Have you ever heard people around you complain like this: "I didn't rest well last night, I dreamed all night", "I dream every day, and I feel more tired when I wake up"......
People often associate dreaming with sleep quality, but does "no dreams at night" mean that you sleep better?
"Life Times" interviews experts to analyze the causes of dreams and teach you how to improve your sleep quality.
Interviewee: Yu Huan, Chief Physician of the Department of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University
Zhang Hui, Chief Physician of the Department of Neurology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University
Wang Zhancheng, deputy chief physician of the Department of Cardiology of Shanghai Eighth People's Hospital
Dreaming often is it good not to sleep
In fact, almost everyone dreams every day after falling asleep. Dreams are believed to be an important part of normal and healthy sleep, and play an important role in promoting memory and emotional regulation.
Why do people dream?
According to the state of brain waves, a person's sleep cycle is broadly divided into non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREM) and rapid eye movement sleep (REM phase).
Sleep can be broadly divided into five stages:
- Stage 1: light sleep, decreased muscle activity, occasional muscle twitches;
- Stage 2: slowing of breathing, heart rate, mild drop in body temperature;
- Stage 3: Deep sleep begins, and the brain produces slower δ brain waves;
- Stage 4: deep breathing, stable respiratory rhythm, limited muscle activity, brain waves dominated by δ waves;
- Finally, REM sleep is entered, brain waves are accelerated, dreams are entered, muscles relax, heart rate increases, and breathing is shallow and rapid.
Dreams occur in both deep and light sleep, but the dreams we can remember are more likely to occur in light sleep, so dreaming is not directly related to whether or not you enter deep sleep.
People spend 15%~25% of their time in REM every night, and the proportion of REM period is similar for different people, but the degree of dream perception varies greatly from person to person. It is normal for people with a strong sense of dreams to say that they "dream all night", and people with a weak sense of dreams feel that they "never dream".
What affects our memory of dreams?
- Sleep state: People who wake up easily during the night, usually wake up in the process of dreaming, and have a clearer memory of the dream.
- Gender factors: Women tend to be more interested in the content of dreams and subconsciously enjoy remembering them.
- Age effects: People's memories of dreams are associated with nervous system development. The system continues to develop from birth to early adulthood, then slows down, so it remembers more of the content of dreams in late childhood and early adolescence.
- Personality traits: A survey by the University of Iowa in the United States found that people with rich imagination are more likely to have vivid dreams and remember them when they wake up. Because people with "active" minds have fewer barriers switching between sleep and wakefulness, they are more likely to remember dreams.
Frequent nightmares may indicate a physical problem
Sometimes we experience unpleasant dreams, such as recurrent nightmares, physical pain or injury in the dream, etc., which may be caused by the body sending a distress signal.
heart disease
People with heart disease are more likely to have breathing problems, which can lead to lower oxygen supply to the brain and lead to nightmares.
According to statistics, the chance of nightmares due to irregular heartbeat increases by 3 times, and the chance of nightmares due to chest tightness and chest pain increases by 7 times.
hypoglycemia
If you have a nocturnal episode of hypoglycemia, you may wake up in the early hours of the morning with nightmares, sweating, heart palpitations, and tremors in your hands and feet.
Sleep apnea
Also known as obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome, the clinical manifestation is snoring during nocturnal sleep, accompanied by apnea and daytime sleepiness. If you often have breathing pauses while sleeping, it can cause you to feel tightness in your chest, which can cause nightmares.
Mentally stressed
Research by the International Dream Research Association has found that the loss of a loved one or witnessing a major accident can cause depression and nightmares. Tension and anxiety caused by excessive stress in life and work can also give people nightmares.
Lack of sleep
When sleep is interrupted and falls asleep again, it is easy to have nightmares, which in turn make it more difficult to sleep, forming a vicious cycle.
5 habits to improve insomnia and dreams
Some people wake up in the middle of the night when they dream, or feel physically exhausted after waking up, it may be that physical or mental factors interfere with sleep, and it is recommended to develop the following 5 habits to help improve sleep quality.
Don't eat before bedtime
According to the National Sleep Foundation, eating snacks before bed makes the brain more active and prone to nightmares. It is recommended to stop eating 1 hour before bedtime, avoid excessive caffeine drinks, and try to quit smoking and limit alcohol.
Don't stay in bed for too long
It's best to wait until you're sleepy before going to bed, and don't watch TV, read a book, or do anything else in bed. Don't stay in bed in the morning, and wake up as soon as you wake up.
Increase physical activity
Doing more exercise, such as exercises, dancing, tai chi, yoga, etc., can help reduce the difficulty of falling asleep and deepen sleep, but do not exercise vigorously two hours before bedtime.
Create a comfortable sleeping environment
Keep your bedroom at the right temperature, well-ventilated, and relatively quiet. Use comfortable mattresses and pillows.
Learn to release stress
When there is a lot of pressure at work, take the initiative to regulate bad emotions and avoid long-term mental depression or excessive tension. You can take 5~10 minutes to meditate before going to bed to release stress.
Source: Life Times