Dream a Little Dream
Lissa Coffey
While we sleep, our brains are still busy. During REM (rapid eye movement) is when we have our most dramatic dreams. Research from Harvard Medical School says that while REM sleep helps us to consolidate learning and memories, it also helps prepare the brain to be awake. We experience emotions in dreams that we need to express while we are awake. A dream is a kind of “dress rehearsal” for this experience. Because the brain doesn’t hold memories very well during the sleep process, if we want to remember our dreams we need to write them down. This involves waking up fast, with little movement after sleep, and making that effort to put pen in hand. Since bad dreams wake us up more quickly we tend to remember them more often. Dream interpretation can be fun and insightful! Start a dream journal, then look up some of the symbolism of your dreams in one of these books.
The Dream Book