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What happens to our minds in a dream? 10 amazing discoveries

1. Our brain does not sleep when we sleep At night, when we sleep and do not realize what is happening to us, our brain does not turn off, it works and sometimes even more actively than during our wakefulness. However, there is one part of the brain that likes to sleep - this is the “prefrontal zone”. It is used to process information of a higher order - planning, logical thinking, problem solving and control. She falls asleep first and wakes up last. That is why in a dream we lose orientation in time and space, cannot logically think and perceive what is happening in a dream as reality.

 2. Sleep is a realm of emotions, so we do not just see dreams, we feel them! The activity of the limbic system, which is responsible for our emotions, increases by 15 percent at night. And this is a lot, according to scientists, because under other conditions, the activation of other sites increases by only three to four percent.

 While our “rational and civilized” beginning is asleep, emotions have the opportunity to free themselves from his guardianship. Scientists suggest that through dreaming we try to come to terms with difficult and painful feelings.

 3. In a dream, we sometimes have to experience more than in reality, and this makes sense Nayavu people more often than in a dream, experience positive emotions, and a sense of fear occurs in dreams many times more often than during wakefulness. In general, two-thirds of the emotions that arise in dreams are negative.

 In dreams, fear most often prevails, followed by helplessness, anxiety and guilt. At night, the integration of emotional experiences, especially stressful or posing a threat to self-esteem, takes place. We experience negative emotions at night to meet a new day with renewed vigor. By morning, dreams become more pleasant and the mood improves, especially if by the last phase of REM the brain finds something in long-term memory that is consistent with current feelings, but that has received a positive outcome.

 4. Dreams reflect the realities of life. Men see in dreams more manifestations of physical aggressiveness than women. Among the representatives of industrial societies, the most aggressive were the dreams of Americans: 50% of American men (and 34% of women) have such dreams, while Swiss men saw 32% of aggressive dreams, and the Dutch - 29%. According to Professor Domhoff, “the physical aggressiveness reflected in the dreams of Americans undoubtedly correlates with the fact that we kill each other much more often than residents of Switzerland or the Netherlands.” 

5. Sex is not the main theme of our dreams. Since Freud, many scholars have argued that sex is the main theme and driving force of dreams.

 According to various estimates, however, sexual activity is present in 10-30% of dreams. In 2002, Canadian students were questioned about the content of dreams, and so, sexual motives took only the second place, and in the first place - in 77 percent of the cases - there were dreams in which they ran away from someone. It seems that Freud gave out his wishes for reality. 95% of men want sex in their sleep, while the female sex dreams of romance :)

 6. Why did nature come up with dreams?

 Studies conducted by Ernest Hartmann at Taft University show that, for example, walking, talking with friends, sex are present in dreams of an adult as often as in his real life, but reading, writing, solving arithmetic problems are extremely rare , even if a person spends six hours a day doing one of these or all three activities. These aspects of life are almost not reflected in dreams, because they are late acquisitions of human culture. In ancient times, all this was not, therefore, it is not recorded in the neural structures of our brain. 

7. The sleeping brain is a wonderful storyteller, however, like the sleeping one One part of our brain always and everywhere searches for meaning, interprets and creates stories. In dreams, the results of the interpreter’s labors are even more impressive, because during sleep the brain is in an active state, but the raw materials that it has to process are fundamentally different. You forget about yourself, you forget about the world around you, you no longer control your thoughts. 

The brain has to work hard to find meaning in these production conditions, but it copes and does what it always does - the story intertwines. In fact, the sleeping brain makes hasty conclusions based on incomplete readings. He does the same in waking hours, but in a dream he has to deal with even more confusing data.

8. Why do we dream that we have never seen? 

During a dream, the logic-oriented prefrontal cortex is inactive, and the channels of external sensory information are blocked, and the brain creates wider connections. When a neural model that represents the concept of “home” begins to work, the brain does not search for a specific memory related to a particular house, but activates several neural networks representing a certain set of houses and similar structures. As a result, the appearance of many buildings and the features of many people are combined and assembled into the image of a building and the image of a person never seen before. 

9. Is it worth taking dreams seriously? 

The night dramas created by our brain can shed light on emotional moments, especially acute during this period. Even those experts who reject the argument that dreams are generally related to the biological functions of the body recognize that we can still extract something meaningful from them. 

“Dreams make sense because they express both our emotional concerns and our ideas about ourselves and others,” says Bill Domhoff, a specialist in dream analysis. - Yes, from stories about dreams you can get some significant psychological information, but it should also be recognized that some aspects of dreams can turn out to be nothing more than a frivolous product of free brain improvisation. If you regularly see dreams that cause you anxiety, then you may need the help of a psychologist for depression. Sometimes several sessions are enough to change the situation for the better and change the course of your dreams!

