Did you know about these facts already?
Sleeping isn’t just necessary; it’s also a hobby for a lot of people. We love sleeping in past 10 am during the weekends. Yet we don’t really know all that much about sleep. Perhaps that’s not so strange since we’re not actually aware of it when we’re doing it. These five surprising facts about sleep and dreams will probably be new to you, too!
How many hours do you sleep a night?
1. The strangers in your dreams aren’t strangers at all
Although it might seem like the people you’re encountering in your dreams are complete strangers, you’ve seen them all before. We know this because your brain isn’t capable of thinking of completely new faces. Perhaps you passed someone in the street and you only threw a quick glance at them. You probably didn’t even remember it, because your brain gets rid of this useless information right away. However, the memory does stick in your subconscious. When your brain is processing all of the information of the day, the ‘stranger’ can come back in your dream.
2. Quality is at least as important as quantity
There are nights when you’ve slept a solid eight hours and you still feel very tired in the morning. This can be frustrating, but it is important to remember that the quality of your sleep is at least as important as the quantity. You might have slept for quite a few hours, but if your sleep is constantly disrupted, you won’t feel well-rested the next morning. The natural rhythm of sleep consists of four stages: falling asleep, light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. If these stages are disrupted, you don’t sleep very well.
3. Colour versus black and white
Do you dream in colour or in black and white? You probably didn’t know it, but both are possible! About 12 per cent of people has black and white dreams. Fun fact: before colour television was introduced, 75 per cent of people dreamed in black and white! This shows that the images we see on a daily basis influence the way we experience our dreams.
4. You probably weren’t awake the entire night
This might be something you’re familiar with: those nights that seem to take forever and you just can’t fall asleep. Every time you look at the clock, you feel a little more frustrated. “I really saw every hour on the clock last night,” you tell your colleagues the next day. We have good news for you, though: this isn’t true. You might think you lay up sleepless the entire night, but in actuality, you’ve probably spent large portions of the night in light sleep. During this light sleep, you can still hear, think and smell. Because of this, it might seem like you’re awake, while you’re actually resting without knowing it.
5. Needing 8 hours of sleep is a myth
We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve heard that adults need to get eight hours of sleep a night. We’ve started to believe that you need to worry if you don’t sleep for this many hours. There’s no need for that, though. Every person is different and that means that not everyone needs the same amount of sleep. While one person functions perfectly well on only five hours of sleep, someone else is exhausted if they didn’t sleep for nine solid hours. Everything between three and eleven hours is possible, sleep expert Neil Stanley explains. So, you shouldn’t force yourself to sleep more or less because that’s what’s expected of you. Listen to your body and it will find its own perfect natural rhythm!
