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LiveScience
When your head hits the pillow, for many it's lights out for the conscious part of you. But the cells firing in your brain are very much awake, sparking enough energy to produce the sometimes vivid and sometimes downright haunted dreams that take place during the rapid-eye-movement stage of your sleep.
Why do some people have nightmares while others really spend their nights in bliss? Like sleep, dreams are mysterious phenomena. But as scientists are able to probe deeper into our minds, they are finding some of those answers.
Here's some of what we know about what goes on in dreamland.
1. Violent dreams can be a warning sign
As if nightmares weren't bad enough, a rare sleep disorder — called REM sleep behavior disorder — causes people to act out their dreams, sometimes with violent thrashes, kicks and screams. Such violent dreams may be an early sign of brain disorders down the line, including Parkinson's disease and dementia, according to research published online July 28, 2010, in the journal Neurology. The results suggest the incipient stages of these neurodegenerative disorders might begin decades before a person, or doctor, knows it.
2. Night owls have more nightmares
Staying up late has its perks, but whimsical dreaming is not one of them. Research published in 2011 in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms, revealed that night owls are more likely than their early-bird counterparts to experience nightmares.
In the study 264 university students rated how often they experienced nightmares on a scale from 0 to 4, never to always, respectively. The stay-up-late types scored, on average, a 2.10, compared with the morning types who averaged a 1.23. The researchers said the difference was a significant one, however, they aren’t sure what's causing a link between sleep habits and nightmares. Among their ideas is the stress hormone cortisol, which peaks in the morning right before we wake up, a time when people are more prone to be in REM, or dream, sleep. If you’re still sleeping at that time, the cortisol rise could trigger vivid dreams or nightmares, the researchers speculate. [ Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders ]
3. Men dream about sex
As in their wake hours, men also dream about sex more than women do. And comparing notes in the morning may not be a turn-on for either guys or gals, as women are more likely to have experienced nightmares, suggests doctoral research reported in 2009 by psychologist Jennie Parker of the University of the West of England.
She found women's dreams/nightmares could be grouped into three categories: fearful dreams (being chased or having their life threatened); dreams involving the loss of a loved one; or confused dreams.
4. You can control your dreams
If you're interested in lucid dreaming, you may want to take up video gaming. The link? Both represent alternate realities, said Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan University in Canada.
"If you're spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it's practice," Gackenbach told LiveScience in 2010. "Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams." Her past research has shown that people who frequently play video games are more likely than non-gamers to have lucid dreams where they view themselves from outside their bodies; they were also better able to influence their dream worlds, as if controlling a video-game character.
That level of control may also help gamers turn a bloodcurdling nightmare into a carefree dream, she found in a 2008 study. This ability could help war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Gackenbach reasoned.
5. Why we dream
Scientists have long wondered why we dream, with answers ranging from Sigmund Freud's idea that dreams fulfill our wishes to the speculation that these wistful journeys are just a side effect of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Turns out, at least part of the reason may be critical thinking, suggests Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett who presented her theory in 2010 at the Association for Psychological Science meeting in Boston.
Her research revealed that our slumbering hours may help us solve puzzles that have plagued us during daylight hours. The visual and often illogical aspects of dreams make them perfect for the out-of-the-box thinking that is necessary to solve some problems, she speculates.
So while dreams may have originally evolved for another purpose, they have likely been refined over time for multiple tasks, including helping the brain reboot and helping us solve problems, she said.
What's the strangest dream you remember? Tell us on Facebook
More from LiveScience:
Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind
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Or, for all we know, dreams may give us an insight to the lives we're living in a parallel universe.
I've always wondered the same thing! It's weird because there are several distinct other 'realities' that serve as locations for my dreams. Yet they always seem so real...
after i saw the movie with bo derek jogging down the beach, i had the same dream for many nights, would always wake up with a sore arm, found out later it was my wife punching me on my arm, must have also talked in my sleep, great dreams they were .
Well in that case my other self lives somewhere in a realm similar to Event Horizon. Love that movie. Also love having nightmares. As stated in the article, people who play lots of games can learn to control their dreams, controlling the pace and level of danger in my dreams is a blast.
Nothing like dreaming about a zombie horde, with a few creatures like those from Doom, and running from cache to cache collecting the needed items to blow their heads off. Best part is grabbing a sword, like that from the game Killing Floor, and taking the fight close range. lol
I used to wake up in the mornings in shock and a little frightened from my dreams, now my dreams are a blast! Sadly though, with the intensity of work and night classes, I haven't had dreams at all for about a month.. probably due to getting 3 to 5 hours of sleep a night.
