During sleep, complex processes take place in the human brain. While the body is resting, the brain works with varying degrees of efficiency. Falling asleep, you go into another reality, into the world of your own fantasies. But for some reason, some of these fantasies are surprisingly similar to reality.
Sleep phases
Scientists distinguish two main types of sleep: fast and slow. At the stage of slow wave sleep, physical recovery of the body takes place: while a person falls asleep, his tissues are restored, the body prepares for the upcoming activity. At the stage of slow wave sleep, a person does not see dreams. While the body is asleep, the brain organizes the information received during wakefulness, reorganizes it and distributes it “on the shelves”.
What Science Says About It
During REM sleep, the human brain looks for answers to the questions posed, analyzes impressions and reacts to the received images as it would react to them during wakefulness. Professor Sechenov argued that dreams that come to a person during REM sleep are of a reflex nature. It is during the phase of REM sleep that a person "falls" into another reality and sees clear and distinct pictures.
According to Freud, a person tries to realize his hidden desires in a dream. Freed from the psychological conflicts inherent in the waking period, the brain begins to "hover" freely, pondering over such things that it would never allow itself to think about in real life. According to Freud's teachings, everything in a human dream is symbolic: you just have to look closely at the dreaming symbols, and you can understand what a person is really dreaming about.
What Happens During REM Sleep
The duration of REM sleep is 5 to 45 minutes. In his book "The Psychology of Dreams" T. Smirnov described this phase in detail. During this period, a person's eyes move as if they are following someone very fast or want to see someone in a large crowd. Respiratory rate and heart rate increase, blood pressure occasionally rises, muscles twitch. 7 people out of 10, awakened during REM sleep, talk about their dreams.
Can dreams be controlled?
There is an interesting type of dream - lucid, or lucid. Lucid dreams come during REM sleep. Earlier, lucid dreams were given an occult meaning: what could be more amazing than the ability to control your own sleep? This type of vision was discovered by scientists S. Laberge and K. Hearn in the 80s of the last century.
The most amazing thing about this state of consciousness is that dreams can be controlled. A person clearly understands that he is sleeping, so he thinks, acts and moves as he would in the real world. Scientists LaBerge and Hearn had to try very hard for the scientific world to recognize the fact of the existence of lucid dreams.
