Interesting facts about dreams. Sleep phases
Dream - a vital necessity person. This is a process during which our consciousness rests, and the body carries out active restoration work. internal organs, as well as the brain. And all this is accompanied by fascinating (and not so fascinating) dream pictures. Each of us at least once in our lives has thought about the origin of the dreams we see.
According to most researchers, dreams are associated with the activities of the subconscious. While awake, a person is bombarded with an avalanche of information, which is only partially processed by consciousness. For example, we remember that this morning we were walking through the city, the weather was good, there were a lot of people on the street. At the same time, we cannot remember people's faces or what they were wearing. The brain defines this information as unimportant, unnecessary, and does not bring it to our consciousness. And it is stored in full quantity and with the smallest details in our brain. And with every passing day, its number increases by hundreds of gigabytes.
Let's go back to dreams. Dream- this is the result of organizing information blocked by consciousness that is stored in the brain while we sleep. The subconscious mind does this.
So what do dreams depend on? If it were a matter of simple systematization of information received by the brain during the day, then we would probably simply relive this day in a dream. But in fact, a person’s dreams are filled with both real and unreal events and people, those that happened today or several years ago. At the same time, everything is organically intertwined, confused and creates a feeling of absolute reality of what is happening in a dream.
The dreams we see depend on the physical and psycho-emotional state in which we go to bed, as well as on general condition health.
Do you want to understand why you see certain dreams? Not all dreams are prophetic, but they all present us with important information which we are not aware of state of wakefulness, in symbolic form. Each person has his own symbols from his personal life experience. In addition, there are collective symbols - archetypes, stored deep in the depths of the subconscious. We will not consider here dreams that are the result of significant mental illness, but let’s look at typical dreams that everyone sees normal people. If you don’t believe dream books, here are a few criteria by which you can “see through” the dream:
1) Able increased anxiety and anxiety about a situation that we cannot influence in any way, we see in our dreams what we fear most– the death of loved ones, separation from a loved one, the loss of something dear to us, ourselves in a humiliating situation, a quarrel, how someone offends us, etc. At the same time, the plot of the dream is in no way connected with the situation that worries us in reality - the “beloved” person in a dream may in fact be a distant acquaintance, whose affairs we have not been interested in for many years.
Advice in this case: try to relax and let go of the situation. Unfortunately, nothing depends on your efforts.
2) If a person has hidden diseases, then in a dream he often sees something that causes a feeling of disgust, disgust– raw meat, dead fish, entrails, ulcers or wounds on the body, etc.
Such dreams, especially recurring ones, urge us to pay attention to our health - undergo a medical examination, change diet, and improve the health of the body.
3) When a person accumulates a large number of problems that he will have to solve in a short time, spending a lot physical strength, he arrives in intellectual and emotional overstrain, and his brain simply “explodes” from constant thinking. This condition can be destructive to health, and then the “good” subconscious mind intervenes and saves us from “brain explosion” and exhaustion with the help of dreams. In a dream, we suddenly see how what we are struggling with easily resolves itself. We get what we want and what we strive for, while experiencing lightness and joy in our sleep, and we wake up rested and ready to act.
As practice shows, such dreams do not literally come true, but simply save our psyche from overstrain. They also mean that we will succeed, but we will have to make an effort.
4) Prophetic dream - special category dreams, which shed light on some events in reality or warn us about what has happened or may happen. The signs of a prophetic dream are their collective symbolism, that is, we all see approximately the same content prophetic dreams. For example, a husband’s betrayal is often embodied in the following dream: the wife sees another woman in his room. The news of someone's death comes after a dream about something breaking - a thread, fishing line, string. Troubles are foreshadowed by large holes or deep reservoirs on your way, and depending on whether or not you were able to overcome these obstacles, a positive or negative outcome of the real situation.
5)Nothing is meaningful dream . It also happens - all night long, pictures, events and faces change chaotically before your eyes, there is no logic, no emotions, the whole dream looks like a cheap, plotless action movie. And you wake up broken and tired. This often happens to people engaged in intense intellectual work, forced to keep a lot in their heads. various information and leading a sedentary lifestyle. Such dreams occur due to a lack of physical activity and an excess of intellectual activity.
Be attentive to your dreams. Study the symbolic meaning of dreams - collective and individual. This way you can better understand your condition, as well as understand external life situations.
Conclusion: a dream is a projection of our subconscious, which processes the information we receive while we sleep. The subconscious seems to bring order to the chaos of thoughts, feelings, impressions, and conveys the most important conclusions to the conscious mind with the help of dreams.
After conducting a series of studies, scientists from the University of Hong Kong proved that the plots of dreams largely depend on the position in which a person sleeps.
