November 15th

This past week has been very stressful for me, which has led me to have a lot more dreams. Everything has an upside, right?

I got a new sleep app that lets me see how much of the night I'm in deep sleep, light sleep, and awake. It's called, "Sleep Better". I recommend it. You put it under your pillow while you're sleeping, and it senses any kind of vibrations you give off by moving or breathing. It also has a feature where you can record your dreams. I've been using it quite often. Recording your dreams regularly can help you to remember them better each night, and also may help achieve lucid dreaming.

I recently watched a documentary by Nova titled, "Why do we Dream?"
I learned that there are different parts of our brains that are activated during different parts of the night. During REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, the amygdala is highly active. Since this is the part of the brain that deals with bad and stressful situations, this is when most people have nightmares. During NREM (Non Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, we also dream. Although, since different parts of the brain are active then, it leads us to have different kinds of dreams than in REM sleep. This is when most people experience strange, weird, and unexplainable dreams.

So, we all know that there is almost nothing more peaceful than a sleeping baby. But what goes on inside that precious bundle of cuteness' head while it's sound asleep? This question has always intrigued me because of the fact that babies know no language and have very little life experience. Yet, they spend more than half of their time asleep and, in fact, in REM sleep.
Neuroscientists believe that dreaming serves a completely different purpose for babies than it does for adults. It's commonly thought that dreaming helps babies form pathways in their brain to things like language, imagination, and many cognitive skills. Once they enter early childhood, children develop the head space and imagination to think up thrilling adventures and incredible things to dream about. Our dreams develop more as we get older, and so does our imagination. Although, nowadays, many people's imaginations seemed to have gotten lost in the midst of technology and pop culture.
So why is it that many of us had distinct, vivid dreams as a child that we remember to this day? It is thought that self-awareness plays a large roll in having structured dreams with an actual plot to them. Once established, we let ourselves enter into our own dreams. From then on, dreaming becomes a tool for the brain to process emotion, events, and understand the world. Children's dreams are often vibrant and full of meaning, which may just be the brain learning how to use its tools.

"For often, when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream."
            - Aristotle