20 Amazing facts about dreams that will change your perception!

Dreams are one of the important parts of our lives. We see so many good and bad things in our dreams but hardly remember them but some of our dreams are so powerful and recurring that we remember them even hours after waking up. Our dreams take us up to mysterious land with strange people and circumstances. Many times we solve problems in dreams that we are not able to solve while waking up.  

Interesting facts about dreams

1. An average human being spends about 25 years in sleeping (considering the age of 75 years and daily 8 hours of sleeping), out of which about 6 years are spent in dreaming.

2. We forget about 90% of our dreams. We forget half of our dream after 5 minutes of waking up and after 10 minutes only 10% is left. However, if you awaken at the REM stage of sleep, you are more likely to remember the dream.

3. Our sleep cycle is divided mostly into two states REM sleep and non REM sleep. REM sleep is the sleep stage mostly associated with dreams. REM (Rapid eye movement) sleep is a kind of sleep which occurs in cycles of about 90-120 minutes throughout the night. The REM sleep is about 20-25% of total sleep time in adults. REM sleep stage is characterized by rapid eye movements, faster pulse and breathing, and more dreaming and bodily movement.

4. Every human being (men, women and even babies) dreams except those who have certain psychological disorders. We dream about 2 hours per night. If you think you are not dreaming, maybe you just forget your dreams.

5. We usually have many dreams (about four to seven) each night, each one of them is about  5 to 20 minutes long. The first dream of the night is only 5 minutes long. The last dream which usually occurs before awakening may be 45 -60 minutes long.

6. Yes, Blind people also dream. People who were born blind use their senses – smell, sound, touch to dream. People who became blind after birth can visualize images in their dreams.

7. While most people report dreaming in color, there are few people who claim to only dream in black and white.  As per one survey conducted, only 12% of people dreamt in black and white and the rest of the others dreamt in colors. The people who grew up watching black and white television are more likely to dream black and white. The number is going down now with the presence of colors everywhere.

8. Did you know that you can control your dreams? A lucid dream is a dream stage where the person is aware that he/she is dreaming. During lucid dreaming, The person may be able to control the dream characters, story, beginning and end of the story, and environment up to some extent just like a movie is being shot in front of you and you are the director. Approximately half of all people have experienced at least one case of lucid dreaming. Some people often have lucid dreams.

9. We see only the faces that we know well or faces we have seen before in our dreams.  So if you wonder who was the person in your dream, the person may be one of the many faces that you encounter in your daily life. Kids don’t see themselves in dreams until they are 3-4 years old.

10. Did you know you are paralyzed during dreaming? REM sleep stage is characterized by paralysis of the voluntary muscles of the body. The phenomenon of sleep paralysis is scientifically known as REM atonia. During sleep paralysis, your brain shuts off stimulation to your large muscle groups making you immobile so you don’t act out your dreams.

Have you ever woken up after watching some scary dream just to find out that you are not able to able? This experience is frightening for most but perfectly normal as per experts.