General Chat

Fiona aka Ruby: This may very well be the case. Much research has been and is being done on the reach of the mind. It's called 'distant intentionality' these days but please don't ask me why. len

That's very interesting Len. Usually, when I dream that other people are speaking to me, I cannot 'hear' anything it's as if I am communicating with them telepathically.

Mags. Dreams are produced by use of the visual cortex at the back of the head. The subconscious on the right-hand side of the brain is responsible for the sorting and the content. The subconsious is often called the problem solver as It is well documented that what appear to be insoluble is often solved when the conscious brain on the left is switched off as in meditation or sleep. That 'Eureka' moment! During sleep, the subconscious has very little access to the speech centres which are on the left-hand side of the head and are generally switched off during sleep, therefore it deals in symbolism instead of words. Speech does appear to form in dreams but it is only an impression, an illusion Repeated, and sometimes disturbing, dreams signify that the subconscious is trying to bring up something that is unresolved and using symbolism. Often repetitive dreams go back to something in childhood that has not been resolved. Such dreams can be interpreted, often by the dreamer but usually the help of a psychologist is required. I had first-hand experience of this and the dreams stopped when I saw what was behind them. len

Rosalyn. Anything in your memory may crop up in your dreams. Even skills that you may not possess but have seen or heard in others. I can play the piano but only in my dreams. I can fly too - oh yes - also play havoc with redheads not of my gender.

Totally Optimistic Redhead on 17/05/2007 22:29:38 But that doesn't explain why you come into my dreams so often Len. T.O.R. That is something entirely different - telepathy. It's because true redheads play havoc with my chemistry and send me wild so I go after them via astral travelling.. len

I'm a true redhead Len. While you are on your astral travels can you see if you can spot my McNeil's anywhere. :-))

Hello Len. I always dream in colour and thought everyone did but this isn't so. In your reading and research is there anywhere where the reason for that is explained? Also, 'random' brain activity wouldn't account for the same dream repeated over a period of time would it? Unless you had very little in your brain to be 'random' with! Mags xx

I have very vivid, often extremely emotional dreams that leave me drained, sometimes I wake up crying, but the lack of the other kind of sleep which is something fibromyalgia sufferers have to cope with a lot, is awful. I don't think I have had a good night's sleep waking refreshed for about 10 years. It is taking its toll on my body and my brain, help!

Very rarely do I remember my dreams.

Can anyone read in their dreams? I can, Ros

I always hope that my subconscious will tell me, via a dream, where my McNeils of Bethnal Green are hiding. :-))

Love your threads Len, they are always interesting. My dreams are very lucid and I remember quite a few! Nanna-Moo ;-)

But that doesn't explain why you come into my dreams so often Len. T.O.R. ;o))

Scientists do not know much about how or why we dream. Sigmund Freud, who greatly influenced the field of psychology, believed dreaming was a 'safety valve' for unconscious desires. Only after 1953, when researchers first described REM in sleeping infants, did scientists begin to carefully study sleep and dreaming. They soon realized that the strange, illogical experiences we call dreams almost always occur during REM sleep. While most mammals and birds show signs of REM sleep, reptiles and other cold-blooded animals do not. Normally, we do not recall our dreams - only the one during which we wake up. REM sleep begins with signals from an area at the base of the brain called the pons. These signals travel to a brain region called the thalamus, which relays them to the cerebral cortex – the outer layer of the brain that is responsible for learning, thinking, and organizing information. The pons also sends signals that shut off neurons in the spinal cord, causing temporary paralysis of the limb muscles. If something interferes with this paralysis, people will begin to physically 'act out' their dreams – a rare, dangerous problem called REM sleep behaviour disorder. A person dreaming about a ball game, for example, may run headlong into furniture or blindly strike someone sleeping nearby while trying to catch a ball in the dream. REM sleep stimulates the brain regions used in learning. This may be important for normal brain development during infancy, which would explain why infants spend much more time in REM sleep than adults (see Sleep: A Dynamic Activity). Like deep sleep, REM sleep is associated with increased production of proteins. One study found that REM sleep affects learning of certain mental skills. People taught a skill and then deprived of non-REM sleep (allowed REM sleep but not deep sleep) could recall what they had learned after sleeping, while people deprived of REM sleep but allowed deep, non-dreaming sleep, could not. Some scientists believe dreams are the cortex's attempt to find meaning in the random signals that it receives during REM sleep. The cortex is the part of the brain that interprets and organizes information from the environment during consciousness. It may be that, given random signals from the pons during REM sleep, the cortex tries to interpret these signals as well, creating a 'story' out of fragmented brain activity. Others believe that dreaming is our central processor sorting and backing up all our experiences and input since our last sleep and updating our survival strategy. Len

Very interesting Len, as one who dreams a lot, sometimes full length film style dreams I would love to know what the experts would make of some of mine! Rosexx

We typically spend more than 2 hours each night dreaming.