Kaitlyn Garrett
When someone tells you they had “the strangest dream last night,” you are guaranteed a long, interesting, awkward, or really dull conversation.
It’s really quite remarkable if you think about it. I mean how is it just normal to have vivid, film-like flashes of experiences at night while you sleep? This is just something that we should just accept as normal. And it is. The average human does spend six years of their life dreaming, according to science website Emlii.com
So of course, I did some digging, and it turns out that the science of dreams is even more weird than the half-dinosaur, half-history teacher creature that visited you last night.
First off you should know that everyone has dreams even if you don’t remember them, according to LifeHack.org. This includes blind people as well, for those that were not born blind see images in their dreams; those that were born blind do not experience this, instead they have dreams that draw out their other senses such as smell, touch, and hearing.
While most of us find it difficult to recall dreams, the strangest ones or frequently occurring ones are often the ones we best remember.
William Sharp (10) says that one of his recurring dreams is about “flying, whether it be like flying a plane or flying like a bird or something.”
According to the Huffington Post, the most common dreams for Americans consist of being chased or flying. Common components include bodies of water, vehicles, classrooms, or death.
These dreams can occur for a variety of different reasons, ranging from your stress levels to something strange that you ate for dinner.
But many of us don’t recognize dreams as being significant or containing important messages, including William Sharp. “I think it’s just a bunch of random stuff that your brain releases when you are asleep,” he says.
But others of us beg to differ on the importance and sometimes the cryptic messages in our dreams, including myself.
A few years ago in October, my rental home caught on fire. Right before my mother burst into my room screaming Bloody Mary, I was dreaming about a wooden, straw house that caught on fire.
Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s not, but I for one would love to believe that sometimes our dreams have prognosticatory or supernatural elements.
Charlotte Dalke’s experiences with dreams hit close to home as her mother often has dreams right before a family member’s death.
Her great grandmother passed away almost two years ago and right before it happened her mother experienced one of these dreams. “My great grandma and mom were sitting together in her living room, and my great grandma looked beautiful, and her legs were fully functional, which was weird because in real life, she had had polio and her legs couldn’t support her anymore. Anyway, they were talking, and my great grandma’s brother came in and asked her if she was ready to go, and my grandma got up and walked away with him, towards heaven we assume.”
I was surprised to learn that foresight like this is not that uncommon throughout history. In fact, Abraham Lincoln dreamt of his assassination and 9/11 victims experienced dreams warning them of the catastrophe according to Lifehack.org.
Dreaming sometimes is associated with another unusual activity: sleepwalking. While potentially very dangerous, it is also incredibly rare as 3.6% of American adults are prone to sleepwalking. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the factors that increase the likelihood of sleepwalking are sleep deprivation, fever, and excessive tiredness.
Lucy Crenshaw (9) has had a few experiences with sleepwalking. In fact, on the seventh grade trip she sleepwalked out of her room.
On that day she had to give a speech, and she dreamed that she had left her notecards in the lobby.
“I remember running out of the room but at that time I thought it was just a part of my dream. Then a security guard outside my room grabbed me and after a few minutes I realized I was sleepwalking. The door closed when I ran out, so I got locked out and we both had to walk down to the lobby and get a new one. It was really embarrassing but a funny story to tell,” she says.
Another scary aspect of dreaming is that feeling of not being able to move after you wake up. According to Emlii, this is because during the REM stage of sleep the body is paralysed through a mechanism that keeps the human body incapable of moving.
One of the cooler things is being aware when you are dreaming. Dagny Peters (10) finds those dreams very strange. “Whenever I realize I’m in a dream it gets pretty weird because I am aware of my decisions,” she says. “The decisions always have weird results because I’m in a dream and any improbable outcome can happen.”
This is part of what is called Lucid Dreaming, according to Psychology Today. This can be an acquired skill that can lead to a person’s ability to control what happens in their dreams.
Lucy Crenshaw (9) has also dabbled with this. “One time I had a lucid dream and I could control what happened and when I wanted to wake up,” she says. “I knew I was dreaming so it was kind of scary but cool at the same time.”
Camille Summers (10) also has experienced a lucid dream. “I once forced Zac Efron to pop up in one of my dreams and we went on an adventure in New York City,” says Camille. “And then I think we saw One Direction in concert…”
Of course, whether we are intentionally shaping our dreams or we are facing the pure realization of our subconscious mind, many of us spend time trying to figure out the significance of our dreams. Personally, I’m not sure if dreams are sent from heaven, our subconscious, or our stomachs after a disagreeable dinner, but I do think we probably shouldn’t roll our eyes when someone shares the absurdity of last night’s dream with us. It may be weird, it may be boring, it may be super awkward, but it’s also a raw, unedited glimpse into the weirdness of the human mind.
Then again, I have no memory of last night’s dream. Another mystery.
