20 of the Most Interesting Facts About Dreams

20 Of the World's Most Interesting Facts About Dreams Dreaming  is one of the most mysterious and interesting experiences in our liv...

20 Of the World's Most Interesting Facts About Dreams

Dreaming is one of the most mysterious and interesting experiences in our lives.During the Roman Era some dreamswere even submitted to the Roman Senate for analysis and dream interpretation. They were thought to be messages from the gods. Dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battles and campaigns!In addition to this, it is also known that many artists have received their creative ideas from their dreams.But what do we actually know about dreams?
Has it ever occurred to you, what do our dreams mean?
Do dreams give us hints about future or are they just the outcome of our daily routine? Some dreams tend be so vivid and realistic that once your eyes open, you feel that all of it happened right before your eyes. A little while later you can’t remember anything!
While all of you might be left in a slumber of wonder, we will shed light on some unheard and strange facts about dreams and sleep.As you may know that dream and sleep is not the same thing so dreams and sleep facts are mentioned separately in this article. By clicking here, you will skip dreams facts and will navigate directly to cool facts about sleep
Here are 20 interesting facts about dreams – enjoy and what’s most important, don’t forget to share your dream stories in the comment section!
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: You Forget 90% of Your Dreams

Within 5 minutes of waking half of your dream is forgotten. Within 10, 90% is gone.

Fact #3: Blind People also Dream

Most people think that blind people can’t dream, or as clearly as regular sighted people. In fact people with blindness dream as vividly as regular people, their dreams are enhanced through other sensory perceptions of touch and greater depth of the dream itself. It is one of the common unknown dream facts.

Fact #4: 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 #5: In Our Dreams We Only See Faces That We already Know

Our mind is not inventing faces – in our dreams we see real faces of real people that we have seen during our life but may not know or remember. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces throughout our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

You might not remember the person in your dream. However, a person only dreams of people he/she has encountered in life but it's impossible to keep track of thousands of faces that you come across each day.

Fact #6: 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.

It was thought the best ideas are thought off on the toilet seat, but history has to prove that dreams play a vital role in sparking ideas for great inventions to be born.

Fact #7: Dreams are for everyone

There is not one person who doesn't dream, except those who have psychological disorders. If you think you don't dream, it's just that you're forgetting your dreams.

Fact #8: Dreams Speak Through Our Subconscious

This is a solid one in Psychology facts, you might have felt similar dreams reoccurring repeatedly. That might be an undone task or feeling in the mind that needs to performed or accomplished in reality. These sort of dreams act as a reminder for the job to be done. So once you know this is happening, recall your life and asses what needs to be done.

Fact #9: Not Everybody Dreams in Color

A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch from black-and-white film and TV to color media.

Fact #10: 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 #11: Dreams Are Symbolic

In a list of psychological facts this aspect of dreams plays a vital role. Dreams don’t always tend to be easy to understand, neither are they instantly clear to remember.They are however cleverly symbolic, during our lives our dreams relate different things to provide a message, with elements that are brain can quickly process. For example playing a game of hangman, where you show symbols and reenactment to provide a picture for the word you want the people to guess.  
If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. Whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.

Fact #12: 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.

During the REM stage of your sleep, the body is paralysed through a mechanism that keeps your body from moving physically because of the dream. It is also possible for this mechanism to occur during, before and after your sleep when your brain is fully awakened. That is the mystery behind why you can't move so many times AFTER you're up and awake sometimes.

Fact #13: Universal

It's not only you who dreams, animals dream too just like this leopard lost in his dreamworld after eating lunch. The best example is a dog, you will often see them twitching their paws as if they are running in their dreams.

Fact #14: Dreams Give a Sense of Déjà Vu

You must have said to yourself “Hey I’ve seen this somewhere” “I’ve been here before” that is called precognitive dreaming. Even though you are in the present, your dream has given you a faint impression of what might turn out to be – a piece from the future. Which, once the time comes, is very relatable.

Fact #15: Emotions

The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Negative emotions are more common than positive ones.

Fact #16: Precognitive Dream

Results of several surveys across large population sets indicate that between 18% and 38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive dream and 70% have experienced déjà  vu. The percentage of persons that believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher – ranging from 63% to 98%.*Precognition, also called future sight, refers to perception that involves the acquisition of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information.

Fact #17:Dream-catcher

The dream-catcher is one of the most well-known Native American symbol .  It is a loose web or webs woven around a hoop and decorated with sacred objects meant to protect against nightmares.

Fact #18: Dream Incorporation

It's because of this behaviour of dreams that compels us to wake up in the middle of the night to eat or drink because it's impossible for you to sleep in peace if you don't wake up and finish that task.

Fact #19: 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.

Fact #20: Dreams are Prone to be Negative

You might have noticed, most of the dreams that you do encounter during sleep tend to follow negative emotions. Namely, anxiety, anger, sadness and fear. You are less likely to find positive dreams.

I hope you had a great time reading these strange facts about our dreams. Now I’m going to my bed to check those facts once again. Good night and sweet dreams!
Don’t forget to share your weirdest dream experiences below!
If you decide to learn more about it, this book could be a good way to start: The Dream Book: Symbols for Self Understanding
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