Why do dogs and cats dream? Mine do. My dog often "barks" softly in her dreams. About what does she dream?
I've found a lot of these findings to be true with me. I stay up late a lot easier than having to wake up early in the morning, and then, I tend to have more nightmares. In some of my stranger dreams, I've actually died before waking up (2 times in fiery explosions where I could feel myself burning away - for those of you who talk about alternate realities or dimensions...I wonder if those dreams were instances of me actually dying). Homepage
I can't be the only one who dreams in color - but how many people, like me, dream in third-person? I frequently "watch" myself in my dreams. It's like watching a movie about myself! On rare occassions, I have also had such bad nightmares that I know its a dream and I force myself to wake up because I am so scared . Homepage منتديات
#5 is not a fact, really. It describes one of the things we do during sleep, not why we do it. Frustratingly, we still don't know why we dream.
I can say with 100% confidence I have solved problems while dreaming numerous times, so I'm willing to give significant credence to that as being one of the benefits and potential causes.
Example: I remember a move a number of years ago that required us to get my roommates couch into his room. It was the last thing to that needed to be brought in and at 11:30 at night after bringing down the hall, we tried to get it in the room, which required a 90 degree turn at the far end of the hall. No joy. After a full day of moving... sleep seemed a better plan. I dreamed half the night about that couch and when I woke up, I knocked on my roommates door and said "let's put that thing in here." His response "it won't fit." I responded with "I know exactly how to get it in here" and proved it by talk the two of us through it in 1 try - I knew exactly which moves, turns, and twists were required - because I had visualized it most of the night. If that isn't solving problems while sleeping, I don't know what is.
I frequently have sex dreams, well probably about every couple months or so. The object of my dream is sometimes a guy, sometimes a girl, and only very rarely is it my husband. They are almost always very enjoyable, but I never "get there" no matter how hard I try. The whole dream I'm chasing that elusive O.
Another frequent scenario is my teeth falling out.
I also have dreams where I'm in college, and it's finals week and I realize I haven't been to class all semester. This dream is very common for me.
Lock me up! LOL
Interestingly, I also frequently have that college finals dream, and I got my Bachelors in 1968!
YIKES!
I too, am female and frequently have dreams about sex. Oftentimes its with someone I wouldn't even consider having sex with, and sometimes with famous people that I won't mention here.
My recurring dream (like your college finals dream) has always been about tornadoes. They are all around me. Black clouds are flying really low, low enough that they are eye level looking out a 2-story window, and those clouds seem to be coming after me. Then the tornadoes start falling like pillars of bricks, and in all directions. I never understood that one, because Colorado rarely gets tornadoes on the western slope.
That's funny, I dream about my teeth falling out a lot too.
I also have had the teeth falling out dream. Once I woke up with my hand cupped to my mouth trying to catch them. My doctor said these are stress dreams.
Its the teeth dream for me too.. They just pour and pour.. Its disturbing.
smlfry2 - i also have the recurring tornado dreams. I grew up in Michigan and did have tornado weather and I am scared to death of tornadoes. I used to have the dream at least once a month and it was very similar, i would see the tornado coming for me and I'd freak and try to take cover. In my dream, I'm always at my mom's house, either inside the house or inside the barn and I can't even count how many times the tornado has ripped thru but amazingly I'm always safe....
I think the finals dream is about unpreparedness. There may be something in real life that you feel unprepared for.
smlfry and beckys - I dream of tornadoes a lot, too! I saw one when I was about 4 or 5 in Blackwell, OK when we vacationed there with my great-grandmother. We had to run to the fruit cellar with the neighbors and a dog. Seeing it got me very excited - I thought it was wonderful and still love thunderstorms to this day. I remember seeing the tornado when the fruit cellar door was opened, as the menfolk stood at the top watching it until the last minute. My grandmother's house came through unscathed, but it flattened the neighbor's.
Anyway, when I dream about them I can always see them sometimes several, coming our way. I'm always rushing everyone to the basement, even the dogs. These dreams sometimes include people I don't even know. I have these dreams usually when I'm really stressed out or having financial issues, which always seem to be happening. Tornado dreams are actually fairly common.
Oh, and I have dreams about forgetting the combination to my school locker. It's been over forty years since high school! Not as common as the tornado dreams, but they occur about once every two months or more.