670 students took part in the study conducted by specialists. Participants answered questions about what dreams they most often see and what positions they usually sleep in.
It turned out that those surveyed who are used to sleeping on their stomachs tend to have nightmares and dreams of sexual content. Scientists explain this by the fact that while sleeping in this position, a person’s breathing becomes difficult.
It has also been proven that when breathing is difficult during sleep, the brain most often either has erotic images, or the person feels constraint and persecution, which are the basis of nightmares.
According to researchers, every tenth human dream is of a sexual nature.
What are dreams?
All people see dreams, but their nature has not yet been clarified by scientists. It is known that black and white dreams see those people who live not by emotions, but by reason. Creative people most often see colorful dreams, moreover, than brighter colors dreams, the more creative a person has. Some people claim that they don't dream at all. In fact, this is not so: each of us sees dreams, but not everyone remembers them when they wake up.
Dreams are divided into several types:
- Actual dreams. These are dreams about real events that happened in the past. Sometimes such dreams are a warning about future events.
- Creative dreams. I have dreams like this creative people: writers, musicians, researchers. In such dreams, a person sees new ideas, plans, and undertakings.
- Compensatory dreams. They represent dreams in which bad things manifest themselves into something good. For example, an overweight woman may see herself slim and airy in a dream. And a person who is constantly in conflict with a strict boss at work sees a dream about a prosperous and calm relationship with him.
Duration and quality of sleep– criteria that influence many factors: mood, well-being, feeling of cheerfulness. In preparation for a new day, we try to go to bed early, but in the morning we wake up exhausted and lethargic. On another day, on the contrary, after a short sleep, we wake up on our own, feeling cheerful and strong. Why does this happen and how to learn to get enough sleep? To answer these questions, let's look at the phases of fast and slow sleep people in time and their characteristics.
Discoveries of scientists
Today the dream is understandable physiological state. But it was not always so. For a long time scientists could not track what changes occur in a person during rest. The topic was closed and difficult to study. In the 19th century, they assessed a person’s posture, measured arterial pressure and temperature, and other indicators were taken. For detailed study, sleepers were awakened and changes were recorded.
Hand turns off alarm clock early in the morning
Early attempts at sleep intervention have yielded results. Scientists have found that sleep goes through stages of varying duration fast and deep sleep person, and their significance is great, since it affects all indicators of the body. The German physiologist Köllschutter found that deep sleep occurs in the first hours of rest, and then it turns into superficial sleep.
After the discovery of electric waves, scientists took a complete picture of what was happening to the sleeper. An electroencephalogram helped to understand what was happening to a person during rest. In this case, the subject did not have to be woken up. Thanks to new technologies, it has become known that sleep goes through 2 phases: slow and fast sleep.
Stages of slow-wave sleep
Orthodox sleep is divided into stages. The stages differ in the duration and depth of rest. Let's look at the stages of slow-wave sleep:
First. Occurs after a person closes his eyes. The first stage is called napping. A person is not yet falling asleep; the brain is in an active stage. Within 10–15 minutes. the vacationer processes information that happened during the day. During this period, solutions are found to the questions that tormented a person.
Second. At this stage, “sleep spindles” appear. They occur at intervals of 3–5 minutes. During their passage, consciousness is completely switched off. In between sleep spindles, a person is sensitive to what is happening around him. He hears voices or sounds. This feature allows the mother to hear the baby’s cry at night. If you call a sleeping person by name, he will immediately wake up. Physiological changes come down to a decrease in muscle activity and a slower heart rate.
During the second slow phase sleep man hears sounds
Third. Stage of delta sleep or transitional. “Sleep spindles” are preserved and become longer lasting. Delta oscillations are added to them. The third stage is called preparatory stage before deep sleep.
Fourth. At this stage, the pulse quickens and blood pressure rises. The person falls into deep sleep. Dreams during this period are unclear and blurry. If the vacationer wakes up during the fourth stage, he will not remember what he dreamed.
People who sleepwalk or talk in their sleep do not remember anything the next morning. This is due to the fact that all events occur in the deep stage of sleep. Even if you interrupt the sleepwalker, he will not understand why he is not in bed and how he ended up in another room. It is at this stage that people have nightmares.
Duration of deep sleep directly depends on the person’s age and physical condition his body. For example, the duration of a child's deep sleep phase is 20 minutes, but the quality of sleep is completely different than that of most adults: it is much stronger, children may not respond to external stimuli(sound, light, touch). Thus, even the smallest ones restore energy, “reboot” the body’s systems, recharge immune system.
