Dream Bites #3

One disputed fact about dreaming (because it is currently empirically unprovable) is that we can only ever dream of what we know and have experienced. Dreams of unfamiliar strangers who play out roles are not creations of the imagination, but the real faces of the hundreds of thousands of actual people we have seen in our lifetime, whether we remember them or not. Our brains are therefore loaded with an endless supply of dream characters and other imagery (or other forms of sensory experience – such as sounds, touch, smell etc) which we collect over the course of our lives. Sometimes, our dreaming mind may use several different faces/sensory memories to create a composite image/symbol – for example, combining aspects or characteristics of more than one person/thing to form something entirely new and unique. But it’s still dream content based on things known and experienced by the dreamer. 

Dream Bites #2

In the 1950s, a ‘popular’ idea emerging from dream research stated that everyone dreams in black and white, but remember in colour – mentally painting the picture in waking memory. In 1951 Calvin Hall proposed that only 29% of dreams occurred in ‘technicolour’ whilst Tapia et al (1958) believed the percentage of colourful dreams to be considerably lower – approximately 9%. However, more recent research suggests that humans are able to dream in both colour and black and white (approximately 12% of persons with normal sight report their dreams occur in black and white, with only 4.4% of dreams being reported as black and white by under 25-year-olds), although the vast majority of people report dreaming in colour. Research from the American Psychological Association suggests that elderly persons dream in black and white because they grew up in the era of black and white television or because their dreams – reflecting their contemporary waking experiences and concerns – are less emotionally charged or stimulating than those of their younger counterparts. When moments of unexpected heightened emotion return, it may be that dreams reflecting these moods are once again experienced in vivid colour. 

Dream Bites #1

With regards to physiology, dream researchers have found that during REM sleep, males almost always experience prolonged penile erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow (causing clitoral engorgement), uterine contractions and pelvic thrusting, regardless of the dream content. Therefore, genital arousal and ‘wet dreams’ may occur even where the content of the dream is not overtly sexual in nature. These physical 'phenomena' are generally unconnected to sexual desire, often lasting throughout the lifespan of the dreamer and first emerging in early childhood. Sleep paralysis, a feature of REM sleep states, clearly does not apply to the genital area.