Our dreams are important to normal brain function, but some sleep and dreaming behaviours may be an indicator of underlying health problems. However, scientific findings, confirmed by psychiatrists and neurologists, explain that dreams are safety valves for mental health, through which unconscious desires are emptied without choking the mind.
In fact, the phenomenon of dreams has attracted the attention of scientists and interpreters alike through the ages of history. With divergent views on the interpretations of this phenomenon, it has always remained a complex issue for experts to understand and interpret it.
Some Eskimo tribes believe that the soul leaves the body while sleeping and lives in another world of its own and that awakening the dreamer from his sleep causes the great danger of losing his soul and the ability to return to his body again.
Most of us spend around six years of our lives dreaming, yet on an average 95 per cent of our dreams are forgotten soon after waking up. Nevertheless, people always confuse nightmare with night terrors. Nightmares tend to occur in the late stages of sleep, in the early hours of the day and before waking up, which make you experience annoying and frightening dreams. And the dream content always varies from person to person — most dreams of adults revolve around being chased or they fall from a high place, though these nightmares are a kind of relief from their daily pain.
On other hand, night terrors often occur during deep sleep stages, especially in the early hours of going to bed; they include fear and sleep disturbances, and are usually not remembered when you wake up.
Besides that, long dreams usually occur during a period called rapid eye movement. God has created a mechanism that works to protect us from the implementation of our dreams. Even if a person dreams that he is doing a great muscle effort, the mechanism of muscle relaxation ensures that they stay in bed. So, this mechanism ends once you move to another stage of sleep or wake up, but sometimes the sleeper wakes up during the stage of rapid eye movement. While this mechanism (muscle relaxation) has not stopped yet and result in the human being fully aware but he cannot move at all and since the brain is in the stage of dreaming, this may lead to terrifying hallucinations and the feeling of the patient approaching death or the like, which is known as paralysed sleep and this case is benign!
However, unusual dreams can be indicative of anything from pregnancy to low blood sugar levels. Nightmares are often related to stress, anxiety, and negative experiences, or are also a sign of sleep deprivation.
Interestingly, subtle physiological changes are also detected by the brain on a subconscious level, and may be translated into prodromal dreams — dreams that reflect the onset of an illness prior to the appearance of symptoms. Recognising prodromal signals may be particularly useful in creating early interventions against the disease. For example, dreams preceding migraines have been reported to include pertinent images, such as being shot or struck by lightning in the head.
There are three types of dreams — some are related to the body, some related to psychological dreams and others related to soul. Still, not only did dreams function to tell or warn the dreamer, but it alerted scientists to many ideas that helped in discoveries or inspired inventions. For example, Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine in the 18th century, says: It is a dream one night with people throwing spears and each shaft hole above in the form of an eye that has inspired him to find the appropriate place for the opening in the sewing needle while designing the sewing machine.
Dreams of unexpected memories, repeated physical injuries or long dreams with strange or violent images could help you prepare yourself for an imminent disease. However, sometimes the dream seems to be an inspiration for scientists as I mentioned earlier. On the other hand, I think, it is just a compensation for a certain frustration which creates a kind of balance in the human being, emotionally and mentally. It is a health phenomenon that serves to maintain mental balance and mental health. We should not strive too hard to seek an explanation for our disturbing mysterious dreams. Best wishes for a peaceful sleep and a beautiful dream.
Dr Yousuf Ali al Mulla, MD, Ministry of Health, is a medical innovator and educator. For any queries regarding the content of the column he can be contacted at: dryusufalmulla@gmail.com
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