 10. Dreams can be used to solve problems and increase creativity. Cognitive psychologist John Antrobus said that when we solve some problems, we often impose restrictions on possible solutions ourselves.

 But in a dream there are no restrictions, and we can see solutions that previously did not seem obvious to us at all. ” In a dream, the brain acts without reliance on logic or episodic memory, we lack the substances necessary to concentrate, so it seems that the brain encourages us to go beyond the usual ideas, to do some kind of brain storm, ”says Robert Stickgold, a Harvard scientist . Scriptwriters, directors and actors are almost twice as likely to remember dreams as participants in his previous studies, moreover: they are twice as likely to recognize that dreams influence their creative activity.

What happens to the brain during sleep

How the brain falls asleep Earlier, when human physiology was still not studied at all, it was believed that the work of the brain during night rest gradually decreases, and then completely stops. Now that EEG was invented, this theory has been disputed. It turned out that brain activity does not stop even when a person is resting. This body is responsible not only for dreams, but also many other important functions that it performs in a dream. 

The work of the brain during sleep. 

A person receives a huge amount of information per day. After falling asleep, brain activity does not stop. He begins to process this information, its distribution and rethinking. In addition, the body performs other functions: 

Decision making. When a person relaxes and falls asleep, the information in his head begins to be systematized, and this pushes him to the right decision. 

Memorization. The brain department responsible for memorization has a long and short-term memory. Everything that happens during the day is kept short-term and is not stored for long, and is forgotten over time. At night, knowledge is divided into departments, and the information that is important is transferred to long-term memory. 

The removal of toxins from organ cells. This is an important process, due to which a protein that is not useful is derived from the intercellular space. Due to this, it is possible to prevent the development of a number of diseases. 

Muscle memory. People involved in sports or dancing at night manage to remember all the movements in order to perform them automatically in the future. Creative thinking. The department of the body responsible for non-standard thinking actively works precisely during sleep, when it is freed from pressing problems.

 What part of the brain is responsible for sleep? Night rest is divided into fast and slow phases. They are alternately replaced by one another. The first, fast phase, in which the maximum brain activity in a dream, lasts only 5-10 minutes. At the same time, the slow one is significantly longer, but closer to the morning it is gradually shortened, thus preparing the body for awakening.

 Activity in phases of sleep Depending on the phase of sleep, the brain sleeps and behaves differently. Immediately after falling asleep, the neural oscillations decay, the nerve fibers and muscles relax, the heart rate slows down, and the pressure and temperature decrease. In this case, the hypothalamus is responsible for immersion in slow sleep. It has a group of nerve cells that suspend the synthesis of neurotransmitters. These are transmitters that contribute to the spread of impulses to the nerve endings.

 During REM sleep, the thalamus is excited by cholinergic receptors. Due to this, the brain performs the same functions as when awake. The brain stem begins to work, but monoamine transmitters heading into it remain passive. Accordingly, information from the thalamus to the cortex of the body is not received.

 Detoxification in a dream During research, scientists were able to find out that during a night's rest, brain activity contributes to the removal of toxins. This is due to the activation of the glyphatic system, which works up to ten times more active if a person is napping. When a slow sleep occurs, one hemisphere falls asleep, neural vibrations subside. Cells that support the activity of neurons, while decreasing in size.

 Due to such changes, the intercellular space increases, and cerebral fluid begins to leach toxins. The brain does not rest during sleep: what to do It has been scientifically proven that the brain, while we sleep, remains active. 

His work does not stop during the whole night's rest. Good sleep is only possible in the absence of any disturbances. 

The course of the biological clock The biological clock is regulated by various psychophysical and natural factors. Their course is affected by the change of night and day, fatigue, various pathologies, and the environment. 

During a series of experiments, scientists found that closer to 19:00 in the body begins the intensive production of serotonin, calming the nervous system and preparing the body for a night's rest. An hour after this, an improvement in memory and stabilization of the state is noted. At this time, it is recommended to take a walk in the fresh air.

At 22:00, all processes begin to slow down, and a slow sleep sets in, periodically giving way to a fast phase. 

The body prepares for awakening closer to five in the morning. Getting out of bed is recommended at seven.

 Sleep Disorders With prolonged wakefulness, lack of rest at night, chronic fatigue and the development of pathologies, certain disorders are observed. Sometimes, at the same time, a person sleeps with his eyes open, often wakes up or cannot sleep at all. To eliminate such problems, it is necessary to identify the factor that provokes such changes. 

