Dreams sometimes seem very real because of the activation of brain regions involved in perception, emotion, and memory during REM sleep. This brain activity creates an immersive and intense sensory experience, thus contributing to the perceived reality of dreams.
When you dream, your brain is almost as active as when you are awake. Certain regions, particularly the visual cortex, responsible for images, are highly engaged. As a result, you have the impression of really seeing things even though your eyes are closed. The frontal lobes, typically involved in logical reasoning, are often less active. Therefore, nothing seems absurd or implausible while you dream; you accept the situation as it is. Another important detail: the brain also activates the amygdala, involved in emotions, which explains why your dreams sometimes evoke strong and hyper-realistic sensations.
Our emotions and our memories shape the content of our dreams by giving them a familiar intensity, close to everyday experience. When we dream, the brain primarily draws on what we feel or have experienced recently or in the past, sometimes assembling these elements in astonishing or strange ways. The more emotionally charged a memory is, the deeper it imprints itself in our brain, thus increasing the chances that it will resurface clearly in a dream. This is why emotionally loaded events — such as mourning, a breakup, or conversely, a romantic encounter — often lead to particularly vivid and realistic dreams.
During the phase of REM sleep, our brain is hyperactive, as if it's working at full capacity. The brainwaves are very similar to those of wakefulness, which explains why we feel like we are experiencing something truly real. Another surprising thing is that during this time, our muscles are temporarily paralyzed. As a result, even if in our dreams we are running or swimming at full speed, we remain motionless in our bed. It’s a brilliant mechanism that prevents us from physically experiencing what we dream. This paradox between an active brain and an immobile body creates a very convincing sense of reality in our dreams.
While you sleep, your brain is a complex chemical cocktail that greatly influences your dreams. Serotonin, for example, partially regulates your emotions and mood, but during REM sleep, its levels drop significantly: as a result, your brain juggles with less emotional control and more imaginative craziness. At the same time, acetylcholine increases sharply, stimulating brain activity and helping to create very intense and coherent scenarios. Dopamine also plays its role by amplifying your emotions, giving a sense of importance and realism to everything you experience in your dreams. Not to mention norepinephrine, which normally keeps you alert; during REM sleep, its levels drastically fall, eliminating the boundary between reality and fiction, which explains why the absurd can seem so natural in your dreams. All of this gives your nighttime adventures a remarkably convincing sense of lived experience and reality.
Our brain does not always clearly distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. Certain brain areas, like the visual cortex, function very similarly when we perceive reality and when we simply think or dream about something. When you dream, your mind mixes elements from your memory, beliefs, and lived sensations, creating a sort of very realistic scenario. This is why you can intensely feel sounds, smells, or physical sensations that closely resemble those of the real world. Your imagination thus uses real building blocks from your lived experience to weave stories that sometimes seem more real than life itself.
The phenomenon of so-called 'lucid dreams,' in which the dreamer becomes aware that they are dreaming and can even influence the dream, has been scientifically recognized since the 1970s.
The brain activity during REM sleep closely resembles that observed when awake, which may explain why some dreams seem particularly realistic.
Studies show that emotionally charged events experienced during the day strongly influence the realistic nature of dreams during the following night, giving them increased emotional intensity.
Some hormones, such as melatonin, not only influence the quality of sleep but also the vividness of dreams, which explains why certain hormone treatments or dietary supplements can lead to very realistic dreams.
This very common sensation typically occurs during the transition between wakefulness and sleep, known as "hypnic myoclonus." It is triggered by an involuntary muscle contraction, interpreted by the brain as a fall or stumble. This is common, harmless, and usually does not indicate any particular problem.
Sure! Here’s the translation: "Yes, there are techniques called 'dream incubation' or 'lucid dreaming' that allow for a certain conscious influence over one's dreams. Regularly keeping a dream journal, practicing autosuggestion, and engaging in certain mental exercises before sleep can help guide or influence the content of one's dreams."
During certain phases of sleep, particularly during REM sleep, the brain remains active and can trigger physiological reactions similar to those experienced in real life. For example, accelerated heartbeats, heavy breathing, or tactile sensations may linger for a moment upon waking, creating the impression of having truly experienced the dream.
Yes, certain substances found in food, such as sugar, alcohol, or even some medications and spicy foods, can alter brain chemistry during sleep. This can intensify emotions or the vividness of dreams, sometimes making them more realistic or stranger.
The recall of dreams heavily depends on how one transitions out of REM sleep. A sudden awakening or one that is too far removed from this phase often makes it difficult to retain the details of the dream in memory. The brain also considers dreams to be less of a priority than memories formed during waking life, which makes their storage less effective.
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