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