DREAM WEAVER
When you wake up, keep your eyes closed and gather as many images, feelings and impressions from your dreams you can remember, says Craig Webb, co-founder of the non-profit organization for Dream Research and Experimental Approaches to the Mechanisms of Sleep, or DREAMS Foundation. Open your eyes and immediately record them in a journal.
Your journal should be conveniently placed next to your bed along with a pen. Focus on your emotions rather than specific aspects of your dream, says Shari Just, author of The Idiot's Guide to Interpreting Your Dreams. She says to write down the date and give the dream a title. Make sure to not judge your dreams as you write them down because of embarrassment or fear Try to stick to the facts, Just says. She suggests working backwards from the point you wake up to retrace your dream steps because we often wake up at the end of a dream. Just also says to split the page into two sections, one for dream recall and one for real life recall. Writing down what's happening in your life will help you to understand what your dreams are saying when you look back at your journal entries.
bath before bed will also leave you sleepy. Itll cause blood to rush away from the brain and to skin surfaces so that when you get in bed your temperature drops, making you tired Studies show that drinking alcohol, taking certain antibiotics and having a fever can prevent dreaming.
While you were sleeping: Facts about dreams & sleep
Approximately one quarter of our sleep time, about two hours of each sleep sequence, is devoted to dreams. This means that a 60-year-old has devoted five years to dreaming, says Elii Goldberg in The Dictionary of Dreams. He says dreams cause physical
As much as 50 percent of dream information you recall in the middle of the night is lost by the morning, says Ann Faraday in The Dream Game.
According to The Idiot's Guide to Interpreting Your Dreams, foods such as milk, cheese, bananas and turkey contain the amino acid tryptophan, which will help you sleep. Sexual stimulation and orgasm also will help you relax because they release sleep-inducing hormones called endorphins. A hot
phenomena that include perspiration, hair standing on end, erection of the penis, movement of the eyelids, swallowing of saliva and reflex action of the intestines.
Sleep research subjects who were deprived of REM sleep spent a disproportionate amount of time in REM once they slept again, which makes it seem as if dreaming is a necessity to sleep, says
Clinic and Research Center, said. It's still unclear to researchers the fundamental reason why we sleep and dream, but two things they know: without sleep we'll die because it controls body heat and appetite, and everyone dreams even if we can't remember them.
Shari Just, author of The Idiot's
just, author of The Tutor's Guide to Interpreting Your Dreams. When we're dreaming we're organizing things that have happened or would like to
have happen to us. Just, also a psychologist, says she uses material from clients' dreams to help her understand some of their subconscious feelings and thoughts. "I think that we have a natural ability to heal and there are many pathways to that healing," Just says. "If we use our dreams to understand ourselves, then healing energy can be introduced through that pathway." She says paying attention to the feelings you have during and about the dream can lead to real life problem solving.
Sometimes the waking life issue that haunts your dreams is hard to pinpoint, which makes tackling the real problem harder. In my case, over commitment drove my dream and fear of being chased. Other common stress-induced dreams include falling, driving an out-of-control car or not being able to scream for help. The stressor in all these dreams is a loss of power. My loss of power is what chased me in my stress dreams, according to an interpretation
your Dreams. She says we can transform negative dream images to positive ones by focusing on our desired dream outcome. As you try to fall asleep, concentrate on the stress of your dream and how you can remove the point of anxiety during your dream. If you're being chased — the second most common dream — approach your pursuer to ask why he or she is chasing you. Thinking, "I'll approach my pursuer," as you go to sleep will help you to actually do it in your dream. The confrontation isn't considered aggressive in the dream and will stop what is fearful. Next time you dream you're driving a car with the brakes out, turn the negative to positive by flying out of the car or driving down a gentle slope to stop, Parker says.
22 jayplay
thursday, december 4.2003