Dreams. Mysterious, bewildering, eye-
opening and sometimes a nightmarish living
hell: dreams are all that and much more.
Here are 20 amazing facts about dreams
that you might have never heard about.
Fact #1: You can’t read while dreaming, or
tell the time
If you are unsure whether you are dreaming
or not, try reading something. The vast
majority of people are incapable of reading
in their dreams. The same goes for clocks:
each time you look at a clock it will tell a
different time and the hands on the clock
won’t appear to be moving as reported by
lucid dreamers.
Fact #2: Lucid dreaming
There is a whole subculture of people
practicing what is called lucid or conscious
dreaming. Using various techniques, these
people have supposedly learned to assume
control of their dreams and do amazing
things like flying, passing through walls, and
traveling to different dimensions or even
back in time.
Fact #3: Inventions inspired by dreams
Dreams are responsible for many of the
greatest inventions of mankind. A few
examples include:
The idea for Google -Larry Page
Alternating current generator -Tesla
DNA’s double helix spiral form -James
Watson
The sewing machine -Elias Howe
Periodic table -Dimitri Mendeleyev
…and many, many more.
Fact #4: Premonition dreams
There are some astounding cases where
people actually dreamt about things which
happened to them later, in the exact same
ways they dreamed about. You could say
they got a glimpse of the future, or it might
have just been coincidence. The fact remains
that this is some seriously interesting and
bizarre phenomena. Some of the most
famous premonition dreams include:
Abraham Lincoln dreamt of His
Assassination
Many of the victims of 9/11 had dreams
warning them about the catastrophe
Mark Twain’s dream of his brother’s
demise
19 verified precognitive dreams about the
Titanic catastrophe
Fact #5: Sleep paralysis
Hell is real and it is called sleep paralysis. It’s
the stuff of true nightmares. I’ve been a
sleep paralysis sufferer as a kid and I can
attest to how truly horrible it is. Two
characteristics of sleep paralysis are the
inability to move (hence paralysis) and a
sense of an extremely evil presence in the
room with you. It doesn’t feel like a dream,
but 100% real. Studies show that during an
attack, sleep paralysis sufferers show an
overwhelming amygdala activity. The
amygdala is responsible for the “fight or
flight” instinct and the emotions of fear,
terror and anxiety. Enough said!
Fact #6: REM sleep disorder
In the state of REM (rapid-eye-movement)
stage of your sleep your body is normally
paralyzed. In rare cases, however, people act
out their dreams. These have resulted in
broken arms, legs, broken furniture, and in
at least one reported case, a house burnt
down.
Fact #7: Sexual dreams
The very scientifically-named “nocturnal
penile tumescence” is a very well
documented phenomena. In laymen’s term it
simply means that you get a stiffy while you
sleep. Actually, studies indicate that men get
up to 20 erections per dream.
Fact #8: Unbelievable Sleepwalkers
Sleepwalking is a very rare and potentially
dangerous sleep disorder. It is an extreme
form of REM sleep disorder, and these
people don’t just act out their dreams, but
go on real adventures at night.
Lee Hadwin is a nurse by profession, but in
his dreams he is an artist. Literally. He
“sleepdraws” gorgeous portraits, of which
he has no recollection afterwards. Strange
sleepwalking “adventures” include:
A woman having sex with strangers while
sleepwalking
A man who drove 22 miles and killed his
cousin while sleepwalking (how is this
even possible?)
A sleepwalker who walked out of the
window from the third floor, and barely
survived
Fact #9: Dream drug
There are actually people who like dreaming
and dreams so much that they never want
to wake up. They want to continue on
dreaming even during the day, so they take
an illegal and extremely potent
hallucinogenic drug called
Dimethyltryptamine. It is actually only an
isolated and synthetic form of the chemical
our brains produce naturally during
dreaming.
Fact #10 Dream-catcher
The dream-catcher is one of the most well-
known Native American symbols. It is a
loose web or webs woven around a hoop
and decorated with sacred objects meant to
protect against nightmares.
Fact #11: Increased brain activity
You would associate sleeping with peace
and quiet, but actually our brains are more
active during sleep than during the day.
Fact #12: Creativity and dreams
As we mentioned before, dreams are
responsible for inventions, great artworks
and are generally just incredibly interesting.
They are also “recharging” our creativity. In
rare cases of REM disorder, people actually
don’t dream at all. These people suffer from
significantly decreased creativity and
perform badly at tasks requiring creative
problem solving.
Fact #13: Pets dream too
Our animal companions dream as well.
Watch a dog or a cat sleep and you can see
that they are moving their paws and making
noises like they were chasing something. Go
get ‘em Buddy!
Fact #14: You always dream—you just
don’t remember it
Many people claim that they don’t dream at
all, but that’s not true: we all dream, but up
to 60% of people don’t remember their
dreams at all.
Fact #15: Blind people dream too
Blind people who were not born blind see
images in their dreams but people who
were born blind don’t see anything at all.
They still dream, and their dreams are just as
intense and interesting, but they involve the
other senses beside sight.
Fact #16: In our dreams we only see faces
that we already know
It is proven that in dreams we can only see
faces that we have seen in real life before.
So beware: that scary-looking old lady next
to you on the bus might as well be in your
next nightmare.
Fact #17: Dreams tend to be negative
Surprisingly, dreams are more often
negative than positive. The three most
widely reported emotions felt during
dreaming are anger, sadness and fear.
Fact #18: Multiple dreams per night
You can have up to seven different dreams
per night depending on how many REM
cycles you have. We only dream during the
REM period of sleep, and the average person
dreams one to two hours every night.
Fact #19: Gender differences
Interestingly, 70% of all the characters in a
man’s dream are other men, but women’s
dream contain an equal amount of women
and men. Also men’s dreams contain a lot
more aggression. Both women and men
dream about sexual themes equally often.
Fact #20: Not everyone dreams in color
As much as 12% of people only dream in
black and white.

14 and 16 very common

Inspiring!


I had a dream last night, there was a man in my dream, he said he is from the future, coming to give me something better [LUCKY DUBE]


I dreamt about a peaceful and transformed Nigeria.

Emm
#4..few times when I manage remembered my dreams,I did see some kind of occurrence that did come true and I began wondering if I've done them before or they are just simply coincidences .

#5 I can't forget experiencing sleep paralysis...that moment when juju man holding a cutlass is pursuing you and your leg just get stuck to the ground (my grandma said its because I crossed my leg while sleeping)

#6 I've knocked down my reading lamps and broke my phone while asleep

#14 funny enough I fall in that group of people that think they don't dream anymore. I've not dreamt for a very long time...my mum took me to a pastor,she said I was blind spiritually

All this epistle because of Frontpage?? U ain't going nowhere

i xprience sleep paralysis a lot, itz not pleasant um...op plz wot about fighting with a horse in d dream...

Nice one, are you a psychology major?

When i was btw age 6 to 9, i used to suffer from sleep paralysis, its not just a drm. Bad xperience .

yungchop:
All this epistle because of Frontpage?? U ain't going nowhere

easy...... It is also 4 the purpose of Learning, lol

Sammyblake:
Nice one, are you a psychology major?

lol...tnks an not, some of them are my write up, other i got from different sources.

sinaj:
i xprience sleep paralysis a lot, itz not pleasant um...op plz wot about fighting with a horse in d dream...

i don't really do the dream interpretation thing lol....but i think it depends on the reason u were fighting the horse, if i may ask, hope u won (or u have been winning) the fight.

Op, i beg to disagree with #16, i usually see faces of people i don't know in my dreams, even though most times i see people i am closely related to or i encountered during the day

Interesting

Nice reading this.