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Dreams

DEFINITION

Dreams are the mental images and stories that our mind creates while we sleep.

  • They can be disturbing, bizarre, romantic, and fun

  • They are universal human experiences that are described being the combination

  • Between sensory , cognitive and emotional occurrence during sleep


CAUSES

  • Unconscious desires and wishes

  • The process of interpreting and gathering information which are accumulated during

  • the day

  • A kind of psychotherapy

  • Signals from the brain and body during the sleep


FUNCTION OF DREAMS

  • It can prepare human beings for possible future threats

  • Developing cognitive abilities

  • Incorporates different experiences form the past and present in order to prepare

  • human mind for the future

  • Psychological space where overwhelming emotions, highly complex and contradictory feeling or memories/ events are brought together in order to be created a psychological balance

TYPES OF DREAMS

  • Standard Dreams:

  • A standard dream can be influenced by what we were thinking before going to sleep

  • This type of dream is influenced by different actions, events, moments which we are

  • experiencing in a day

  • Stress can affect how pleasant the dream can be

  • Some dreams can be strange

  • We typically dream about four to six times per night , but most of these dreams are

  • forgotten by people

  • Nightmares:

  • Dreams that are strange, scary , disturbing etc.

  • Causes of nightmares:

  • Audio-visual content which is scary

  • Insomnia

  • Apnea

  • Side effects of medication

  • Illness

  • Some common themes of nightmares are death and violence

  • Lucid Dreams:

  • People are aware that they are dreaming while they are in dream.

  • It happens during REM sleep

  • Most people do not have lucid dreams

  • It is possible to experience this type of dream at one moment in life

  • You can control a lucid dream if you have practice

  • Daydreams:

  • People are awake during a daydream

  • They may occur consciously or unconsciously

  • They involve other people which can be real or imagined

  • Recurring Dreams:

  • Dreams that repeat more than once

  • Common themes are attack, failing, being frozen with fear

FACTS ABOUT DREAMS

  • People spend an average of six years dreaming during lifetime

  • Most dreams are visual

  • Some people can have dreams in black and white instead of color ones

  • Men and women tend to dream differently

  • You can control your dream ( lucid dreaming)

  • Tendency of having nightmares

  • External stimuli play a positive or negative role in dreams

  • The common emotion experienced by human beings in dreams is anxiety

  • Blind people tend to dream visually

  • The human body is paralyzed during dreaming process

  • Some dreams are universal


CONNECTION BETWEEN DREAMS AND MENTAL HEALTH

  • People who suffer from depression tend to dream more

  • Dreaming for some people can be a way to deal with depression

  • Depressed people stay more in REM sleep before dreaming than usual

  • Due to the fact that people who are depressed dream more per night, they can feel

  • exhausted

  • Depressed people tend to remember the dreams more than an average person are do

  • so

  • Depression causes nightmares

  • People with panic attacks fall asleep much harder or spend much time awake

  • Frequent nightmares are signs that a person could have generalized anxiety disorder

  • or PTSD

  • The using of alcohol, drugs or other substance in order to cope with anxiety, depression and other disorders, can affect the structure of brain, and to create strange dreams


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