Plus, I rarely dream about people that I'm close to, except for the tornadoes. Things or people I think about all the time, are rarely in my dreams. But, if I drop a penny on the floor, I'll have a long, involved dream about the penny. Weird.
I rarely have nightmares, which is odd, as I love to read mysteries and horror stories. Love watching horror movies, too. As a kid, I even kept a crucifix under my blanket in case a vampire would come visiting...they never did. lol!
My strangest dream was years ago as a teenager. The dream was in black and white except for the blood. I was a vampire and I saw myself attacking people and biting them on the neck. I could even taste the blood. I'm glad I never had that dream again.
I've also had school dreams, except mine are of high school. It's always the last tests of the year and I haven't attended class the entire year. It's very strange and I'm always stressed. lol
My guess is that, at least in part, dreams incorporate our experiences into our memories. The odd content of some dreams is due to the difficulty and complexity of incorporating things that do not tie in well. While nightmares are about problems that we have great difficulty processing. While converting a program for a US home satellite receiver to the European version (my coworker had spent 6 months writing it), I worked an hour and was too mentally exhausted to continue. I slept for 2 hours and awoke with all the answers to the currently pending tasks. After another hour, I was again exhausted mentally and slept another two hours, again waking with all the answers to pending tasks. This process repeated 8 times in 24 hours and I had completed the modifications. All my coworker could say was "I would like to think it would have taken longer than that". Solutions to many other problems have had me awake in the middle of the night with an "aha!" moment. I also have a class of similar nightmares where I begin urinating in a 'normal' place, only to have the scene morph into a very public place with me urinating on something totally inappropriate. I awake and use the bathroom. I was told that I would sleep walk in my childhood and often several people were present trying to guide me to the toilet. A task that was not always successful. A good candidate for the dream.
I have the ability to task my mind and then completely ignore the subject and pursue something else. When the answer is ready, presto, it comes to mind. This works well during sleep which probably gives rise to the expression "well let me sleep on it".
I have had a few dreams that solved programming issues. I think there is something serious going on in that regard. You're not the first programmer I have heard talk about having an "AHA" moment during or after a dream.
Actually that aspect makes sense to me. When you consider that the computers we use are modeled after the human brain then the concept of taking a problem and either subconsciously or consciously "submitting it" so that it's processed asynchronously in the background while freeing you up to do other things, including sleeping is exactly what it sounds is occurring, same as a computer.
I do that sometimes when I can't remember something that I know I know, like the last name of a person for example. If I can't come up with the answer, I stop actively thinking about it with the "command" to my brain to continue searching the parts of memory that are not "main memory". It eventually comes up with the correct information.
Now how my brain solves development problems while I'm asleep I can only guess but I would think it does it the same way it does when I'm actively thinking about it except that backing away from a problem and letting my brain work on it without me trying to direct it is sometimes more effective particularly if I've unknowingly made a wrong assumption or am pursuing a false lead.
I can buy that, because I occasionally have dreams in which I can fly like Superman. I always have a sense of having just figured out how to do it, as if anyone can if they know how. Now, the kicker: I work on small planes for a living, I've studied aerodynamics, I know how it works and occasionally I get to fly the airplanes that I work on and I LOVE flying. Flying feels very natural, but is in fact a very unnatural thing for a human to do, so maybe my brain can't make ends meet. Making me just "figure out" how Superman does his thing is my minds way of making sense of such an absurd situation as cruising thousands of feet above the ground.
Tiredndisgusted - That's happened to me too! I was a software QA tester and I would wake up with resolutions about what caused a bug or how to approach a test case. Or, how to resolve some other problem I was having.
Wonder how the use of sleeping aids (melatonin) factor into the dream cycle?
I was diagnosed with the REM sleep behavior disorder, and good, restive sleep is elusive for me. Melatonin gives me the jitters. However, I drank a Monster for the first time a few weeks ago, and was knocked out cold for 6 hours. I can see how REM sleep behavior disorder would be a precursor to Parkinson's and other diseases...my memory is shot. I can recall things I did when I was 3, but then other things I can't recall with an age or date, then even still I couldn't tell you what I did this morning, or what I was about to say next (poof...the thought is just GONE). But I can recall 16 digit account numbers to old customers, my phone number from my childhood home, and other miscellaneous facts. LOL. I'm serious, and I'm only 35. Sad and scary for me.
I am not sure about the those who have presented deeply psychological reasons for dreaming. My dog has dreams - and from his movements and soft barking (although I am sure he believes he is being very loud in his dreams) it seems he is acting out his daytime activities, which is barking at dogs passing by the house or running to greet someone at the door. He has never explained his dreams to us. I assume he wants to keep them private (perhaps they are sexual dreams?).
