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My Dream

After reading my introduction of lucid dream last week, I believe that everyone have a basic understanding of lucid dream. So, this week, I decide to tell you something about my dream. Tell you several dreams that I once or often dreamed.

When I was a child, every time I catch a cold, I would dream one of the following two dreams repeatedly until I wake up. Both of the two dreams are very short.

Train:
In the beginning of the dream, I am constrained on a railroad track. However, there is no rope or handcuff, I just can hardly move my body. Then a train come toward me at a high speed. I make an effort to escape from the track, but still in vain. At the moment the train almost arrive me, I suddenly can see nothing and hear a huge sound of explosion. Then, the dream start from the beginning.

Valley:
In this dream, I keep running in a valley that look like volcanic crater. Just like the picture.

The red line is the way I run

All I can do is keeping running on that round route. Unless I wake up, the process will never come to an end. Never.



In fact, I want to tell you more about my dream. However, I have a midterm tomorrow, so I just simply talk about two dreams that I dream most frequently. If anyone want to know more about my dream, just come to me and chat with me. Of course, in Chinese. XD

Lucid Dream

Everyone know what dream is. And most people have dreamed a dream. However, have you ever experienced a lucid dream(清醒夢)? Or do you even know what is lucid dream? In this artical, I am going to talk about this amazing phenomenon.

According to Stephen LaBerge, who is a well known author. Lucid dream is defined as a kind of dream that you dream when you know that you are dreaming. It is totally different from daydream, which indicate illusions and images created by our brains when we are sober.

When a dreamer is in the dreamworld of a lucid dream, he or she will keep the ability to think or to remember. Also, the dreamer will feel the dreamworld much clearer. Sometimes dreamer can even control the content of dreams directly

Everyone's possibility to have a lucid dream is different. Roughly speaking, children have more chance than adults to dream a lucid dream. Somebody are born with a brain that can easily creat a lucid dream. If you have difficulty dreaming a lucid dream, you can try meditation or hypnotism. They can increase the chance that you dream a lucid dream.


Reference:
What is lucid dreaming? Lucid dreaming FAQ by The Lucidity Institute. (October 2005)
Eric Klinger. Psychology Today. October 1987
Lucid Dreams and Meditation, by Harry T. Hunt, Brock University, Ontario, Canada, Lucidity Letter, Vol.5, No.1, June 1986

Bad Dreams

Most people have experiences of having bad dreams. However, do you know why they exist? There are some causes that lead to our bad dreams. The three main reasons are pressure, anxiety, and the bad quality of sleeping.
Usually, kids that are preschool have more chance to have bad dreams at night. Most of those dreams come from horrible stories, scary TV programs, or videos.

Bad dreams often reflect our stress. This kind of emotion may accumulate in our mind, and can not be released. However, the process we people having bad dreams is a way for our body to automatically reduce pressure. In the nightmare, we experience strong emotion. At the same time, we released our accumulated stress.

Though it seems that it is good for us to have bad dreams, people have to see a doctor if it occurs too frequently. Having too many bad dreams will, however, leave us pressure.



Reference: American Academy of sleep medicine

Basic introduction of dream

Most people have experiences of dreaming something. However, do you know what actually dream is?

Dream is one kind of subjective experience(主體經驗) which will appear when we people are sleeping. Dreaming is a process of  creation. We involuntarily imagine sounds, images, and feelings. In average, human have about 3 to 5 dreams a night. However, most people remember only one or even none of them.

Since prehistory, dreaming was already a interested topic to philosophers and religionists. However, now people still can not understand the mechanism of dreaming. Nowadays, dreams are regarded as a way to associate with our subconscious(潛意識). They can be very normal. And they can also be totally different from the world now we live. They involve every different kinds of topic, such as magic, fear, and adventure.

Do you often have dreams that you remember? For me, dreaming is a important part in my life.
From next week, I will try my best to bring you into the fantastic world of dream.




Reference: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. [May 7, 2009]

Hypersomnia

Do you ever nodded off in class? Sometimes, we people can not help but fall asleep when we are doing something important such as having our English class. This situation may arise from a lack of  sleep or the usage of drugs or something else. However, if this situation become more serious, it may be identified as disease called Hypersomnia(嗜睡症).

Hypersomnia is a very dangerous disease. People who suffer from Hypersomnia may suddenly fall asleep in time that is not suitable for them to sleep. For example, when they are eating, chatting, or even driving.

Someone may think that patients can prevent from suddenly falling sleep if they have enough sleeping in night. However, the fact is that no matter how long they sleep, they still fall asleep whenever Hypersomnia attack. Morever, now, we people still can not cure this disease.

The following video is made by Sarah Elizabeth, a woman who suffer from Hypersomnia. This video shows the true situation when she was practicing dancing.

                                                               Sarah Elizabeth's video




Reference: National Institutes of Health. NINDS Hypersomnia Information Page
                  Sarah Elizabeth

How long should we sleep?

Everyone know the importance of sleeping. However, how long should we actually sleep a day? The answer to this question depends on how old we are. Roughly speaking, the older we are, the less time we need to sleep.

According to National Sleep Foundation. The most suitable time a child who is between 6 and 13 years old sleep is 9~11 hours a day. Teenagers between 14 and 17 should sleep 8~10 hours every day. People between 18 and 64 have to sleep 7~9 hours each day. And the elderly whose age is above 65 is recommended to sleep 7~8 hours a day.

If we don't get enough sleeping, some of the following things will likely to happen. First of all, we will be in bad temper. Second, we may eat too much because our bodies need more energy. Last but not least, we will more likely to get a cold because our immune system have not enough time to do its job.

However, I don't think it is easy to get enough sleeping every day. For example, I sleep only three hours yesterday...
Sad story.

Reference: Hirshkowitz M, et al, National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary, Sleep Health (2015)