subject: Reliving your day through your dreams [print this page] When you go to bed at night, your brain recalls all the things you have been through in that day before you drift off to sleep, and then relives certain aspects of your life through dreams. Your dreams may seem unstable with a random collection of people, times and places, but when you sleep you follow a certain cycle. Dreams in some circles are thought of as supernatural, from times when people claimed to have the ability to interpret dreams and their meanings. This brush with the supernatural resulted in claims that dreams were messages from an abnormal being, and rumours that they could only be understood by a chosen few.
It was then found in the 1950's that this was highly inaccurate, with sleep being placed into 4 distinct stages, rotating through each around 5 times a night. It is important to dream, as our brains way of staying active whilst the body is resting, and if we don't get enough of stage 4 of the sleep cycle, we are likely to become crabby, disorientated and depressed throughout the day. Therefore, it is important to get not only the appropriate amount of sleep, but also the right amount of dream time at night.
Whilst we are dreaming our body reacts to the emotions we feel at that time, for example if we are dreaming of being chased or anything where our body feels tense or excited, adrenalin levels increase. This would occur in stage 4 of the sleep cycle, REM. The 4 stages of sleeping are:-
Light Sleep it is very easy to be woken up from light sleep, as it is just when the body is beginning to switch off and prepare for rest.
Relaxation Stage still reasonable easy to wake, the body begins to repair the damage from anything that's happened the previous day.
Deep Sleep Metabolic levels go very low as the body is heavily relaxed.
REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Brain activity increases, this is the time when dreams occur. Throughout your sleep, you will spend more time in stage 4 then 1-3.
Dreams and dreaming have been the focal point of some Hollywood films recently, showing how interpreting or understanding them can be a complex activity. However, when looked at simply, they follow the simple process through stages 1-4 and don't always have to have a specific meaning. Instead of this, they are mainly inspired by your daily events, picking from sometimes unimportant occurrences during your day. Sometimes we dream about miniscule things, such as a yellow car going down a street we walk regularly, and then when we pass the same sequence we get a strange sense of dj vu. This is an example of a dream, taking evidence from our daily lives and using it in our dreams.
Is there a link between a comfortable night's sleep and the dream you have? Well a comfortable bed won't make you dream of clouds and fluffy things, but it will make your sleep a much more relaxing time. This will result in a healthier lifestyle and, inevitably more enjoyable sleep. A mattress made of memory foam is a revolutionary design, giving a night's worth of premium sleep. By balancing out all pressure points and eliminating any risk of discomfort, a memory foam mattress, will give a long, restful and relaxing nights sleep.