Bill, my dog does the same--but she never barks while awake.
I sometimes have funny dreams and wake up laughing. Like the time I fell asleep, and had a dream I fell asleep, and something really funny happened in the dream inside my dream. So funny thay I woke up laughing in my dream, causing me to wake up laughing in my bed. My wife was totally freaked out. LOL
Once though, I had a dream where I was outside my body looking up at the gurney my body was lying on. Above my body, clouds were moving by fast. Upon looking closewr at the clouds, I could see they were line after line of zeros and ones, like 001110100100101. (I'm a programmer). I woke up about 3am and wrote a program to solve a problem that had been vexing me for months. By 7am, the problem was solved.
Hmm, some of this is interesting, I guess. Whenever I dream it's either sadly about SEX, A world and life that doesn't exists and future experiences that leave me with a since of Déjà vu when it happens. I must be one of those rare women who dream often about sex at night?
Ah well. My favorite nightmares that wake me up is all about going to work and being in the nude or underwear without realizing it until someone starts laughing. Oh yes, well played fear, well played.
I don't quite buy that night owls suffer nightmares more frequently than persons on a "normal" cycle. I naturally trend towards being up all night and I haven't had a nightmare since middle school. As far as I figure, nightmares are the results of being overly stressed during rough times. It was about middle school that I stopped letting the small stuff bother me and I rarely stress or obsess over anything anymore. Even though I probably should give more mind to some things, I don't because I'd rather not think about it. Being stressed is rather unpleasant, after all.
Stress causes the body dis-ease. It also causes the body disease.
NyNy: I asked my wife about this and she said she very often dreams about sex - and almost always not with me! We are now in our late sixties and she said the guys in her dreams ar getting younger all the time. Yeh, just like me -Hah!
I can't be the only one who dreams in color - but how many people, like me, dream in third-person? I frequently "watch" myself in my dreams. It's like watching a movie about myself! On rare occassions, I have also had such bad nightmares that I know its a dream and I force myself to wake up because I am so scared.
I almost never dream from inside my body either. It is more like being above what is going on and I am watching myself. I can consciously think while I am dreaming in 3rd person state, often about how I don't do things like I am in my dream or contemplating why someone in the dream is behaving in the manner they are. I rarely dream and remember, it is said we dream every night and maybe even several times in a night. Occasionally I will remember wisps of dreams but not much, those that I do remember are in the above mentioned state.
I often dream that I am someone else than me, and I see the world from inside "their" body! Then, suddenly, my dream conscious will shift to another person within the dream! Weird.
I think dreams are our brains working without stimuli and social inhibitions. We really limit our thinking through social constraints, agendas, and hectic schedules. When we sleep, our brain is finally free!!!
I was around 8 or 9 years old and had a dream that I was walking on a rock fence that was about 1-2 foot wide. Im my dream I fell off the fence and broke my arm. About 3 days later it happened just like my dream! Talking about freaking a kid out! It has never happened to me since then. I have heard of people dreaming things then have them happen just like the dream. Oh if only I could dream of winning the lottery and have it come true! :-)
I sincerely hope that works out for you! :D
I've never solved a problem with dreaming, or during sleep, that I can remember, though I've read that some people do. I can't believe it's generalizable as the main function or property of dreams, even if it does occur in some instances. And Freud's conception of dreams was not only that they are 'wish fullfillments,' but that they are the result of the mind functioning at a regressed level - without much of the process of critical thinking and reality testing; presenting itself with a kind of mish-mash of distorted memories and fantasies, which are perceived, mostly visually, as if they are being experienced in the present, even though you're just lying there snoring away.
I have had a recurring dream...always the same except for the people I was with...was abandoned out of town at night and spent the whole dream seeing the lights of the distant small town and trying to get back. And is any guy surprised at #3...??
I had a boyfriend once that would hump me in his sleep then be confused about why he woke up having sex, well I guess he was only confused the 1st time.
As they say...if you have a problem..."sleep on it" and you might figure it out in the morning....after your mind unscrambles all the confusion of the day and aligns all the "processes" once more....
Strangest recurring dream: that I forgot something in my junior high school locker - a locker I haven't seen since the 80s.
Most interesting recurring dream: driving a 'secret' back road in the Rocky Mountains which has opportunities for the 'perfect photograph' at every turn. (I do semi-professional landscapes...lol).
