Dreaming - Does Everyone Do It??

Dreaming Fast Facts

1. 5%-10% of adults have nightmares at least once a month
2. Sometimes people who become blind after birth can see in their dreams
3. Only about 0.01% of dreams include a celebrity
4. Babies and animals dream
5. 83% of boys dreams include aggressive behavior
6. 50% of girls dreams include aggressive behavior
7. 55% of men's dreams include aggressive behavior
8. 34% of woman's dreams include aggressive behavior
9. Women are more likely to have dreams that take place at home or at work
10. Men are more likely to have dreams that take place outdoors
11. Everyone dreams
12. It is possible to train yourself to remember your dreams
13. Women have more nightmares than men


Does everyone Dream?

Everyone dreams. However, not everyone remembers their dreams. We typically begin dreaming about an hour after falling asleep; and we continue to dream about every 90 minutes throughout the night. If we wake up in the night the cycle starts all over again.

There are many ways to develop the ability to remember your dreams. One way is to meditate about your desire to remember your dreams just before going to bed. Tell yourself that you will remember a dream tonight. Do this every night for a week. Once you begin to have "flashes" or in other ways begin to remember dreaming, write down what you remember, what you feel and what the dream reminds you of. If you awake in the night, quickly jot down a few key words about what you remember on a notebook kept beside your bed. This will help you to jog your memory when you wake in the morning. Whenever possible write down everything you remember about all your dreams. Keeping a dream journal can be very enlightening for those who want to use their dreams to help them in their waking like. Going over your dreams for the last week or two can help you realize themes that may be mirrored in your life - things that may need your attention, or new understandings that you need to become aware of.

When we dream our body is most often in a state of semi-paralization. This keeps us from acting out our dreams. There are some types of sleep disorders in which the dreamer acts out all or part of their dream either by swinging their arms, kicking or even sleep walking. These conditions are fairly rare. While we dream our eyelids flutter as our eyes move rapidly back and fourth. This is referred to as REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep.