Dreams to Sleep Easy – Understanding REM Sleep

Rose knows dreams can be very important to sleep easy. According to a recent paper published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience a psychiatrist and long time sleep researcher at Harvard, Dr. J. Allan Hobson, disputed that the main function of rapid-eye-movement sleep or REM when most dreaming occurs, is physiological. The brain is foreseeing sight, sounds and emotions of waking. He explains “It helps explain a lot of things, like why people forget so many dreams. It’s like jogging; the body doesn’t remember every step, but it knows it has exercised. It has been tuned up. It’s the same idea here: dreams are tuning the mind for conscious awareness.”

Deriving on his work and others, he states that dreaming is a parallel state of consciousness that is continually operating but normally suppressed during waking hours. This might explain why we drift off during the day and daydream.

“Most people who have studied dreams start out with some predetermined psychological ideas and try to make dreaming fit those,” said Dr. Mark Mahowald, a neurologist who is director of the sleep disorders program at Hennepin County Medical Center, in Minneapolis. “What I like about this new paper is that he doesn’t make any assumptions about what dreaming is doing.”

This innovative approach about dreaming is partial based on the finding about REM sleep. Studies have found that REM is detectable in humans, other warm-blooded mammals and birds. REM makes its appearance very early in life — in the third trimester for humans, well before a developing child has experienced dreaming. The fetus may be visualizing something long before their eyes ever open. Objects and emotions in their dreams come later in life.

Many people can remember their dreams and enjoy trying to figure out what they mean. A recent study of more than 1,000 people, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard found strong preconceptions in the interpretations of dreams. For instance, the participants tended to attach more significance to a negative dream if it was about something they disliked and more to a positive dream if it was about a loved one. Negative dreams cause the person to wake during the night and harder for them to fall back asleep without visualizing the nightmare when they close their eyes. If you can’t get to back to sleep within 15 – 20 minutes, it is best to get up and do something like read or watch TV to divert your mind on other subject matter.

Scientists know this because some people have the ability to watch their own dreams as observers, without waking up. This state of consciousness, called lucid dreaming, is itself something a mystery —but one in which Dr. Hobson finds strong support for his argument for dreams as a physiological warm-up before waking.

Lucid dreaming occurs during the period when you are not fully awake, but some people experience lucid dreams while sleepwalking and night terrors which represents muscle activity and non-REM sleep. The sleep disorder, narcolepsy, shows that people are in a state of REM during normal daytime wakefulness.

In the journal Sleep, Ursula Voss of J. W. Goethe at the University in Frankfurt led a team that analyzed brain waves during REM sleep, waking and lucid dreaming. It found that lucid dreaming had elements of REM and of waking — they also concluded that when you close your eyes at night you will experience a flash of your last dream. Researchers have found if you are able to remember and reconstruct a (positive) lucid dream it will help you to fall asleep easy.
Paradox Lost - Midnight in the Battleground of Sleep and Dreams - Violent Moving Nightmares, REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

Good Evening,
Rose Sheepskill

How to Fall Asleep Fast

Rose here….Tonight I want to talk about how to fall asleep fast. Do you have a hard time falling asleep? Are you tossing and turning thinking about all the things you have to do? Stress is the number one reason why people can’t relax and fall asleep. There are ways you can turn off your mind and learn how to fall asleep fast.

First even before you go to bed you need to get into the mind set to get ready to fall asleep. Having a nightly routine such as taking a warm bath, not a hot bath as your body will have to cool down before you will be able to fall asleep. Have a cup of decaffeinated sleepy time tea or warm glass of milk, but don’t drink too much or you will wake up during the night and have to go to the bathroom only to start the process of falling asleep all over again.

Try some PearlyDreams toothpaste which has natural sleep aid ingredients for instance passion flower extract, valerian, Melatonin and balm mint all known to have relaxing properties that absorb into your system. Melatonin is naturally produced in your pineal gland and will regulate your sleep cycle. Some sleeping disorders are caused just because people don’t produce enough melatonin. There are a few reason why this happens; one as you age melatonin decreases and two if you sleep with a light in your room your body will not produce enough. So if you want to fall asleep fast...lights out.

Make sure your room is as sound proof as possible. If you are traveling sometimes this is hard to do. You might want to consider listening to sleep music, white noise or binaural sound waves. What is white noise? White noise is a neutral sound that will drown out external noises. A white noise machine is relatively inexpensive, but if you can’t afford one a fan or the air conditioner will work just the same.

A self hypnotic tape or CD trains you to relax your entire body by repetitive suggestions and deep breathing. Try this deep breathing exercise; inhale through your nose until you feel you stomach rise, hold for 10 seconds then slowly exhale counting backwards from 8 to 1. Repeat two more times. My self hypnotic tape has a breathing exercise along with other stress relieving exercises I do and before long I am fast asleep. Even though I do not complete the tape my unconscious mind still soaks in all the relaxing, self improvement suggestions. A self hypnotic tape or CD will keep your mind off your problems and will help you relax and fall asleep fast. If you aren’t sure about using hypnosis meditating will work just as well. Concentrate on relaxing your body and lowering your heart rate. I repeat a single word over and over and match it to my breathing which will gradually slow down then eventually my mind will drift off to sleep.

Other suggestions to prepare for sleep try reading, writing or anything that will get your mind off whatever you are stressing about. Make sure you are not in restrictive clothing. Anything that is too tight will not move with you when you turn over. I feel loose fitting pajamas are easier to sleep in than a nightgown that is sometimes tighter around the shoulders and rides up during the night.

