Dreams

A dream is made up of a series of mind-pictures that form during sleep. The people and actions in these pictures seem real to the person who is dreaming.

When a person is asleep, he has little or no control over his mind. Then ideas and feelings come out to form the mind-pictures known as dreams.

Dreams may be influenced by different things that are present during sleep. If a person is cold, he may dream that he is out in a snowstorm. Worries or anger may also influence the content of a dream.

Some people think that they seldom dream, and other people are quite sure that they do not dream at all. Studies of human sleep have shown, though, that everyone dreams every night. If a person thinks he does not dream, it is because he does not remember dreaming when he wakes up. Usually, a person may dream three to seven times for a total of one to two hours of dreaming every night.

Perhaps you are wondering just how research workers can be sure that a person is dreaming. The story behind the discovery is an interesting one.

During their research of human sleep, Dr. Kleitman and his assistants noticed that a sleeping person made sudden eye movements. These eye movements occurred at least several times a night. When a sleeper was awakened during these periods of eye movement, it was learned that he had been dreaming. In most cases, the dreamer could then recall his dream. The person's eye movements, scientists believe, were caused by the movements of his eyes as he followed the events of the dream.

Not only does everyone dream, but it seems that we all need to dream. One theory is that dreaming gives us a chance to escape from the rules of our real world. In dreams we can see our wishes come true. We can be rich, powerful and successful.

Another theory is that in our dream we are trying to work out problems that have troubled us during waking moments.

Whatever the explanation, we all do dream, and dreaming is necessary and important to us.