Sleep is crucial in our life. We need to rest properly and fule our energy in those few hours so we can prepare ourselves for the new day. When we sleep our brain keeps on working and organizing all the informations in our head, and putting them in the right place.
Dreaming is very important to certain people, and they even make sure to keep track of their dreams, so they can find a deeper meaning to them.
This is why peaceful dream is important and any type of interruption is not good, and can make us break this important process in our brains.
There are many different tehniques that help us relax to the fullest, and enjoy our night time, and some of them you might be familiar with, and others not so much.
Some include outside elements, that need to be in order and some can even come from our own mind.
So, in some way a control over what we dream can be achieved, and this article will show you how is that possible.
What is dreaming?
Dreams are actually images, sounds, feelings all melted in to one amazing fenomenon, that is not yet completely explained. Some people remember their dreams, and others don’t. Some have vivid, interesting dreams, others tend to dream everyday situations and events that have occurred to them or that can easily be a part of reality.
Dreaming happens in certain phase of our sleep and it is not consistent the whole period of time when we are asleep. Dreaming happens in REM phase of sleep, which is also called rapid eye movement phase. When you look at a person while it is asleep, you will notice that their eyes are moving inside their eye socket left to right and this is actually the phase when the person is experiencing a dream.
Duration of dreams can be different. It can last longer or shorter, and the longest period of time if about 20-30 minutes. Even though it might seem to you that it lasted longer, this is not the case.
Also, people can experience several dreams during the night. They can be mixed together and in the morning you have a harder time remembering exactly everything about a certain dream.
Usually people can have up to 7 dreams in one night, and we remember only few, or perhaps non of them.
Dreams can also be relaxing, pleasent and even hard to wake up from. But, we can also experience bad dreams, and the worse side of dreams. There is no wxplanation why people dream, or what is the meaning of it. There are many studies that are exploring this part of human behavior, and many indicate that dreams are actually a way for our brain to organize informations, and put everything in his place. This is why we often dream familiar places, people, and even situations.
So, everything we have experienced during the day, can manifest itself in our dreams in a whole different setting and reality.
How to control your dreams?
Even though this might sound impossible, there are ways to control your dreams by adjusting your enviroment, or even trainig your brain for dreaming. Many studies have shown that listening to relaxing music, just before bed, can make us be more relaxed, calm and sleepy.
This way we will fall asleep more easily, and also go to bed with peaceful minds and totally relaxed. You should choose music that is relaxing, of course, so nothing too violent or loud, because it might create an opposite effect and make you feel more unsettling and nervous.
Another way of having a good dream is to relax before going to bed. You can do this by practicing certain exercises before sleeping. They can be a mix of yoga, meditation or just simple streching exercises. This will relax your body and prepare you for sleeping. You will feel your mucles relax and when you lay down, sleep will come easily.
Going to bed earlier can also be very important. People that tend to stay up late, have harder time concentrating in the morning and can mix up their bodies biorhythms. Studies have also shown that students that went to bed late, had bad dreams more often than the ones that went to bed earlier. So, a certain connection in this case does exist.
You can also use aromatherapy and make your room a pleasent place for sleep, by using only scents that are relaxing and even one of your favorites. Certain scents can trigger our dreams, so that when we scent it, we get an instant message to our brain which remembers some events or situations, and even people related to those smells. This way you can in some way control your sleep, and remember some special person in your life, by simply adjusting your enviroment for sleeping.
When it comes to eating before bed, this is not only bad for your figure, but in some cases it can make you have bad dreams. And this is true! You have probably experienced on few occasions, that eating large meals before bed can make you feel uncomfortable when sleeping and even make you wake up due to nightmares or just because you feel some sort od discomfort. That is why you should have smaller meals before going to bed, so that you can feel light and relaxed enough, and good dreams will come as a result of that.
Connected to eating, is drinking before bed. When you choose your drinks make sure to pick ones that are soothing and not stimulating. So avoid coffee, energy drinks or teas that have high concentration of caffeine, because this will not only make you not have good dreams, but it will keep you awake instead. You probably already know this, but it is important to mention it.
If you want to sleep well and have good dreams, than make sure to avoid watching TV or staring at your phone or computer late at night. Doing this before bed might even make you nervous, agitated and not ready for those good dreams at all. If you feel bored, you can always pick up some good book or listen to some music, as I mentioned earlier. These ways are much better for relaxing and sometimes we just need some time alone for ourself and our thoughts.
Lighting in our rooms can also be an important part of good night sleep. Make sure to create a darker, soother enviroment, with not much light around you. Too bright enviroment can make you less sleepy and wake you up completely. When the setting in your bedroom is just right, you will feel comfortable and sleepy with no effort.
You can also change your sleep position, so that you can see if this position is better for you. Everyone has their favourite sleeping position, so it is important for us to find our own for our bodies to relax to the fullest.
Try taking a relaxing bath just before bed, to make your body feel like it is in heaven. Set up candles and roses besides your bath tub, and romance yourself a little, because we deserve every once in a while. So, it doesn’t matter if you have done by yourself, the point is to get that bad stress away and feel at ease.
You can also try drinking a glass of wine just before bed. This is both healhty and also it can make you feel more sleepy and ready for a good night sleep. Wine won’t keep you up at night and it won’t hurt your diet either. But, one is just enough, make sure to note that.
Besides making your enviromet just right, there are also few helpful tricks to apply if you want to have good dreams, and that are actually connected to your mind itself. When we are experiencing difficulties in our lives, it is not unusual to have bad dreams.
They are a result of our brain fighting with our stress levels. If we had a bad day at work or we are having problems at home, this can all affect the quality of our sleep, and also the things we dream about.
To help yourself, try to find the root of your problems, and deal with them. Dreaming is a process that comes directly from our minds and our brain, so while those troubles stay we won’t be able to fully relax.
Also, adress your issues from the past. May people that had traumatic experiences during their lifetime, can have constant nightmares all through life. This is a problem that requires little more effort for it to go away, but it is not impossible. Try to find a good therapist, who will help you deal with those problems and get your life in balance again.
So in the end, we can’t control our mind completely, but with these few tips we can make ourselves relax and feel more comfortable while asleep. This will make us feel more sleepy, and in some way it can also affect things that we dream about. Adjusting our enviroments, playing music that has special meaning to us, trying out different scents that are bound with special memories can trick our brain into dreaming about things we want it to dream.
But, what is more important is to sleep well, without interruptions and no waking up during our sleep. This crucial period of time can make or break our next day, so to have a productive life make sure to get enough sleep. Set your bedroom to be a perfect sleeping oasis, and let the good dreams roll in.