How is your mattress? Do you sink to the middle of your bed or do you feel the bed spring? If you can’t afford a new mattress get a Memory Foam Mattress Pad with a terry cloth cover. Why should you make sure you have a terry cloth cover? Memory foam is known to hold into the heat and with a terry cloth cover it will allow more air movement between you and the pad therefore keeping you cooler. Make sure your room temperature is set at 65 degrees or less and make sure you don’t have too many blankets on. Keep your pets out of your room they will only disturb your sleep. Don’t use your bed for anything other than sex and sleeping. You don’t want to watch TV or play video games in bed or it will take you longer to fall asleep…always wondering how to get the bad guy.

Now you are ready for sleep and as you drift off I don’t know if you have ever noticed but your mind will remember your last dream. Even though it is fleeting, it might remind you enough for you to remember more of it. These dreams are called lucid dreams. They are the conscious dreams you have when you are in between a sleep and a wake state. When you are having a hard time falling asleep remind yourself that sleep means lucid dreaming and your subconscious mind will make sure when remembering your dream that you will get to sleep fast. When you wake up in the morning you might want to keep a dream or sleep journal. As time goes by your mind will remember more and more of your dreams. In your journal you can also keep track of how long it takes you to fall asleep and what you did to fall asleep faster.

Lastly if you are like me you love to nap and stay up late and sometimes find yourself up until 3 or 4 in the morning, getting into a terrible sleeping pattern. If you are going to nap, try to have a power nap of 15 or 20 minutes. Not only should you limit your nap time you should keep a bedtime schedule. Make time for your nightly routine and get to bed at a decent hour to get the amount of sleep you need and wake up feeling fresh and rested.
Good Day,
Rose Sheepskill

Sleep Aides: A Cure for Insomnia

Rose here, Good Evening

Since us Vamps don't have any dreams, I thought it might be important to discuss how dreaming can affect how you sleep.

Tonight I received an article from Trevor Albitt. Trevor believes that a cure for insomnia is learning how to recall past lucid dreams. Binaural sound waves can get your mind ready for lucid dreaming and then you'll be able to sleep like a baby. Here is Trevor's article:

Lucid Dreaming, also known as conscious dreaming is the practice of remaining aware of oneself as well as the fact that one is dreaming while dreaming. While in a dream, you are conscious of the fact that the things you see and experience are only a dream. You can have some control over your dreams once you are able to practice lucid dreaming, unlike in ordinary dreams.

The power of having complete control over the direction of your dreams is something straight out of metaphysical existence. Suddenly, all the limitations you ever felt in life just cease to exist.

Is lucid dreaming as straightforward as all that? Is lucid dreaming something which can be experienced by anyone?

In fact, lucid dreaming is not too difficult a task. If you are determined to learn this powerful medium of expressing your inner desires, there are tried and tested ways of achieving this.

First, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish here. Are you just trying to make your dreams a playground through lucid dreaming, or is there a specific goal which you are aiming to achieve through lucid dreaming? Whatever your reason, you should be clear and determined about it.

Then starts the actual process of learning this art. Firstly, you need to learn a process, called Dream Recall, i.e., recalling a dream you had the previous night. Unless you remember a dream, you can't achieve the stage of lucid dreaming.

The process is slow, but it can be achieved by maintaining a Dream Recall Register in which you enter as many details as you can remember about your dreams daily. Slowly but surely, you'll realize that you can remember even the most vivid details of your dreams. Periodic reality checks during the course of dreaming will train your mind to be aware in dreams.

Hypnosis can be very helpful for many in preparing their minds to have lucid dreams and can get the process of learning lucid dreaming off to a good head start. In fact, hypnosis can have people remembering their dreams in detail in as few as a few sessions. When you can do this, you are ready to try out lucid dreaming.

While in a lucid dream, it may happen that suddenly, you are wide-awake. However, with the power that you have attained so far, you'll be easily able to recollect all the important details of the dream. Now, just try to relax and sleep again, while continuing the dream with the desired directions. When you wake up, you'll realize the real power of conscious dreaming you just experienced the night before.

Another good way of inducing lucid dreams is to wake a few hours earlier than usual, then go back to sleep. The dreams you will have in these few hours are the easiest to make into lucid dreams. You may even find yourself unsure whether you have been sleeping or just thinking to yourself as you lay in bed. Just set your alarm for a few hours early, wake and reset the alarm and then go back to sleep and you will be more likely to have lucid dreams.

In this regard, it's extremely useful to keep track of your sleeping patterns so as to discover the best time to have lucid dreams.

Lucid dreaming can be a helpful practice for those with sleeping troubles such as insomnia. When you are having a hard time getting to sleep, remind yourself that sleep means lucid dreaming; and your subconscious mind will make sure that you get to sleep quickly.

It once was the case that it could take years to learn lucid dreaming; the only way to prepare the mind was meditation, which took a long time to master. A lot of people lack the discipline and would simply give up. New technologies, especially audio technology have made it possible for anyone to experience lucid dreaming.

Binaural audio is one of the most reliable methods of getting people to have lucid dreams.

These work by playing slightly different frequencies in each ear and have the result of deeply relaxing the listener and bringing their brain waves to the correct frequency for lucid dreaming to occur.

Before this technology, meditation was the technique of choice, which did not work out so well for many people. Binaural audio is much faster and works reliably for the majority of people.

Particularly in conjunction with hypnotherapy, binaural sound waves can get your mind ready for lucid dreaming, sometimes as early as your first attempt!

About the Author:

Trevor Albitt is a writer for the popular luciddreaminginfo.com site. Discover the amazing experience of lucid dreaming and you can try it yourself when you get twenty nine Free lucid dreaming Audios when you visit here.

For those suffer from insomnia this might be worth trying.
Good Day,
Rose Sheepskill