![]() And while we use it as an excuse to laugh-off a silly mistake, it’s not a myth! The hormones produced during pregnancy heighten emotional response and impact the way your brain processes information, which potentially results in more vivid dreams or nightmares. We’ve all heard of (and possibly experienced) ‘baby brain’. The relaxation response will help your muscles relax and slow your heart rate, making your chances of returning to a ‘sound’ sleep more likely. This is thought to be your body’s natural counter to the heightened ‘flight or fight’ response (which is often enhanced by prolonged daily stress). The obvious solution is to reduce the stress in your waking life, but we all know that is sometimes easier than it sounds, especially when you’re lying in bed wide awake as a result of your vivid dreams! However, an immediate solution may be practicing some simple deep breathing techniques.ĭeep breathing activates your ‘relaxation response’. Being stressed is associated with poor sleep in general, which may in turn trigger more frequent dreams. When you’re waking at 3am after a vivid, anxiety-ridden dream it probably has something to do with the stress you’re experiencing in everyday life. However, there are certain factors such as stress, anxiety, pregnancy, sleep disorders, and medications that may specifically cause more vivid dreams. Therefore, it’s understandable that your dreams may become more vivid for a variety of reasons like lifestyle changes that disrupt your normal activities such as changing your exercise routine, eating habits, or sleeping patterns.ĭreams, particularly vivid dreams, occur during REM cycles, so the more REM sleep you get in a night the more dreams you’ll typically experience. One study found that the brain mechanisms that happen during dreaming (and recalling dreams) are the same as when we make and recall memories while awake. Even though vivid dreams can range from realistic to non-sensical, the general theory among scientists is that dreams reflect what is happening in your daily life, with research suggesting they are closely associated with memory. We’ve all experienced a vivid dream that seems to stick in our memory, whether it be pleasant or scary. This means you’re able to remember the dream and may have found it puzzling and enjoyable or disturbing and upsetting. Hence, a vivid dream is considered so intense that it evokes a response when you wake. This is possibly because REM cycles are typically longer and deeper in the morning before you wake. However, it is thought that dreams experienced during REM sleep are more vivid and better remembered. It is reported that we dream up to 6 times every night, with each dream lasting between 5 and 20 minutes.Įssentially, dreaming can happen at any point of the two main stages of sleep - rapid eye movement (REM sleep) and non-REM sleep. So, the question remains…are your vivid dreams affecting the quality of sleep you get? What are vivid dreams?ĭreaming is a completely normal part of your sleep cycle and happens more often than you think, whether you remember them or not. Sometimes, when you wake your dream seemed so vivid that you’re surprised you get any rest at all. Just when you thought you were ‘switching off’ for the night and giving your brain the rest it deserves, it kicks into gear creating an entirely new world full of dreams that can range from fun and fantastical to weird, worrying, sexy or scary.
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