s more, he has not even managed to elucidate the exact reasons why we sleep and dream. It is already known that it is not to rest, in any case. For this reason, the world of dreams continues to be an unknown realm, which we enter and leave daily without realizing its wonder.