People spend a third of their lives sleeping or trying to sleep. But what lies behind a little-studied, but dreamy, mysterious element of sleep.
Psy Post writes that sleep deprivation can lead to a variety of cognitive impairments, including depressed mood, slurred speech, decreased alertness, attention, and ability to learn or remember things. Sleep is crucial to our physiological and psychological well-being, as it allows us to recharge overnight to meet the new day with intact cognitive abilities. So, it is clear that sleep is necessary. But is it necessary to dream? What is a dream anyway? And more importantly, what happens in our brains when we dream?
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A dream can only be defined as a “subjective experience during sleep” that the dreamer has after waking up. Everyone dreams, even if they don’t remember what happened. We dream about 2 hours of an average of 8 hours of sleep! Dreams mostly occur during REM sleep, but can also occur, to a limited extent, during non-REM sleep. During BFS, the eyes move rapidly from side to side, while the arm and leg muscles are temporarily paralyzed, and breathing, heart rate, and brain activity spike to near-awake levels. These features have led researchers to characterize REM sleep as “a metabolically alert brain in a paralyzed body.”
Our dreams are not separate from neural activity, so they do not exist in a vacuum – in fact, they largely reflect the inner workings of the brain. The perceptual modalities that dominate our waking state are also present in most dreams; Consider how dreams tend to be vivid with color, shape, and movement, and include elements that we are intimately familiar with, such as people, places, or animals. Dreams involve sounds such as speech or speech, and can sometimes include tactile sensations such as pleasure, pain, smell, and taste. Clearly, experiences in dreams are not alien abstractions devoid of sensory content, they are visible, audible, and tangible.
These similarities between sleep and wakefulness are also reflected in neurophysiological similarities. The electroencephalogram (EEG), which monitors the electrical activity of the brain, reveals similar states in the active waking brain and in REM sleep. Positron emission tomography (PET) has shown that overall brain metabolism during REM sleep is comparable to that during wakefulness. There is also a coherence between the cognitive and neural organization of sleep and wakefulness – for example, people with impaired face perception never see faces in their dreams. And the characteristics of children’s dreams are similar to their cognitive development in the waking state. By examining the neuroanatomy of REM sleep, the researchers were able to track the relative increase and decrease in neuronal activity. Surprisingly, in parallel with vivid visual images in a dream, the visual cortex, which is responsible for processing visual information, is strongly activated.
We often lack volitional control while asleep; something happens and we act together with the developing events. This may be a function of the lower right parietal cortex, which is deactivated during REM sleep, an area of the brain that has recently been associated with free will or wakefulness. We also experience reflective thinking modified to accept absurd events as true, such as swinging from the moon or incredibly sudden transitions from one dream scene to another. In dreams we often feel insecure about time and space or the identity of characters coming and going. This may be because various areas of the brain, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, are disabled during REM sleep. In fact, disabling the prefrontal cortex is associated with decreased self-awareness when dealing with high-level sensory experiences during wakefulness.
Some of our dreams are emotional, we feel what we’re dreaming of, whether it’s fear, anxiety or joy. Not surprisingly, REM sleep is associated with increased activation of the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex. These brain structures are involved in the formation and regulation of emotions as well as the activation of the fight-or-flight responses. However, about 25% of REM sleep is devoid of emotions, even in situations that we usually feel when we encounter it while awake. And we rarely experience bad moods (such as sadness or guilt) that may be the result of reduced self-awareness.
We don’t always remember our dreams after waking up. Dream repetition tends to be best after a quick awakening and can vary from person to person. Factors such as personality, sleep duration, and visual memory are associated with dream recall. Some studies even point to gender differences, finding that women remember their dreams more often than men.
Some researchers suggest that the need to dream is on the same level as the need for sleep. They claim that dreams have healing properties and in reality reduce the severity of painful emotional experiences. Dreaming provides a safe environment for reprocessing sad memories and reaching emotional resolutions when we wake up the next day. The evolutionary function of dreams may be a psychological obvious cure.
Previously Focus wrote about the dangers of co-sleeping with furry pets. While there are many benefits to napping with your canine companion, some veterinarians warn that it can be risky, especially during the winter months.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.