We all have them; some of us have more, many of us have less, some are scary, some are pleasurable and in some cases some are amazing. But what are dreams anyway?
It is hard to define what everyone witnesses during a dream and what a dream is in itself, but ever since ancient times dreams have fascinated people and have raised a lot of questions in the process. Definitions started from believing that dreams were predictions of the future, images from the past or even our heart's most deep desire and the opinion still is divided between those three main ideas even today.
The standard definition of a dream given by scientists is that it is an subjective experience involving images, sounds thoughts or sensations that happen during the REM part of the sleep cycle. Dreaming is characterized by rapid eye movement, increased heart and respiratory rate and temporary paralysis, a description that may scare many but we must understand that dreams and all the processes involved are a part of our lives.
Dreams have been used as an inspiration for artists for ages; dreams are the driving force behind most of the predictions being made throughout history. In ancient times people viewed dreams as something supernatural, a message from the gods and even kings and scholars adhered to this theory, later in the middle ages the belief shifted to the idea that dreams were messages from Satan, but that was soon dismissed by the theories of Sigmund Freud who stated that dreams are a reflection of human desires and don't have any connection with the divine.
Dream research began in the ancient times with different interpretations, with the belief that dreams were messages from gods, thus leading upon the experimentation of some profound dreams to conversions from one religion to another.
As I briefly hinted at before, one of the most common uses of dreams in the past was for prediction. Dream interpreters were particularly in demand in ancient times, often holding an elevated position in society because of their abilities.Since then dream understanding has evolved and scientists have divided dreams into more and more categories based upon on number of factors including their nature, when during the sleep cycle they occur and even if subjects have control over what they are dreaming.
As a normal person you may dream about your family, friends, dreams aspirations and all the other things that you don't have the chance to do in real life. Most people dream about positive things but sometimes you might dream about something negative, something that exposes one or more of your fears, this kind of dream is called a nightmare.
Nightmares may reflect hidden fears or just a bad horror movie you just saw, but they affect the person in an increased manner and may lead to rapid awakening, a state that can be initally quite harrowing for the dreamer.