What’s up to the Readers of Estella’s World!
Visiting you with the “mini-series” on dreams today is Felicity86! In my previous post I mentioned that the subject of dreams can be scientifically fascinating. In this particular post, I will be defining what a dream is according to science.
In a nutshell, Dreams are the manifestation of images and scenarios that our minds impress on us during the course of sleep .
As an individual begins to rest, they will first experience what is called Non-Rem sleep (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) . This is a light sleep that progresses into a deeper sleep over the course of four stages until the individual achieves the fifth stage which is called REM sleep
(Rapid Eye Movement) .
During various studies performed on the topic, electrodes are places on subjects’ heads and bodies to measure the brain and body activity during sleep.
The significance of the eye movement during the course of sleep is that it is one of several indicators that a person is having an increase in brain activity:
the person is “seeing” and experiencing a scenario in such a way that the activity detected by electrodes stuck on the person’s head which measures
electric brain activity.
This activity is comparable to the activity a person expresses when they are awake. While studies show that some light dreaming may occur during Non-REM sleep,
most dreams occur during REM Sleep.
The dreams that occur during REM sleep are of a different quality: they are often more vivid, have a longer duration, increased detail, and are more
memorable and absurd than dreams that occur in Non-REM sleep. This five stage Non-REM/REM cycle repeats up to four or five times in a night. Each cycle lasts up to 90 minutes long.
Here are a couple of my primary sources so that you can skim through to fulfill your own thirst for fascinating facts:
- http://sleepfoundation.org/
- http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101
I hope you enjoyed the breakdown! The next post can be slightly controversial: Do dreams actually mean anything? Can they give you insight about your life’s current
circumstances, play the role of our individual harbingers for future, or maybe some of us are a little superstitious?
image found on: google search under “night dreams “