The most common violation is considered to be insomnia (insomnia). Due to its appearance, the body cannot recover overnight, and the brain does not perform its functions properly. Therefore, problems with falling asleep need to be addressed. The correct organization of the regimen of the day, herbs and drugs will help normalize sleep.

What does the brain do during a person’s sleep?

 When you go to bed, you probably think that your brain is also completely turned off. But this is far from the case! But what is he really doing? Such a difficult dream. If you think that you fall asleep and sleep sweetly all night, then you are greatly mistaken. In fact, a dream can be different, and it consists of several phases. Scientists have long tried to find out their sequence and duration, and one of the researchers identified the following steps:

1- Falling asleep. At this stage, some hallucinations or images may occur that are usually associated with daily experiences. It seems to a man as if he is "falling" into a dream, immersed in it.

2- Next comes a light sleep, which can last from ten to thirty minutes. At this stage, a person is quite easy to wake up, because his brain, in fact, has not yet switched from the wakeful regimen completely and completely.

1- The first stage of slow sleep. The second stage of slow sleep.

4- This phase is considered the deepest, a person is completely unaware of his actions and does not realize what is happening. And therefore, it is during this period that some people begin to talk or show physical activity: getting out of bed or even moving around.

5- Next comes the REM stage, which some scientists call “REM”. At this stage, the muscles are completely relaxed, the body is immobilized, only periodic involuntary contractions and trembling are likely. 

At this time, the sleeper sees very vivid and sometimes incredibly realistic dreams. And if you wake him up at such moments, he will clearly remember everything and tell the dream in great detail. But who woke up at the stage of a slow sleep about his nightly adventures almost does not remember anything. 

From the moment of falling asleep to the beginning of REM sleep, it usually takes about 50-70 minutes, and then this phase is repeated approximately every one and a half hours. Its duration in the first half of the night is usually no more than ten minutes, but then it gradually increases (the duration of slow sleep is reduced accordingly) and reaches 20-30 minutes, and by morning it can reach up to an hour. So the longest and most vivid dreams most often dream just before waking up.

 REM sleep takes about a fifth of the entire sleep period, that is, we can conclude that a person relaxes and fully sleeps only about six hours a night (with an eight-hour sleep).

Nocturnal activities of our brain So what does the brain do during a person’s sleep?

1- Decision making. Yes, the brain in a dream processes all the information received during the day and systematizes it, which helps to find the right solutions faster after waking up.

2- Memorization and structuring of information. Usually, all data received per day is stored in the so-called short-term memory. And therefore, such information will soon be forgotten. But in a dream, the brain, as it were, moves it into a long-term memory, and therefore we remember a lot of important things, moreover, in a dream. In addition, the brain, as it were, parses all the data, places them on the shelves, as if creating an archive. And he connects the new information with the old information received earlier. So if you do not get enough sleep, then your ability to remember can decrease by as much as 40%!

3- Disposal of toxins. Yes, yes, in a dream, the brain is sort of tidied up in our body, getting rid of everything harmful and unnecessary. And such an amazing function was discovered during the observation of mice. During sleep, they got rid of substances that could damage nerve cells. This is achieved by increasing the space between the cells, so that toxins are easily eliminated.

4- Fixing muscle memory. Since during sleep, data is stored in long-term memory, this allows us not only to memorize data, but also to consolidate and bring to automatism some motor skills, such as dance movements, shock in sports, driving a car.

5- Creative information processing. It has been proven that sleep can stimulate creativity. While a person is sleeping, completely unexpected and interesting associations and connections can form in his brain, which allows you to make creative decisions, look for new alternatives, and also see unusual scenarios. And before all this during wakefulness no one would have thought of it.

Interesting facts A few interesting facts about the work of the brain during sleep:

With age, dreams usually become more complex, their plots sometimes resemble tangled stories from films. And this is due to the fact that a person is gaining experience, and often some images and emotions are blocked during wakefulness by his brain, but at night they begin to emerge in the subconscious. Sleep is a reflection of reality.

 Moreover, it can be rather strange, since the brain interprets and modifies what is happening in its own way. And sometimes what happens a few days or even months ago pops up in dreams. In addition, analogies may be made that are associated not with a real attitude, but with emotions. 

For example, if you dream that you are taking an exam in a subject that you have not learned, then you probably experienced an unpleasant situation related to the inability to achieve something or make the right decision.

 Before an important event, you definitely need to sleep! So night preparation for exams or conferences is not the best option. The scientist Calvin Hall conducted research and found out that in dreams many more often face failures and troubles than victories and success. And with age, dreams are filled with negative and even aggression. That is why often good dreams are only dreamed of by children, and before adulthood. 

Now you know that sleep is not only enjoyable, but also a useful and productive activity.