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Sleep & Dreams |
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Dream Fact: Research has shown that, even though you may not remember them, everyone dreams several times a night.
Dream Fact: A person dreams on average of one or two hours every night. And we often even have 4-7 dreams in one night. Dream Fact: Five minutes after the end of the dream, half the content is forgotten. After ten minutes, 90% is lost. Dream Fact: Studies have shown that our brain waves are more active when we are dreaming than when we are awake. Dream Fact: Dreamers who are awakened right after REM sleep, are able to recall their dreams more vividly than those who slept through the night until morning. Dream Fact: If you are snoring, then you cannot be dreaming. Dream Fact: People that are blind from birth dream just as much as everyone else, however, their dreams are formed from their other senses such as touch, smell, taste and sound. Dream Fact: During REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement; dreaming), our bodies have a physiological response that causes sleep paralysis. Our dreams can seem so near reality that nature has developed temporary paralysis as means to keep us from acting out our dreams. Dream Fact: Nightmares are common in children, typically beginning at around age 3 and occurring up to age 7-8 Dream Fact: Around 3% of adults suffer from sleep apnea. This treatable condition leads to unexplained tiredness and inefficiency. Dream Fact: Men tend to dream more about other men, while women dream equally about men and women. Dream Fact: In an average lifetime, you would have spent a total of about six years of it dreaming. Dream Fact: The word dream stems from the Middle English word, dreme which means "joy" and "music". Dream Fact: Toddlers do not dream about themselves. They do not appear in their own dreams until the age of 3 or 4 Dream Fact: People who are giving up smoking have longer and more intense dreams Sleep Fact: During sleep, your brain rests. The body rests, but the brain remains active, performing a variety of critical functions. Sleep Fact: Snoring is a common problem, especially among men, but it isn’t harmful. Actually, snoring may be a symptom of a life-threatening disorder known as sleep apnea. Sleep Fact: REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have 75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term bubs. Similarly, a newborn kitten puppy rat or hampster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all. Sleep Fact: The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up. Sleep Fact: To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders. Sleep Fact: Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while those over 65 need the least of all (about six hours). For the average adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal Sleep Fact: As a group, 18 to 24 year-olds deprived of sleep suffer more from impaired performance than older adults Sleep Fact: We sleep more lightly during the second half of the night than during the first Sleep Fact: Cats sleep up to 18 hours a day, giraffes usually not more than 20 minutes Sleep Fact: Your body is on a 24-hour body clock, which makes you wind down between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. and again in the three hours directly after lunch. We are really made to have siestas Sleep Fact: Many people who suffer from insomnia suffer from anxiety and depression Sleep Fact: We go through four to six sleep cycles during a good night's sleep, moving through the different stages and back again Sleep Fact: The average person wakes up about six times per night. Sleep Fact: Your body temperature falls in the early morning hours, reaches a low at about 4 a.m. and then rises again just before sunrise Sleep Fact: Researchers have never been able to agree exactly why the body needs sleep, except that it is restoring to our bodies and our brains Sleep Fact: Even when we are sleeping very deeply, there is still a part of us that picks up sounds and signals from the world around us. That's why parents wake up when the baby cries, but they don't hear the howling southeaster |