dreaming time

[dreamer3]

ive heard three main things about the length of a dream. i was woundering which is true. the first (learned it here): you have a 15 min rem cycle followed by a 15 min or so dream, another 15 min rem period followed by a 30 min or so dream period, etc. the second (also learned it here): you start out with alpha beta and gamma phases of sleep (lasts about 2 hours) followed by the rem/dream thing. the last ("learned" it from a teacher): dreams last a couple of seconds.

[CT]

[wasup]

Here's the answer to all your questions http://www.dreamviews.com/sleepstages.php?...058fa3c05bf1489 Oh, and your teacher was lying.

[Howie]

With PET (positron emmission tomagraphy) or brain imaging scans and FMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging) the brain can be mapped out pretty well in comparison to several years ago. So your teacher may not be lieing in the sense that she may be teaching outdated material. Wether she is a whore or not I think is illrellevant. Here is my own hypothesis on time and dreaming. Dream Time?! This is in more referance to time and how it is percieved in a dream, rather than actual real time, and the brain functioning.

[CT]

[NightGiant]

what the hell is wrong with you CT? anyways, i'm pretty certain the second is wrong, because i have had dreams less than thirty minutes after falling asleep. i know because i looked at my clock before i went to bed, it was like 3:15 am or something, went to sleep, had a messed up dream that was kind freaky so i woke up, and i looked at the clock and it said 3:45 am.

[Howie]

Originally posted by NightGiant what the hell is wrong with you CT? anyways, i'm pretty certain the second is wrong, because i have had dreams less than thirty minutes after falling asleep. i know because i looked at my clock before i went to bed, it was like 3:15 am or something, went to sleep, had a messed up dream that was kind freaky so i woke up, and i looked at the clock and it said 3:45 am. Hello Night Giant! What part is wrong and what information are you referancing it to? So you are saying that your dream was 30 minutes?

[jacobo]

i've never heard of the first thing you said... the second thing you said... is clostest to the truth but i think you're missing information. -when your awake your brain waves are fast, random and of low voltage (amp) -when you're drowsy or relaxed the brain waves (called alpha waves) get a higher amplitude and cycle while in a slower and more regular manner. this is not sleep, this is just 'tired.' -you'll soon reach theta waves. this is the official sign of sleep (also called sleep stage 1). theta waves lower in amplitude and become slightly more irregular than alpha. -stage 2 of sleep is marked by short bursts of activity called sleep spindles. things called k complexes, show that, in this state, you're responsive to the outside world. if there's a loud noise or something a k complex might appear. -stage 3 and stage 4 of sleep are very deep states of sleep, these patterns are called delta activity. they show more synchronized and slow-wave patterns. just know that amplitudes and cycles are significantly larger in these stages than with the others. you dream in none of these... you dream in what's called REM. REM is the state, where your brain waves look most like that of your waking brain waves. the amplitudes are lower and waves become more random. a sleep cycle might look like this (a cycle lasts around 90 minutes and you'll have 4-5 of them in a night). awake -> sleep stage 1 -> sleep stage 2 -> sleep stage 3 -> sleep stage 4 -> sleep stage 3 -> sleep stage 2 -> sleep stage 1 -> REM towards the end of the night REM will grow and the sleep stages will become less and less lengthy... in fact by the end of the night stage 4 seems to disappear and you end up spending almost all of your time in REM sleep. hmmm i don't know if 100% of your REM period is spent dreaming so what your teachers says might be true for certain people... Nairne, James, S. Psychology: The Adaptive Mind. (3rd edition). 2003 Thomson Learning, Inc. Belmont, CA 94001-3098

[NightGiant]

sorry about the lack of clarity. i was saying that i don't think you have to be asleep for 2-3 hours before you start dreaming, because i have had dreams when i have only been asleep for 30 minutes.

[jacobo]

are you saying that you can do this after being awake for 8 hours? i know i can be awake for 20 minutes or so then go back to sleep only to slip right into a dream. -- i've heard of people that, with a simple meditation, can jump into the dream world. so we need more context here if you want an explaination.

[NightGiant]

Originally posted by adidas are you saying that you can do this after being awake for 8 hours? i know i can be awake for 20 minutes or so then go back to sleep only to slip right into a dream. -- i've heard of people that, with a simple meditation, can jump into the dream world. so we need more context here if you want an explaination. is that question for me? well, if it is, then yes, i had been awake for about 15 hours. but this is the first time that i am aware of that i have slipped into a dream so quickly. oh wait, now that i think of it, i think i might've done it at least one other time. we were doing guided meditation in class and i started to dream, or maybe just hallucinate, i can't quite remember clearly. so i'm not sure if that has anything to do with this, lol.

[jacobo]

hmmm, you could have been experiencing hypnotic imagery. that could have been what you were experiencing in class during the meditation too. -- the first post was to answer what the truth is. now for your case i don't know what state of mind you were in. ie: you could have been extremely relaxed, you could have been extremely tired... etc. sorry i can't directly answer it with a definite answer. what's more fun in life anyway? the questions or the answers? -jakelles

[NightGiant]

true true. truth be told i didn't really start out asking a question, i was just pointing out that i don't think you have be asleep for a couple hours before you start dreaming, even if you have been awake for 8+ hours before hand, especially since it happened again last night, lol. well, that was more like an auditory hallucination i guess. i was trying to WILD and i was "awakened" very suddenly by a loud shout, after only about 20 minutes. and i know it wasn't a real shout, my room mate had no reaction to it, and sometimes you can just sense these things.