Are you a dreamer?

Almost everyone dreams, though some people dream much more than others. The amount of dreaming also differs for the same person at different times of their lives and when their life situation is different.

A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams has never been fully understood, although they have been a topic of scientific, philosophical and religious interest throughout recorded history. Dream interpretation is the attempt at drawing meaning from dreams and searching for an underlying message. The scientific study of dreams is called oneirology.

Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. REM sleep is revealed by continuous movements of the eyes during sleep. At times, dreams may occur during other stages of sleep. However, these dreams tend to be much less vivid or memorable. The length of a dream can vary; they may last for a few seconds, or approximately 20–30 minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase. The average person has three to five dreams per night, and some may have up to seven; however, most dreams are immediately or quickly forgotten. Dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses. During a full eight-hour night sleep, most dreams occur in the typical two hours of REM. Dreams related to waking-life experiences are associated with REM theta activity, which suggests that emotional memory processing takes place in REM sleep.

Opinions about the meaning of dreams have varied and shifted through time and culture. Many endorse the Freudian theory of dreams – that dreams reveal insight into hidden desires and emotions. Other prominent theories include those suggesting that dreams assist in memory formation, problem solving, or simply are a product of random brain activation.

Sigmund Freud, who developed the psychological discipline of psychoanalysis, wrote extensively about dream theories and their interpretations in the early 1900s. He explained dreams as manifestations of one's deepest desires and anxieties, often relating to repressed childhood memories or obsessions. Furthermore, he believed that virtually every dream topic, regardless of its content, represented the release of sexual tension. In The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), Freud developed a psychological technique to interpret dreams and devised a series of guidelines to understand the symbols and motifs that appear in our dreams.

In modern times, dreams have been seen as a connection to the unconscious mind. They range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre. Dreams can have varying natures, such as being frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual (approx. 10% of dreams are reported to include a sexual content). The events in dreams are generally outside the control of the dreamer, with the exception of lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is self-aware. Dreams can at times make a creative thought occur to the person or give a sense of inspiration. Contrary to most people’s desire, dreams have no predictive capability.

Some dreams can be very pleasant and some can be frightening. Due to their realism, nightmares and night terrors can be extremely distressing.

Though nightmares and sleep terrors might sound similar, they are not. There are a number of differences that make the diagnosis quite clear. It must be assumed that in both cases, the sleep disturbance is not due to drug abuse or to post traumatic stress disorder. These have specific causes and symptoms.

Following a nightmare, the person becomes fully awake; they are able to describe the dream in great detail and it will have been anxiety provoking, even suggesting imminent danger. Often people recall being pursued, under attack, sustaining injury or experience failure or embarrassment.

In general, nightmares are not about events that have happened; they appear to be a parable suggesting something that might happen. In addition, though normally nightmares terminate once the person is fully wake, they sometimes recur and can arise several times in the same night.

Nightmares arise during REM sleep and generally later in the night. Typically, the person wakes fully in a mildly aroused state with elevated heart and breathing rate.

It appears that females experience nightmares between twice and four times more than males. Children between 3 and 5 years have an incidence of between 10% and 50% and most outgrow it. Young adults have an incidence of about 3% and 50% of adults report an occasional nightmare. Children are most likely to have nightmares with a psychosocial stressor.

Sleep terrors have different symptoms. The sufferer only partially awakens and does so with a panicky scream or cry. They have an intense fear but no recall of what is causing the terror. They are difficult to awaken or comfort and are unresponsive and confused. The amnesia that follows makes it difficult to work out what has caused the sleep terror.

The person having a sleep terror is likely to be showing signs of protecting himself; he may be swinging, punching and he may get up and try to flee.

This makes dealing with such a person difficult or even dangerous. These situations usually arise in the first third of sleep in a non-REM state.

In addition, there is the Hypnagogic state. Hypnagogia, also referred to as ‘hypnagogic hallucinations’, is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep. Mental phenomena may occur during this ‘threshold consciousness’ phase include lucid thought, lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. When people are falling asleep due to over tiredness, they may start to hallucinate but not realise that they are doing so.

In conclusion, dreams can be disturbing or nice; they can certainly be confusing. The modern consensus is that significant dreams are the unconscious mind attempting to communicate a concern with the conscious mind and all other dreams are simply passing images during the process of transferring memories from the short-term memory to the long-term memory.