Personal Health

How dreams change over the night

The brain allows himself no break, round-the-clock it is active. At night, it brings Sleep, dreams, experiences, before the mind’s eye. However, after getting Up, many often do not know whether, and to what you have dreamt of. “This is totally normal,” says Michael Schredl, scientific Director of the sleep laboratory at the Central Institute of Mental health (ZI) in Mannheim.

On average, most people in Germany are remembered only once a week, what was the content of their dreams, according to the expert. But there are also people who know more what they dreamed of at night.

“In principle, all the people Sleep, to dream otherwise, is something with the brain not in order,” says Schredl. Like the dreams look closely, but differs greatly: Sometimes there are thoughts and memories, sometimes rather imaginative new creations.

And also, the kind of dream life changed in the course of the night. “This is due to the different cycles that the body goes through while sleeping through,” says Alfred Wiater. The child and Youth practitioner is a Board Advisor of the German society for sleep research and sleep medicine (DGSM).

From the light sleep into deep sleep, in REM sleep

So the man slides after falling Asleep on the Bed in a deep sleep phase. The body relaxes, the brain works a little. The dreams during these sleep phases are short and abstract. Then it goes on in REM sleep, while the closed eyelids, the eyes move quickly. “In REM sleep the dreams are the most intense,” says Wiater. In the early Morning, the REM phases become longer and longer – and therefore also the dreams.

With the Dream deal is worth, according to the experts in each case. Because you can learn a lot about yourself, even and especially of stressful Dreams.

“In General, it is the Dream of all the things during the day,” says Schredl. The can be beautiful things, such as a planned trip, but also Stress or Anger with the employee’s supervisor. Sometimes the nighttime head to the cinema also shows scenes or experiences that have to do with the own world once nothing. “This shows how creative the brain is sometimes,” says Schredl.

Who does not remember his dreams, can the train. So it can help, for example, before falling Asleep, make to want to to the dream to remember, says Schredl. Something to Write down and Dictate it should be ready next to the bed. And while waking up it helps to repeat the Dreamed again and again, so that it remains in the memory.

Recurring nightmares: story of positive change

Return nightmares again and again, experts assume that the underlying story as a script in the memory set. The nightmare has a life of its own and of the processing of the experience is decoupled In contrast, Affected person might do something, says Annika Gieselmann, Psychological psychotherapist at the Heinrich-Heine-University of Düsseldorf. “It often helps to consider, either alone or with a Familiar, as the story of the nightmare can no longer be changed, that is bad.”

Gieselmann gives an example: A man in the nightmare, he falls from a tower or from a bridge into the depth of the plagues. In order to counteract, he may not be aware that the consequences are not so bad – because, for him, below a safety net is stretched to catch him gently. Often enough, the endless loop of a nightmare script to break.

If this strategy doesn’t help, you should be Concerned, seek professional help. “The cause could be a mental stress disorder,” says Wiater.

The most frequently nightmares in children. Then Fears often determine the content. After the tenth year of life, this Phase ends in the rule. “One reason could be that older children’s learning in the awake state, to confront actively with Fears and that you don’t need to run all the time, when you’re scared,” says Schredl.