Why am I having these crazy dreams?
I often nap between my 8 AM class and 11 AM class for about an hour and a half. During this hour and a half period, I usually have really vivid, believable dreams. A frequent recurring one is me sleeping through my 11 AM class. They’re often layered-consciousness dreams. For instance, I’ll think I’m waking up, but then realize I’m really not conscious, and this will happen many times until I finally DO wake up.
These are usually accompanied by weird, vivid dreams, like I said. But I find it odd because REM sleep, when most clear dreaming occurs, only happens every 90 minutes. That’s usually about the duration of my entire sleep, though. So then why am I having such bizarre dreams?
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11 Answers
Have you ever missed the 11am class from not waking up or for any other reason?
Your mind can pack what seems to you like a lot of dreams in a short time. Sometimes I feel as tho I dream all night but that’s because you don’t remember the deeper sleep.
I always have weird, vivid dreams when I nap, or even if I wake up in the morning, then go back to bed and fall back asleep soundly. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because since you’ve been up, your brain is more active than it is during night sleeping….
Are you compensating a good night sleep with mid-morning sleep? That sometimes happens to me when I don’t get enough sleep at night but try to nap to make up for it.
You’re right that the sleep cycles tend to repeat at 90 minute intervals, but with each successive cycle over the night, REM sleep makes up more of the cycle. During the last cycle of the night, when you’ve gotten all of the deep slow-wave sleep your body needs, the REM can account for as much as an hour of the cycle. So it would make sense that this nap you’re taking right after your night’s sleep would also be mostly REM. Your body just may not need much slow-wave sleep at that point in the day.
Are you actually sleeping in a bed? If im not very comfortable when im asleep i will have very strange dreams, and will wake up with a very bad headache. its quite annoying
only about 20% of sleep for adults is REM sleep. Yes during REM is usually when most people can remember there dreams but dreams can occur during any stage of sleep. Night terrors actually happen most often during stages 3 and 4.
From the research I’ve been looking at, there appears to be a connection between the vividness of dreams and the circadian cycle. The circadian cycle is your body’s way of regulating sleep and wakefulness over a 24 hour period. Normally, it takes its cues from sunlight and will try to synch your sleep according to when you first see light.
Normally, the circadian cycle will be trying to stimulate mental activity at about the time you’re taking your nap. REM sleep that coincides with these periods of circadian stimulation are reported to be especially intense.
You may be going into immediate REM when you nap, which is giving you these dreams. I have dreams like that too, and I’m a regular lucid dreamer who doesn’t really sleep much at night, but my body usually tricked into immediately going into REM during my daytime naps.
Also, how stressed are you?
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Dreaming doesn’t require REM.
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