Sleep is a necessary physiological activity for human beings. Modern scientific research shows that people's sleep is divided into slow-wave sleep and fast-wave sleep, which are carried out alternately. A person who sleeps for eight hours at night has four slow-wave sleep and fast-wave sleep cycles. 80% of people awakened in fast-wave sleep are dreaming, and 7% of people awakened in slow-wave sleep are dreaming. A person dreams for about 1.5 hours every night. Because dream companions follow the sleep cycle, people who wake up in fast-wave sleep feel MUBI, while those who wake up in slow-wave sleep feel less dreams. In addition, people can still remember MUBI's dream when he was about to wake up, but when he just fell asleep, he had already disappeared without a trace, which is why people think that there are fewer and fewer MUBI.
Dreaming and sleeping
So, does dreaming affect sleep? Scientists' research shows that interrupting dreams in people's sleep will lead to a series of physiological abnormalities, such as the increase of blood pressure, pulse, body temperature and skin electrical response, as well as a series of adverse psychological reactions, such as anxiety, tension, irritability, hallucinations, memory disorders and disorientation.
Scientists also found that in a typical night sleep, the average person's first dream appears about 90 minutes after falling asleep. The duration of dreams is about 5 ~ 15 minutes (average 10 minutes), and they appear periodically in each stage of sleep. There are about 4 ~ 6 dreams in one night, and the total sleep time is about 1 ~ 2 hours.
Since I have 4 ~ 6 dreams every night, why do I only remember a few dreams (or none) when I wake up? Experts have three different views on this issue: one thinks that several dreams interfere with each other, and the new dream interferes with the previous dream. Although you will have many dreams overnight, when you wake up in the morning, you probably only remember the last dream before you wake up. This explanation is generally in line with the experience of ordinary people; The second view is that MUBI is an unpleasant thing, and the parties do not remember it, so as not to cause anxiety. This explanation does not conform to the general facts. Because, in fact, the dreams that most people remember are not all pleasant things; Others think that dreams are all completed in a short time and are essentially short-term memories. Short-term memory is not reviewed, long-term memory is not stored, and it will naturally be forgotten soon. This is a new explanation method since the rise of cognitive psychology, which is more reasonable.
Many psychologists and psychiatrists devote their lives to the study of dreams, but due to the limitation of the development level of neuroscience, dreams still plague them and the whole mankind. Qu Wei, an associate professor in the Clinical Psychological Counseling Center of Southwest Hospital affiliated to the Third Military Medical University, believes that normal dream activity is one of the important factors to ensure the normal vitality of the body, and dream is a way to coordinate the psychological balance of the human body, especially for human activities, emotions and cognitive activities. Dreaming contributes to brain health, which means that the physiological process of dreaming regulates the mental and physical state of sleepers.
Dreams and diseases
Huang, Ph.D., a psychiatrist from Peking University Institute of Mental Health and China Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Mental Illness, believes that dreams have early warning functions, one of which is aimed at the human body. When this warning appears, it will be divided into physical and psychological.
◆ Physiological symptoms
Associate Professor Qu Wei said that dreams also come from people's physical condition. For example, if a person is hungry, he will dream of eating in his dream; If a person's feet are cold, he may dream of snow; If a person has a sore throat, he may dream of being stuck in his neck. So dreams reflect a physical state to a certain extent, and the stimulation of the body will affect the content of dreams. Therefore, some diseases are not easy to be detected when people are awake, but when they are asleep, the external interference is weakened, and the weak stimulation of diseases can cause the excitement of the cerebral cortex, thus causing discomfort or terror in dreams.
