Why do dreams seem long when they only take seconds to occur?

Question

I have dreams that last (at least to me) 30 minutes to an hour. So, if dreams only last a couple of seconds, why do my dreams seem so long?

Answer 1

time is a man-made concept believe it or not. can you remember going on a trip and it seeming like it was over as soon as it started b/c it was so fun. can you remember watching a clock tick because you were so bored and ready to do something else? its all relative. the rate your mind processes information can approach the rate of reality but it can never go faster - a variation of Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity. but in a dream, reality doesn't exist, so the mind has an artificial reality that it can create with different parameters such as: the amount of time in reality for these thoughts to be processed. so basically, your brain creates that thought that the dream's reality was 30 minutes to an hour long.

you can take this a step farther and say that because the artificial reality is based upon reality, and realities concept of time is man-made, then what is actually real cannot be determined with certainty. this is where the philosophy of solipsism kicks in. look it up, its pretty cool.

hope i didn't lose you. people usually either get it or not.

Answer 2

Time has no meaning in dreams, and a sleeping person has no awareness of the passing of time. You only know how long you sleep by looking at the clock before you go to bed and when you wake up, but when you are asleep, your awareness of time is suspended as you rest, whether or not you are dreaming. Dreams do take longer than just seconds, but there are so many dreams that we don't remember - actually most people dream all night but only remember the one or two dreams they had right before waking up.

Answer 3

It's all in your head...

Answer 4

you can have as many as 1000 dreams a night but sometimes can only remember one