How long does the deep sleep phase last? The deep sleep phase, the duration of which varies depending on the specific stage, generally lasts one and a half to two hours. Of these, 5-10 minutes are “allocated” for dozing, for the second stage (slowing breathing and heart rate) – 20 minutes, for the third and fourth phases – 30-45 minutes each.
The girl sleeps sweetly, hugging a pillow
Features of REM sleep
Upon completion of the deep comes REM sleep. The fifth stage was discovered by Kleitman in 1955. The recorded indicators made it clear that the indicators of the body during REM sleep in humans are similar to the state of wakefulness. The REM sleep phase is accompanied by:
constant movement of the eyeballs;
significant decrease in muscle tone;
emotionally charged and action-packed dreams;
complete immobility of a person.
How long does REM sleep last? In total, shallow sleep makes up 20-25% of the average night's rest time, i.e. one and a half to two hours. One such phase lasts only 10-20 minutes. The most vivid and memorable dreams come during the REM sleep stage. If a person is awakened during this period, he will fully tell what he dreamed.
Baby is sleeping
Why are sleep phases needed?
A person’s well-being is inextricably linked with rest and sleep. No wonder. In the first months of life, a little person has a strong connection with nature and obeys its laws. As adults, we make decisions about how much sleep we need. Often untrue, so the mental is disturbed, emotional condition person - that is why it is important to know the frequency of fast and deep stages in night sleep and be able to calculate the stages of sleep for the time of awakening.
Scientists calculated sleep phases and after a series of studies came to the conclusion that 4–5 cycles pass per night. During this period, the person is restored. During slow-wave sleep, energy expended during the day is replenished. REM sleep is short in the first cycles, then lengthens. During the fifth phase, a person processes information and builds psychological protection, adapts to environment. Knowing how to calculate the sleep cycle, it is possible to learn how to regulate the body’s energy capacity and its vital functions as a whole.
Studies done on rats have shown that Lack of REM sleep leads to death. The rodents were deliberately awakened, preventing the rats from entering the fifth stage. Over time, the animals lost the ability to fall asleep, after which they died. If the sleeping person is deprived fast phase, then the person will become emotionally unstable, prone to irritation, mood swings, and tearfulness.
Girl sleeping with hand on alarm clock
How to calculate sleep phases to know when is the best time to wake up?
Let's take as a basis that one cycle lasts for 90 minutes. For good rest Long REM sleep is required. Therefore, at least 4 cycles should pass overnight. Waking up during slow-wave sleep makes a person groggy and lethargic. So, we need to calculate how to wake up during REM sleep: the fifth phase is characterized active work brain, so awakening occurs softly and painlessly.
Let's summarize. To feel cheerful in the morning, the duration of sleep and awakening after the completion of the fifth phase are important. For an adult, the ideal sleep time is 7.5–8 hours. The best option- This self-awakening, no alarm or phone signal.
If during the day you feel weak and want to take a nap, then allow this luxury. To avoid harm, record your rest time. If you have slept enough time at night, close your eyes for 15–20 minutes. This is how long the first stage of slow-wave sleep lasts. You will not have time to fall asleep, but you will feel that fatigue has been relieved. If night sleep was short-lived, then go through one cycle during the day. Sleep for 1–1.5 hours.
Conclusion
The data given is approximate, but the essence is clear. For normal life human body phase sleep is necessary. It is important to wake up after completing 4–5 cycles. It’s ideal when you wake up on your own. Daytime nap It won’t do any harm if you prevent the second phase from entering or if you go through one full cycle.
January 20, 2014It is not for nothing that Carl Jung described dreams as the direction of our future actions, because it is precisely the work of the brain that is activated while we sleep that often predetermines our life, and not otherwise. Since time immemorial, humanity has been interested in the nature and essence of dreams, the interpretation of which was even considered by some peoples to be a kind of cult. In fact healthy sleep a person is his good condition during the period of wakefulness, and nothing else strengthens the immune system like those nights when we slept peacefully and for a long time.
How to sleep properly?
We all know that sleep and its quality primarily depend on the bed on which we spend 6 hours or more every night. But despite this, even the purchase of good pillows and a decent mattress is often postponed until a more successful period, for example, you can buy mattresses 200 by 200 centimeters, you will more than completely drown in this huge mattress, which, of course, will have a very good effect on your sleep. True, not every bed is suitable for such a mattress, but this is a topic for a separate article.
If during sleep Your head is aligned with your spine, you may develop diseases related to the joints, and pain in vertebral regions will haunt you again and again. The same applies to people who suffer from snoring. Change the pillow so that you can sleep comfortably and comfortably on your side, and then you will not have to resort to the services of orthopedic doctors.
