Sweet Dreams Made Easy – Expert Tips for Dreamy Nights

Even though we may not remember them, everyone dreams. Some may be symbolic and others prophetic.
We will examine dreams, give some tips on how to have a good night’s sleep, but will start with a disorder involving mobile phones.

SLEEP… Ah! Do you remember that activity which involves lying in bed, doing nothing except abandoning oneself to dreams?

Probably not if you’re someone suffering from a disorder called – sleep texting.

This is defined as reading and responding to text messages while asleep. It is abnormal behavior in the same way as sleepwalking.

For sufferers of sleep texting, a good night’s rest is a thing of the past. It is likely to occur soon after falling asleep and can be mid-text conversation.

The sender often forgets sending the message, which can frequently be gobbledegook.

“It’s a phenomenon occurring with the younger generation,” explained Elizabeth Dowdell, a nursing professor at Villanova University in America, who told of a student who wears mittens to stop herself using her phone while she’s asleep.

“It’s reflective of the significance of our smartphones,” Prof. Dowdell added. “Why would we turn them off?”

The next morning, those with sleep texting disorder have no memory of their activity until checking their messages. They commonly recount their behavior using hashtags like #sleeptexting on Twitter and Instagram.

Prof. Dowdell surveyed 300 students and found that 25-35 percent had sent text messages whilst snoozing.

More than 50% admitted that their phone or other technology affected their sleep in some way.

This fact worries experts. “Sleep is a very important restorative process,” said Josh Werber, a specialist at a sleep center in Long Island, New York.

“When we’re not fully engaged in it and not getting the amount we need, we are not having the same restorative effect on our brains. That affects our cognitive ability the next day.”

To a certain extent, it seems that those afflicted are architects of their own misfortune in that phones are usually left on a bedside table or on the bed itself.

The obvious solution is to leave the phone in another room.

Back in the real world of ways to avoid sleep disturbances, light from electrical equipment harms the quality of sleep.

Most electrical devices emit light and should be turned off.

 

 

Since sleep is vital to good health, here are some more tips about conditions which will help us achieve and maintain tip-top health.

It makes sense to eliminate noise as well as light.

The correct temperature is also important for providing refreshing sleep.

The optimal bedroom temperature for sleeping is between 16° and 18°C (60° and 65°F).

“Temperatures over 24°C (71°F) are likely to cause restlessness, while a cold room of about 12°C (53°F) will make it difficult to drop off,” says the UK’s Sleep Council.

“Young children and elderly people may require a slightly warmer environment, so it’s useful to invest in a room thermometer to keep track of temperatures.”

“It’s also worth purchasing a range of suitable bedding depending on the season – an extra layer of sheets or blankets will make you more comfortable when it’s cold, as will a hot water bottle or a good pair of bed socks for cold feet.”

“If possible, have windows open to maximize cool air circulation in the hot months.

Of course, safety comes first, so keep downstairs windows shut and only open upstairs windows on a locked setting.”

Over to Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, Silentnight’s sleep expert. “A good night’s sleep is important in order to process information received throughout the day as well as to repair and rebalance the body physically and mentally,” she said.

“Ideally, in order for us to sleep well, there needs to be a fractional temperature difference between our body and our brain – a warm body and a cool head!”

Keep your evening shower tepid – not cold – to lower your body temperature.

If the water is too cold, your body will react to the sudden change in temperature by preserving heat.

If you’ve followed all the advice and are ready for serious snoozing, Dreamland awaits.

It is an enormous subject, but we’ll look at as many aspects as possible. Here are some interesting facts for starters:

About 70% of people appearing in men’s dreams are male. Women dream about 50/50 percent of men and women.

You forget 90% of your dreams. Within five minutes of waking, half of your dream is forgotten. Within ten minutes, 90% is gone.

Everybody dreams. Even if you think you are not dreaming, you just forget your dreams.

Not everybody dreams in color. 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining numbers do so in full color.

Dreams are symbolic. Try to work out what situation in life a dream could symbolize, what it could be telling you and the best way to react in the situation it represents.

You can have four to seven dreams in one night. On average, you dream from one to two hours.

Animals also dream. Studies have been performed on many different animals, which all show the same brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans.

If you watch a dog sleeping, their paws sometimes move as if running and they make sounds as though chasing something.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. While we are dreaming, our eyes move rapidly, as we try to act out our dream. This is a normal stage of sleep and the most important part since REM sleep is essential for survival.

During REM sleep, the body is paralyzed by a mechanism in the brain to prevent the body reacting physically to events portrayed in a dream.

Incorporating noises into dreams. Our mind interprets external noises that our senses are bombarded with when asleep and makes them fit into a dream.

For example, if your bedside alarm starts to ring when you are dreaming, your dream can override this so that you can imagine you are not at home.

If you are snoring, then you cannot be dreaming. This is generally accepted, but has yet to be scientifically proved.

The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Others are anger, jealousy, envy and feelings of inadequacy.

Perhaps because we live in a world of complicated relationships with many different people, we also often dream of frustrations and misunderstandings with family members, friends, work colleagues and others we meet socially.

 

 

Precognitive and prophetic dreams. Results of several surveys across large population areas indicate that between 18 and 38 percent of people experience at least one precognitive dream.

The percentage of those who believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher ranging from 63 to 98 percent.

People who have had near-death experiences, including Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung and American neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, can explain precognition because of what they found on the Other Side.

They tell us there is no past, present and future, but only a permanent “Now,” which enables future events to be viewed from what we deem to be the present moment.

One famous precognitive dream concerns former American president Abraham Lincoln.

