Dr Yousuf Ali Al mulla
Dreams are important for normal brain function, but some sleep and dreaming behaviors may be an indicator of underlying health problems. However, scientific facts confirmed by psychiatrists and neurologists explain that dreams are a safety valves for mental health and providing release to our suppressed subconscious desires and feelings.
In fact, the phenomenon of dreams has attracted the attention of scientists and interpreters alike throughout the history, and despite the divergent views on the interpretations of this phenomenon, it has remained a complex phenomenon to understand and interpret. For instance, it was found that 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 a great danger to the loss of his soul and the inability to return to his body again.
Oddly, most of us spend around six years of our lives dreaming, yet on average 95 percent of our dreams are forgotten after waking up. Nevertheless, people always confuse nightmare with night terrors. This does not prevent them from causing sleep disturbances. Actually, nightmares tend to occur in the late stages of sleep, in the early hours of the day and before waking up. The content of dreams always varies from person to person, where most dreams of adults revolve around being chased or they fall from a high place, though, these nightmares are a kind of relief for 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 forgotten when you wake up.
Besides that, long dreams usually occurred during a period called rapid eye movement, God has created a mechanism that works to protect us from the execution of our dreams. The diaphragm and the muscles of the eyes, even if a person is in dreams his muscles are active but 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 as a result the person remains aware, but he cannot move at all and since the brain was in the stage of dreaming. This may lead to terrifying hallucinations and the feeling of the patient approaching death or something like it, which is known as paralyzed 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-which are dreams that reflect the onset of an illness prior to the appearance of symptoms. Recognizing 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.
Despite that are three types of dreams (some are related to the body, some are related to psychological dreams and others related to soul), still not only did dreams tell or warn the dreamer, but they have also gave scientists many ideas that have helped in discoveries or inspired inventions. For example, Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine in the eighteenth century, said: It is a dream one night with people throwing spears and each shaft hole above in the form of an eye. This inspired him about appropriate place for the opening in the sewing needle while designing the sewing machine.
At the end, dreams of unexpected memories, repeated physical injuries or long dreams with strange or violent images, could help you to prepare yourself for an imminent disease, however sometimes the dream seems to be inspiring scientists as I mentioned earlier. On the other hand, I think it is just a manifestation of a certain frustration which creates a kind of balance in the human 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.
The writer is a physician, medical innovator and educator.
