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One night, I sat in the living room to write a paper, thinking hard at the computer, how can I write the experimental results more concisely and clearly.
Suddenly, I smelled the smell of something burning in the air. When I looked up, I found that the bedroom was on fire! The fire is getting bigger and bigger, and the smoke is getting thicker and thicker! I hurriedly got up and wanted to go to the kitchen to get water, but my feet seemed to be stuck on the floor, and I couldn't move even if I used all my strength! I was so scared that I struggled desperately, and I was extremely frightened...
Huh! I finally woke up in a hurry and fear. Fortunately, it's just a dream...
Darections and difficulties are easy to dream
Figure | giphy.com
In fact, more than
For example, researchers at Boston Tufts University explored in detail the dreams of victims directly or indirectly in the United States "911 Incident" and found that the number of dreams and stimulation intensity of their dreams increased significantly. These people always dream of various lifelike and strange scenes. Although the content has nothing to do with planes or towers, they often involve scenes such as attacks, monsters, violence, and combat.
Why can’t you remember your dreams
Why do you easily dream after major events?
Before performing "Dream Analysis", let's briefly understand the basic knowledge of sleep.
Usually, adults need to sleep 7-9 hours a night, which includes 5-6 sleep cycles, each sleep cycle is about 90 minutes. A sleep cycle can be roughly divided into two stages:
rapid eye movement sleep (REM) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM, which is further divided into 4 stages. Simply put, the brain is becoming more and more relaxed and sleeping more and more).
Sleep cycle
Dreams can occur at any stage of sleep, but mainly come from the REM stage. During the REM stage, people's eyes move rapidly and their brains are very active. Most of the lifelike and rich plot dreams happen at this stage.
At every REM stage, people will dream, that is, during a whole night of sleep, a person will have at least 5-6 dreams after 5-6 sleep cycles.
obviously had so many dreams, but why do we often remember any dreams when we wake up, or at most we can only remember the last one?
has two main explanations for this problem. One explanation is: because dreams are short-term memory and are easily forgotten, and each dreaming REM stage follows an NREM stage with extremely relaxed brains, so the dream that has just been done is erased from memory.
If you sleep until you naturally fall asleep, you will usually go through a gentle NREM stage before waking up, and you will not remember any dreams when you wake up. But if you wake up directly from the REM stage and have not experienced memory erasure, you will remember the dream you were having at that time more clearly.
Another explanation is:
does not dream more, but remember more
Understand these mechanisms of dreams, you will naturally understand why there will be more dreams after major disasters - in fact, it is not "doing" more dreams, but "remembering" more dreams.
has three main reasons why I can remember more dreams.
Anxiety will cause people to have a lower sleep quality and not sleep soundly | giphy
such stress or anxiety will lead to a lower sleep quality and not sleep soundly. Although under normal circumstances, people will experience several brief awakenings during the REM phase, the duration is extremely short and they fall asleep again before they even realize it. But in an anxiety, the number of brief awakenings in sleep will increase and the time will be extended, so it will be easier for people to remember the dreams they have at night. If you wake up several times a night, you will remember that you have many dreams.
Secondly, dreams at night are often related to people’s experiences and emotions during the day. Research shows that people with high levels of anxiety and stress will have more negative dreams, such as hunting, fire, and explosion. These dreams are not only strange and bizarre, but also release a lot of negative emotions such as sadness and fear.
On the one hand, these dreams can easily wake up people and remember what they are dreaming about right now; on the other hand, when the dream is too special or causes too strong emotional fluctuations, it will activate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain (the main function is to promote memory), so that the dream can be preserved in memory.
Finally, how to improve sleep quality by
?
1. Establish a regular personal schedule
Extraordinary period, without a specific work schedule or course schedule to guide us, it becomes particularly important to "customize" a fixed living schedule. You can set aside a certain amount of time before going to bed to make some relaxed reading, stretching, meditation and other bedtime preparations.
2. Increase outdoor activities and reduce screen time
light plays a crucial role in sleep regulation. Proper natural light helps maintain normal circadian rhythms, and fresh outdoor air is good for stretching your body and mind.
While increasing outdoor activities, it is best to reduce the time you use electronic devices before going to bed, because the blue light on the electronic screen will inhibit the secretion of melatonin in the body and affect sleep.
3. Pay attention to diet
Maintaining a healthy diet is conducive to good sleep. Pay special attention to alcohol and caffeine intake, especially avoid drinking and coffee at night, otherwise it will seriously reduce the quality of sleep.
Author: Cai Mengfei Editor: Yuan Yue
Typesetting: Lei Ying Ningyin
Title Picture Source: Henry middot; Rousseau's "Sleeping Gypsy Girl"
References:
[1]Scarpelli, et al. (2019). The functional role of dreaming in emotional processes. Frontiers in Psychology , 10
[2]Hobson, et al. (2002). The cognitive neuroscience of sleep: neuronal systems, consciousness and learning. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(9), 679-693.
[3]Maquet, P., et al. (1996). Functional neuroanatomy of human rapid-eye-movement sleep and dreaming. Nature , 383 (6596), 163-166.
[4]Hartmann, et al. (2008). A systematic change in dreams after 9/11/01. Sleep, 31(2), 213-218.
[5]Tuominen, et al. (2019). Social contents in dreams: An empirical test of the Social Simulation Theory. Consciousness and cognition, 69, 133-145
[6]nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-is-giving-people-vivid-unusual-dreams-here-is-why/#close
[7]Nadorff, M. R., Porter, B., Rhoades, H. M., Greisinger, A. J., Kunik, M. E., Stanley, M. A. (2014). Bad dream frequent in older adults with generalized anxiety disorder: previous, correlates, and effect of cognitive behavioral treatment for anxiety. Behavioral sleep medicine, 12(1), 28-40.
[8]Cohen, D. B. (1974). Toward a theory of dream recall. Psychological Bulletin, 81(2), 138.
[9]https://www.idreamofcovid.com/dreams
[10]https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-guidelines-covid-19-isolation
Source: Xinhuahao Guoke
