15 Curiosities About Sleep That You Should Know
Have you ever wondered why some people dream and others don’t? Or how long do we dream every night? Here we present all the curiosities about sleep that you should know. Are you ready to be amazed?
15 curiosities about sleep
The dream has fascinated men and women throughout the world since time immemorial. The dream representation has raised hundreds of doubts. Therefore, we want to tell you some curiosities that will surely leave you with your mouth open.
1. We all dream.
It doesn’t matter if you remember your dream in the morning or not, we all dream every night! However, while some people are able to remember one, two or more dreams, other people are unable to do so.
Note : Only those people with REM disorder do not dream at night, but the percentage is very small.
2. There is something called “sleep paralysis.”
It is not a nightmare but a condition suffered by thousands of people in the world. Sleep paralysis disables the sufferer from performing any kind of voluntary movement for a period of time, usually between sleep and wakefulness.
3. We spend about 6 years of our life dreaming.
That without adding, of course, the time we spend daydreaming. Every night, we dream several times for periods of between 5 and 20 minutes. If we calculate the current life projection, we conclude that we would spend about six years with our dreams.
4. Curiosities about sleep: we forget dreams within minutes of waking up.
For the most part, dreams are easily forgotten. Has it ever happened to you to try to tell someone a dream and feel it vanish from your mind? This occurs because the way we process information and store it in memory is not the same as the way our mind dreams.
5. Some people dream things that then happen.
These are the famous premonitory dreams. There is no scientific explanation in this regard, but there are cases of people who dreamed of situations that finally happened. For example:
- Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his assassination.
- Some people dreamed of the tragedy of the Titanic.
- It has been said that some victims of the attack on the Twin Towers had dreamed of a possible catastrophe.
6. Some of the most famous inventions in history were based on dreams.
As you read, some inventors have changed humanity as we knew it based on their dreams. This is the case of Larry Page, creator of Google, James Watson, discoverer of the double spiral of DNA, and Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine.
7. Dreams between men and women are often very different.
Some studies have observed that, while women mainly dream of family and friends in familiar situations, men tend to have more aggressive dreams, where problematic encounters with other men predominate.
8. Curiosities about sleep: our brain does not rest at night.
We usually associate sleep with a moment of rest and peace and imagine that our brain “shuts down.” However, as you may already be suspecting, this is not the case: the brain is active while we sleep and for this reason, dreams occur.
9. Some people dream in black and white.
Most of the time we dream in color but some people dream in black and white. You may also ever dream in black and white in isolation. Has it happened to you?
10. Most people cannot read in a dream.
Have you ever dreamed that you read in your dream? Or that you face an exam? Reading a leaf in a dream is not an easy thing and, in fact, many, many people cannot do it. For this reason, there are so many failed exam dreams. The same happens with reading the time.
11. Curiosities about sleep: it is believed that animals also dream.
It has not been proven (and in fact, doing it is quite complex), however, it is suspected that animals also dream. Have you seen your dog wagging its paws and whimpering in its sleep? It would seem that the explanation is that he is dreaming!
12. Sometimes it is possible to guide the dream.
Lucid dreams are situations in which we are aware of what we are dreaming of and, in some way, we manage to manipulate the content of the dream as we please.
13. We dream negative things more often than positive.
It is not known for what reason; however, various investigations have concluded that negative dreams are usually more frequent than positive ones. Emotions such as anxiety, fear and despair appeared in studies more repeatedly than happiness and love.
14. Curiosities about sleep: blind people also dream.
Not seeing does not prevent blind people from dreaming. In fact, many dream with images, while others do it through their other senses such as touch, smell or hearing.
15. We only dream of faces that we have ever seen.
So now you know: if you ever dream that you are being chased or attacked and you can see the face of your assailant, it is probably someone you know or have seen on public transport.
Have we surprised you with these curiosities about sleep? Surely tonight, when you go to sleep, you will remember some of this information. Sweet Dreams!
