Facts About Dreams

People have always been fascinated in dreams. Those who were known to be able to interpret them were held in high esteem as the dreams were often thought to be sent down by the divine powers to guide people through their lives.

While there are less and less people who believe in that, the dream interpretation is still an art that is highly sought from Freud's disciples to modern fortune tellers. Dreams are thought to tell us a lot about our anxieties or other underlying psychological issues, showing us a problem and giving the solution at the same time.

However though we know how important dreams are, we still aren't aware about even the basic issues, such as the facts that:

A third of average people's life is spent asleep.

During a typical lifetime, a person spends around 6 (over 2,100 days) years dreaming.

Dreams have existed from the dawn of humankind. The first known records of dreams were made 4,000 year ago.

The art of dream interpretation has existed nearly as long. Dream interpreters were used even in the early day of Rome where they were advising senators before making political decisions.

Everyone dreams, even if we don't remember it afterwards. An average person dreams between four and seven times a night.

Some animals dream, too. The scientist are sure that all mammals are capable of dreaming, and it is suspected that some other animals like reptile may dream as well. We have no idea though what they may dream about.

Without dreaming people will soon suffer personality disorders and severe psychological problems. While the exact function of dream sleep remains a mystery, dreaming is necessary for us to live and keep our sanity intact.

Blind people can dream, too. Their dreams may contain visual images if they have been able to see earlier, but the dreams of those who have been blind since their birth do not. Such dreams are made entirely of sounds, smells and touch sensations.

Oftenitmes we forget dreams as soon as we wake up. Probably as much as 50% of the content of any dream is lost within five minutes of waking. After 10 minutes we can forget even 90% of the dream content.

The word "dream" comes from Middle English. There the word, "dreme" meant "music" and "joy". This indicates that dreams have been treated as a source of inspiration and wonder.

Most men usually have dreams about other men, but women have dreams about both sexes in similar proportions.

Human brain is more active when we're sleeping than when we're awake.

People who are awakened during dream sleep are usually able to describe their dreams very vividly. Those who wait until morning often do not remember a thing.

Both men and women sometimes experience sexual arousal during their dreams, often with little regard to the content of the dream.

Toddlers do not dream about themselves. Until a toddler reaches three or four, he/she does not show in his/her dreams.

You can't snore and dream at the same time.

The children nightmares are common. They begin at the age of three and generally last until the child reaches seven or eight years old.

Over 60% of people report at least one Deja vu experience in their dreams. Such dreams occur more frequently in women than in men.