Dream Trivia

Here are some interesting facts and tidbits about dreams:

• The word dream comes form the Middle English word, dreme, which means “joy,” “mirth,” also “music.”

• One third of our lives is spent sleeping.

• We dream on average of one or two hours every night, often with 4 to 7 dreams in one night.

• In our lifetime, we would have spent about 6 years of it dreaming. That is more than 2,100 days spent in dreamland.

• Dreams have been with us for a long time. Early Egyptians already attempted to interpret their dreams and their symbolism. A priest then called a Master of the Secret Things were consulted for this purpose.

• Half the content of our dreams are forgotten after five minutes of its end. And after 10 minutes, 90 percent is lost!

• Dangerous substances such as marijuana, alcohol and sleeping pills decrease a person’s dream recall.

• Dreamers who are abruptly awakened right after REM sleep can recall their dreams more vividly than those who slept through the night until morning.

• Everybody dreams. Even blind people do dream. Their dreams are commonly based on sounds, tactility, and smell to make up for the absence of their vision.

• Toddlers do not dream about themselves until the age of 3 or 4.

• Children commonly have nightmares, typically beginning at around age 3 and occurring up to age 7 to 8.

• Nightmares are also fairly common among adults. Often nightmares are caused by stress, traumatic experiences, emotional difficulties, drugs or medication, or illness.

• Men are likely to dream more about other men; while women tend to dream about men and women equally.

• Most dreams are in color, though we may not be aware of it.

• Wet dreams may not necessarily coincide with overtly sexual dream content. During REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, usually associated with dreaming, males experience erections and females experience increase vaginal blood flow no matter what the content of the dream is.

• Sometimes people are aware that they are dreaming while still asleep and in the dream. This is called lucid dreaming.

• Muscles are paralyzed during REM sleep, to prevent you from acting out dream images.

• You cannot be dreaming while snoring.

• In a poll, 67 percent of Americans have experienced déjà vu in their dreams, occurring more often in females than males.