Well, real female beauty And a high pillow or cushion under the neck not compatible. Neither night creams with a rejuvenating effect nor cosmetic procedures, if every night you have it precisely because incorrect position face and neck, new wrinkles will form in these places.
For those who want to wake up with a feeling of complete rest, we advise you to remove all unnecessary irritants. noises from the bedroom area. This private room is not a place to install home theater, a full-fledged computer with a monitor or impressive equipment for listening to music. Nervous system a person is often irritated even by the mechanism of a watch or the sound of an oil heater plugged into the network. Make your bedroom an abode of peace and quiet, because you don’t need outside help for this!
Almost every person experiences some kind of “visions” during sleep. We dream of people, places, events, some objects or phenomena. Most often, a person sees a dream in the first person and in the morning forgets most of the dream. Some dreams affect emotions and can be very realistic. Today, scientists cannot say for sure why dreams occur, but there are several good theories that explain this phenomenon.
Why does a person sleep
First, let's figure out why we need sleep at all.
Dream - natural state body, which includes several cycles. During this period, brain activity is reduced, as is the reaction to external stimuli.
For a long time, the mechanism of the sleep state and the reason for dreaming were under a veil of secrecy, and scientists from different times made assumptions based on their conjectures. Modern technologies made it possible to study the human brain during sleep, and people received answers, although only to some questions.
Until now, many people believe that sleep is necessary for the rest of the brain and the body as a whole. But back in the 20th century it became clear that this is not entirely true: During sleep, brain activity is only 10-15% lower than during light sleep, and the muscles can easily rest simply by being at rest. So why do we spend almost a third of our lives on special condition sleep?
Today, this physiological phenomenon is considered not as just rest, but as a mechanism of self-regulation of the body. In the state of sleep, memories are systematized, the psyche is unloaded, stress levels are reduced, cells are renewed and toxins are removed.
What happens if you don't sleep
It is during the period of REM sleep that a person sees vivid dreams, some of which can be recalled in the morning. Each stage replaces each other several times, while their duration is uneven, and REM sleep gradually takes more and more time.
In ancient times, dreams were perceived as encrypted messages from the other world, containing information regarding a person’s future. “Knowledgeable” people () helped decipher these messages. Over time, dream books appeared, which are still popular today.
However, with the development of psychology and physiology, new views on this phenomenon began to appear, reflected in several theories.
Theory 1: Dreams are images of human desires
The famous psychotherapist Sigmund Freud suggested that in dreams a person sees repressed desires and hidden aspirations. The subconscious seems to communicate with us through dreams. Sometimes this is an exact image, and sometimes it is veiled in some symbols (images).
Freud believed that discussing dreams with a psychotherapist could help resolve internal psychological problems person. He even wrote a book, “The Interpretation of Dreams,” where he talks about typical symbols in dreams that may have a similar meaning in different people.
According to Freud, dreams have hidden meanings Theory 2: Features of the brain
But the eminent psychiatrist John Hobson, on the contrary, said that dreams do not carry any meaning. He studied exactly how dreams arise with physiological point vision. It turned out that random signals from the brain stem lead to a vision of a plausible reality.
The brain tries to somehow interpret random impulses and puts them into certain plots. He often takes memories as a basis.
Interesting fact! It has been experimentally proven that mammals such as cats and dogs also experience dreams.
Theory 3: Constant activation
Psychiatrist Zhang Jie agrees that nerve impulses lead to dreams. But in her opinion, they are not accidental.
During sleep, the brain systematizes memories, and at the moment they move from short-term memory to long-term memory, they can be partially activated, and we see dreams.
The dream may be a consequence of " night work» brain Theory 4: Threat Modeling
This is a rather unusual explanation for why we dream. It is believed that this ability was inherited by man from ancient ancestors, who, with the help of dreams, could imitate potentially dangerous situations.
In fact, dreams are protective. biological mechanism, allowing you to “train” to survive threats. U modern man not like that dangerous life, like our ancestors, so it is believed that the functions of dreams have changed a little. Hence the next theory.
There was a period when it was believed that sleep was painful condition, arising due to accumulated poisons in the human body.
Theory 5: Natural selection of thoughts
Psychologist Mark Blancher suggests that situations that the brain models during sleep, allowing it to choose the best emotional reactions. He remembers them and uses them in real life.
That is, in this case, we also train, but taking into account what most often happens in our modern life.
Interestingly, a special type of sleep is lucid dreaming when a person realizes that he is dreaming, and sometimes even controls the dream. Some researchers are convinced that anyone can master this with proper training.
Be sure to check it out video with interesting information about dreams:
Conclusion
While no theory is generally accepted, they suggest that dreams arise from impulses in the brain and are possibly formed from memories.
