Why do I have so many dreams each night?

Question

Every morning I wake up exhausted because I've had about 5 different dreams. These range from silly work related stuff to fantastical magical lands that are surreal. I love my dreams but I sometimes feel worn out when I wake up.

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm a sound sleeper who gets 8hrs a night, not under stress and can fall asleep at the drop of a hat. why do I feel tired?

Answer 1

I've had nights like that. I get the feeling that perhaps you have a very active brain and are a "thinker" by nature. Do you think too much? And over analyze everything? It could be that your brain is overworked.

Answer 2

Most people over the age of 10 dream at least 4 to 6 times per night during a stage of sleep called REM (for Rapid Eye Movements, a distinguishing characteristic of this stage of sleep). During REM periods our brains become as active as they are during waking, although not all parts of the brain are reactivated (the parts of the brain that are reactivated in REM are discussed in Chapter 1 of Domhoff's The Scientific Study of Dreams (2003)). REM periods vary in length from 5 to 10 minutes for the first REM period of the night to as long as 30-34 minutes later in the night. It thus seems likely that dreams can be a half hour or more in length.

There is also evidence that we can dream in non-REM sleep in the hour or two before waking up, when the brain has become more activated than it was earlier in the night. That's why we said that we dream "at least" 4 to 6 times per night.

But there are further qualifications that need to be added. Sometimes we can have dreamlike moments during waking if we are in a relaxed state of mind and not noticing anything in our surroundings, as demonstrated in two different studies of people awake in slightly darkened rooms who were signaled at random intervals to say what was going through their minds. And the investigators knew these people were awake because their brain wave activity was being monitored via EEG. So, it may be that we dream any time that the following conditions are met: (1) an adequate level of brain activation; (2) a shutting out of external stimuli; and (3) a shutting down of the self-awareness system that helps focus our minds when we are awake.

One final note: We said that these findings refer to "people over the age of 10." That's because two important studies suggest that children under age 10 only dream in about 20% of their REM periods (again, see Domhoff, 2003).

In summary, we can dream in REM or non-REM sleep, and perhaps even during waking, but we also can have REM sleep without dreaming.

Answer 3

i always dream several dreams a night or 1 dream continually and i just pick up where i left off the night before.