Three days before he was assassinated, Lincoln told his wife and a group of friends about a strange dream he had had a few days previously.

According to Ward Hill Lamon, a self-appointed bodyguard of the president, Lincoln described the dream as follows.

He went to bed late, as he had been waiting for dispatches. Feeling very weary, Lincoln soon began to dream.

“There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me,” said the president. “Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs.”

“There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along.”

“I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed.”

Determined to find out the cause of the distress, Lincoln described how he continued into every room, until he came to the East Room, where he saw a body on a catafalque wrapped in funeral vestments and with the face covered.

A crowd of people was gazing at the body. Soldiers acting as guards were stationed around it. There he had a dreadful surprise. Lincoln continued:

“Who is dead in the White House?” I demanded of one of the soldiers.

‘The president,’ was his answer. ‘He was killed by an assassin.’ Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream.

“I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since.”

Incidentally, although he was a great friend and self-appointed bodyguard of the president, Ward Hill Lamon was absent on the evening of the assassination because Lincoln had sent him out for dispatches.

 

 

Going to Britain, on October 21, 1966, 144 people – 116 of them children – were killed when a man-made mountain of coal waste slid onto the village of Aberfan in South Wales.

This followed several days of heavy rain. A shocked nation fell into mourning.

As the first structure in its path, Pantglas Junior School was demolished by a thousand tons of black mud. The slide also destroyed a farm and twenty terraced houses.

Thick mud and rubble up to 33 feet deep filled classrooms. Mud and water also flooded many other houses in the vicinity.

The pupils had arrived only minutes earlier for the last day before the half-term holiday. They had just left the assembly hall, where they sang “All Things Bright and Beautiful” when a terrible noise was heard outside.

Had pupils left the assembly for their classrooms a few minutes later, the loss of life would have been significantly reduced, as they would not have reached their classrooms when the landslide hit; the classrooms were on the side of the building nearest the landslide.

Not long after the disaster, the London Evening Standard appealed for people who had experienced premonitions of the event to come forward.

Within two weeks there were 60 serious replies, including 36 describing dreams which Dr John Barker, a London psychiatrist, compiled in chart form for the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

In summary, people reported:

“Dream of screaming children buried by avalanche of coal in mining village. Woke up screaming.”

“Dream of school, screaming children and ‘creeping black slimy substance’.”

“Frightening dream of children standing by building below black mountain. Hundreds of black horses then thunder down hillside.”

“Dream of scenery resembling Aberfan, desolation, children and women mourning in a hall.”

“Dream of name ‘Aberfan’ and desolate rows of houses.”

One of the most well-known premonitions concerns ten-year-old Eryl Mai Jones. She awoke two days before the disaster and told her mother, “Mummy, I’m not afraid of dying.”

Her mother tried to reassure her that everything was all right, but her daughter continued, “I’m not afraid of dying because I shall be with Peter and June.”

Eryl described a dream she had, saying: “Mummy, it was so strange. I dreamed I went to school and there was no school there. Something black had come down all over it.”

48 hours later, Eryl was crushed along with her classmates. She and her friends Peter and June were buried side-by-side in a mass grave, just as Eryl had predicted.

Seven days before the disaster, in a dream a Plymouth housewife “saw an old school house nestling in a valley and then a Welsh miner. After this I saw an avalanche of coal hurtling down the mountainside.”

“I saw the rescue operations. I had the impression of a little boy who was left behind and saved. I could never forget him.”

The following day, she gave a full account of her dream to friends at a church social club. Six witnesses confirmed this.

While the tragedy was shown on television, the woman recognized the young boy and one of the rescuers she had seen clearly in her dream.

 

 

To happier matters, and let’s take an alphabetical look at what certain scenes and subjects may mean if they appear in a dream.

Do remember, though, that various dream dictionaries sometimes suggest different answers.

Apple. A symbol of prosperity, wealth, perfection and beauty, fulfilled goals and desires.

Black cat. Indicates that you are experiencing fear in using your psychic abilities and believing in your intuition.

Cake. You need to share love with others.

Daffodils. Reinforces a feeling of self-worth, hope and optimism.

Eagle. A powerful eagle represents your powerful intellect.

Face. Someone in your life is two-faced.

Gate. You are entering a new phase in life.

Hand. You need to give someone a helping hand.

I. A capital “I” means you need to focus on yourself.

Jam. Eating jam signifies pleasant surprises, sweet things and new discoveries.

Key. Symbolizes opportunities.

Lime. This fruit is a good omen regarding prosperity.

Magazine. Reading a magazine indicates that you are open to various new ideas.

Nagging. Someone nagging you means you have to change your attitude about preconceived notions.

Obstacle. There is something in life you need to overcome.

Page. Seeing a page means a summary of your life, what you’ve done and where you are headed.

Quarrel. Indicates hidden negativity you have towards someone in waking life.

Race. To be in a race reveals your competitive spirit, which will gain you fame and success.

Sun. Peace of mind, enlightenment, tranquility, fortune, goodwill and insight.

Tarantula. Represents your dark and sinister side.

Urn. Feelings that have burnt out.

Vacant sign. You need your own space.

Watch. Wearing or seeing a watch suggests that you need to be more carefree.

Xylophone. Playing a xylophone indicates significant changes in life.

Yellow bird. Symbolizes a positive outlook in your professional life.

Zig-zags. Represent erratic behavior.

Well, we hope you thoroughly enjoyed feeling wide-awake in reading this!

That said; let’s also hope for a good night’s sleep later on to refresh mind, body and spirit. Sweet dreams all.