dreamsEach of us sees dreams every night and yet we know so little about our dreams. Where do they come from? What do they mean? Can we control them? Here are five interesting facts about dreams that will leave you amazed.

The most common dream

If you ever wake up in a cold sweat after a nightmare about an extra-marital relationship of your partner, then you are not alone, says Lauri Quinn Loewenberg, dream expert, author and media personality. “The most commonly reported dream is one where your partner is cheating on you” he says.

Loewenberg conducted a survey with more than 5000 people and found that dreams of infidelity of one’s partner chase many men and women, sometimes on a recurring basis. It rarely has to do with real relationship, but only with a common fear of being alone.

You can have different, even a dozen dreams in one night

The truth is that you do not see one dream a night, but rather dozens of them, say experts, just it is not possible to remember them all.

We dream every 90 minutes throughout the night, each dream cycle is longer than the previous one” says Loewenberg.

The first dream takes about 5 minutes and the last one you see before you wake up can last from 45 minutes to an hour.”

It is estimated that most people have more than 100 000 dreams in their lifetime.

You can extend a dream after awakening

Have you ever woken from a beautiful, perfect dream and wished you could go back to sleep and restore it back?

Well, yes, you can! Stay still, just like you woke up without moving a single muscle in your body – thus you can stay in a semi-dream stage for a few minutes.

Stay in the same position you woke up and don’t open your eyes. When you move your body, you disconnect from the dream you were seeing” says Loewenberg.

Even the most weird dreams can be interpreted

Most times it is hard to believe that a strange dream may have any relation with real life.

Every dream can contain symbolism and meaning you should analyze, says Harvard trained psychotherapist Jeffrey Sumber. “The meaning of our dreams usually has to do with the things we need to understand about ourselves and the world around us” he says.

Rather than ignore these strange dreams, think on how they make you feel. “Usually we tend to remove such dreams because of the strange sensation they leave, but this sensation is what counts primarily,” he explains.

You can control your dreams

According to the results of a new research including about 3000 people, dream control can be a reality. In fact, 64.9 percent of participants reported that they knew that they were dreaming, while 34 percent said that sometimes they can control what happens in their dreams.

Having control of the content of your dreams is just a skill that anyone can develop, says Kelly Bulkeley, dreams researcher and graduate of the Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

The lucid dreaming technique is particularly useful for people suffering from recurring nightmares” he says.

Dr. Bulkeley suggests saying this sentence before falling asleep: “If I see that dream again, I’ll try to remember that this is nothing but a dream I’m seeing at the moment.”

When you learn to recognize that you are dreaming, not only will you have the power to take you away from the nightmare, but you also will train your mind to avoid nightmares in general.

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Anna LeMind

Anna LeMind