For example, when people dream of raw meat while sleeping, it will mean that patients will have an obesity crisis; Many heart patients have nightmares before a heart attack, saying that they dream that someone is going to strangle themselves, or that they have chest tightness and asthma; Some patients with hepatopancreatic diseases dream that they have eaten some rotten meat and fruit in their sleep; If you dream of childbirth and stomach damage, eat, feel sick, vomit, etc. It will herald the coming gastrointestinal diseases; If there is a disease in the respiratory system, some people will be buried alive in their dreams and feel chest compression pain; If handcuffs and tight shoes appear in the dream, it means that there are diseases in the joints and spine of the body; Hearing strange sounds in dreams indicates that there may be potential diseases in the auditory system; Having the same dream of tooth loss for several days in a row is related to oral movement and gastrointestinal function, suggesting that there are diseases in digestive system and respiratory system.
This view emphasizes the physiological aspects of dreams. However, not all dreams only have physiological significance, but also have richer psychological significance. Dr. Huang said: For example, dreaming of tooth loss is sometimes related to health, and sometimes it reflects the dreamer's self-awareness in interpersonal relationships, such as feeling weak, always being bullied, lacking self-protection ability and so on. So even the most basic self-defense weapon-teeth are gone. Generally speaking, repeated dreams of the same nature have a greater relationship with health, and it is necessary to go to the hospital for examination to rule out related diseases.
However, this is still a part of clinical examples. For most people, some dreams still can't explain physical diseases.
◆ Psychological symptoms
Associate Professor Qu believes that some dreams that seem to be signs of physical illness may be caused by people's internal psychological barriers. As the saying goes: think about it day and night. Although I don't remember what I experienced during the day, the external stimuli were printed on the cerebral cortex and left there as traces. When sleeping, the whole cerebral cortex stops moving, but there are still weak activities in a few places, and things seen or experienced during the day will appear in dreams in disorder. Dreams can let us clearly see the emotions and feelings expressed by images, whether loneliness, loneliness or joy, are vividly expressed by images in dreams. For example, people who are in a good mood always have sweet dreams, while people who are anxious and afraid have nightmares.
There was once a patient who didn't pay attention to the discomfort of low back pain. Seeing that my neighbor went to the hospital for examination because of low back pain and died of bone cancer, I went to the hospital for examination immediately, fearing that I had bone cancer, so I had nightmares at night. In the hospital, the examination ruled out the bone lesions, and after the psychologist explained the reason for the nightmare, he was able to let it go, and then the nightmare disappeared.
Associate Professor Qu pointed out that there are many reasons leading to psychological disorders, among which early psychological trauma, persistent inner conflict and long-term repressed desire are the common reasons leading to psychological disorders. Due to various realistic considerations and interferences, people often unconsciously suppress these injuries, conflicts, desires and self-needs. In the long run, they seem to have disappeared. In fact, they still exist and still affect people's psychology.
Dream and Life
According to the research of a dream analysis center in Shanghai, with the accelerated pace of life in modern society, heavy pressure is the main reason why people often dream, especially white-collar workers and private entrepreneurs. According to the statistics of Dream Analysis Center, since June 5438+February last year, most people came to interpret dreams out of the pressure of life and work, among which young people aged 25-35 accounted for 95%. Wang Xiaoduo, director of the Dream Analysis Center, said that because this age group faces the most competition and development opportunities, psychological pressure can easily be reflected in dreams, manifested in frequent nightmares or long-term dreams of the same type.
Work pressure leads to emotional instability, but it can't be shown in real life, so it is shown in the form of dreams when dreaming at night. People with tense interpersonal relationships in life and work are prone to dream of bloody scenes of swords and shadows, or scenes of fighting with bad people. The double tension of day and night is even more unbearable. If it is not relieved, it will not only affect health, but also hinder normal work.
For example, Miss Wang, who works in a foreign company, always dreamed of being called by the teacher to answer questions in class recently, but no matter what the questions are, she always couldn't answer them and stood there anxiously. This dream is actually a metaphor for the problems encountered by Miss Wang at work. In the fierce competition, white-collar workers pay attention to the promotion of their positions and career development. Dreaming about answering questions is the transformation of this pressure. Some people dream of exams, are punished by teachers, and slap their palms, all of which are manifestations of pressure in disguise. There are many such cases. Let's look at a typical one.