DREAM STAGES
There are two types of sleep and there are five stages.
NREM: Non-rapid eye movement (or quiet sleep)
If you ever had a deep sleep where you didn't dream, you were probably having NREM sleep.
and
REM: Rapid Eye Movement (active or paradoxical sleep)
REM sleep is the stage in which dreams happen and usually begins 90
minutes after we fall asleep. Our brain activity will increase, but our muscles go into a paralyzed state.
Stage 1: light sleep (lasts about 5-10 minutes)
In stage 1 the brain produces a lot of slow brain waves (Theta Waves)
Stage 2: (lasts about 20 minutes)
The brain starts to produce rapid brain waves (Sleep Spindles)
Heart rate slows and temperature decreases.
Stage 3: Transition to Deep Sleep
The brain waves start to slow, producing Delta brain waves.
Stage 4: Delta sleep (lasts about 30 minutes)
At the end of this stage is when sleepwalking or bed wetting are most likely to happen.
After this stage, stages 3 and 2 are repeated before moving on to stage 5.
Stage 5: REM sleep and dreams
This is when our respiration increase, brain wave activity becomes more active causing dreams,
and our muscles start to relaxed and become (almost) paralyzed.
These stages will repeat in cycles throughout the night.
LUCID DREAMS
"What is a lucid dream?" you may ask. No, it is not something sexual, although I admit that's what I thought too when I first heard the term "Lucid Dreaming". A lucid dream is a dream in which a person is aware that they are dreaming and can even have a certain amount of control over their experiences in said dream, although far too often most people quickly wake up when realizing this. It is probably because all of the excitement caused your heart rate and brain waves to speed up.
DREAM JOURNALING
A person has up to 5-10 dreams during one period of sleep.
When you start writing down all of your dreams, everything and anything you can remember, even if it was just a short dream that only fills one sentence, write it down. You will begin to remember more and more of your dreams this way, and that's when you will be able to start lucid dreaming. People forget up to 90% of their dreams 30 minutes after waking up, so write them down immediately after waking.
HOW TO LUCID DREAM
During a dream, you will usually see or do something that you usually do in real life, that is why you should start doing reality checks during the day or whenever you're awake. You will be able to see that you are dreaming. Plus it's also a really good thing to do before you do something really embarrassing in public just because you think you are dreaming. To perform a reality check try some of these things:
- Jump up & down. In a dream the laws of gravity may not apply and you might float down instead of simply performing a normal jump.
- Check your watch or clock, look away, and check it again. Is it the same? And before you say "No, the minute changed." I thought of that. See? I'm prepared! If the time changes an unreasonable or illogical amount, you are most likely dreaming.
- Count your fingers. If you suddenly grow an extra finger yet you have never been part of a freak experiment, you are probably dreaming.
- Read some words or letters, look away, and when you look back see if they have changed.
- If you feel like you are about to wake up, try rubbing your hands together or spinning or even doing both at the same time.
Do these when you are awake and you will most likely also do them when you are asleep.
Recognize dream patterns, research dream meanings, you can even buy a dream meaning index or a journal specifically made for dreams (it might have an index attached to it). They sell one at Sweet XO.
Here are a few techniques you can research to help you:
"MILD" or Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming
"WILD" or Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming
"WBTB" or Wake Back to Bed Technique
The following website will talk about the above techniques
Random Fact: Everyone in your dreams are people you have seen at one time in your life.
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