Worst nightmare ever: a terrorist attack involving hydroflouric acid. I'm standing on a cliff or something, overlooking a crowd of people who are normal one second but turn to blobs the next. (this dream occurred after that spill of hydroflouric acid in PA a few years ago.) I know I woke up screaming because it was gory. I think it was made worse by the fact that I had taken percocet having just had cancer surgery. Percocet always gives me really vivid nightmares.
What does it all mean? I think it means I'm afraid of clowns.
LOL okay I gotta jump in. I was in this dream where me and my baby sis (54 & 44 respectively) were trying to get outside of this place. Everyone was tryin to leave but the stairs and hallways were constantly changing. I was trying to lead her out and we got separated once.
I returned to where I lost her almost immediately but some tall guy took my hand I looked over and said, you're not my sister and he looked down and shook his head and I looked at him in disbelief and said 'no'. I said I want to see her and he said just as calmly as if I had asked him do you take cream in your coffee, we just found the head - I looked tears started streaming down my face.
I started yelling that my sister was a good woman and she didn't deserve to die like that. -- I believe it was because some ass had just murdered his 22 yo pregnant girlfriend and I was feeling what the parents must feel like.
Sometimes dreams put me in a scenario and I find out how I would react if that event occurred because I think it's real, then I wake up and Thank God it wasn't
I at times dream that I am asleep dreaming, then "wake up" into my dream. On rare occasions this can go several levels deep. (Dream within a dream within a dream...) When I finally do awake to what we consider reality, it's like my mind is locked in a fog.
Strange stuff, dreams. But then again, so is reality.
That's really cool, like something out of Inception (probably where they got the inspiration from). I've had this happen to me too, but very rarely. It frustrates me sometimes because, when I come out of a dream within a dream, I think I'm really awake...and then I wake up for real and discover that all the things I did after I got out of bed never happened.
The article fails to explain psychic dreams which started 30 yrs ago. The two most "mind-bending" dreams - I was a houseguest, took a nap, dreamed that 2 men in blue jumpsuits rang the doorbell with furniture delivery. I was then awakened by a doorbell, ran downstairs, & you guessed it. I was not forewarned of this delivery because when the woman of the house came home, she apologized & said she forgot to tell me these guys were coming. In my other dream, in the 70s, I was in the backseat of a car, holding a chick, saw outside the window, thousands of chicks being shot by a farmer. Following week in newspaper - "Thousands of chicks shot by Texas farmer to control cost." Recent ones were also very detailed, not general & open to interpretation. This generally happens when I'm "depressed."
There is a really cool author that you should look into, Kay Hooper. She is a fiction novelist but she writes on the paranormal (mysteries). Look into the Noah Bishop/Special Unit series.
I find that I only have nightmares when I sleep on my back, maybe from a 'vulnerable' state of mind??
I don't take any pain meds because way back when I was first given them the nightmares were truly nightmarish!
yeah those are the one's that used to make me sleep with a nite light on, really bad as a 54 yo.
you know I gotta go there - but since I started throwing the Blood of Jesus in front of me in the dreams the really horrible ones don't seem to happen anymore. Its just my belief.
An absolutely worthless article.
While most of MSNBC's science articles are on the crappy side, I thought this one was quite good.
no only your input was worthless. See even in here some of us have a since of community - not you
My sex dreams have often had my husband (but in the dream he's not my husband) as a new love interest and I'm torn between him/them..with all the guilt and passion mixed up.
The finals week /thesis paper due/never cracked a book or went to class all term one still happens occasionally (over 20 years since I graduated college!)
Another of my 'stress dreams' seems to be I've just moved (with is traumatic enough) but somehow have left all or some very important belongings in the old home where I no longer can access them. I guess my stress dreams are about me forgetting things that are important.
I had flying and breathing underwater (finding treasure) dreams as a kid.
I have had recurring dreams of being swept over niagra falls since childhood.
as a avid gamer, i can attest that i have a lot of lucid dreams. i can command myself to wake up from them if need be.
I've found a lot of these findings to be true with me. I stay up late a lot easier than having to wake up early in the morning, and then, I tend to have more nightmares. In some of my stranger dreams, I've actually died before waking up (2 times in fiery explosions where I could feel myself burning away - for those of you who talk about alternate realities or dimensions...I wonder if those dreams were instances of me actually dying).
I do play video games a lot too and recently had one wonderful dream that I was able to control...it was like I was on the grid from TRON and it was awesome!