normal dreams just imagine walking into your kitchen to make a cup of coffee but as you reach for the coffee it morphs into a carrot your fridge becomes a portal to a beach and the next thing you know you're on a surfboard still holding the carrot with your high school principal teaching you how to do a kickflip sounds absolutely wild right well this is exactly what normal dreams do best they throw together bits and pieces of your day random memories and Pure Imagination like a blender with the lid off it's like when a toddler tells
a story and starts somewhere logical but quick into what in the world territory in normal dreams the casting is all over the place last night you could have had your ex from 5 years ago the Barista you only met once and Beyonce all in one scene these characters come with minimal to no context leaving you wondering why you're third grade math teacher had to be there as the wise guide on your journey to find a magical sandwich there's no buildup no character Arc and definitely no logical ending with this type of Dream It's like a
comedy thriller and sci-fi flick all got matched together by a very indecisive director however these types of Dreams happen because your brain is trying to piece together all the scraps of information you gathered consciously and subconsciously from your day all those background thoughts forgotten errands random memories and overheard conversations from the grocery store basically become material to create the most random absolutely hilarious dream world lucid dreams so with lucid dreams you are not just the dreamer but also the director producer and lead actor to the midnight Cinema of your mind mind basically you'd know that
you're actually dreaming but the twist here is that you can actually be in charge of what you want to dream about we're talking about absolute creative control let's say you want to fly in a regular dream you might flap awkwardly and eventually crash into a tree but in a lucid dream you can take off like Superman and soar through the clouds or maybe you want to explore a hidden city shape shift into a tiger or summon a pizza the size of a small car with lucid dreaming your imagination is the only limit and if you
can think about it you can do it one of the coolest parts of lucid dreaming is that you can turn your nightmares into epic battles for instance you're face to face with a giant spider classic nightmare material but instead of running away or waking up with a flick of your wrist that spider can turn into a friendly puppy or you can even summon a lightsaber and decide to battle it out Star Wars style lucid dreaming lets you be the action hero facing down your fears and rewriting the script in real time or rather Dreamland these
types of dreams are also the perfect space for self-discovery think of them like a therapist's office where the therapist happens to be well you now if you wanted to ask your subconscious why you're scared of public speaking or perhaps you want to figure out why your last relationship didn't work out in a lucid dream you can call in characters representing those issues have a chat and actually get insights it's like dream therapy but with special effects nightmares nightmares are the horror movies of the dream world and they have only one mission to take your brain
on a Thrill Ride it never asked for leaving you with a wake up jolt and the distinct feeling that maybe sleep isn't as restful as advertised the crazy part about having nightmares is that they start innocently enough you're dreaming maybe even walking through a peaceful Park the birds are chirping the sun is shining but then things would suddenly take a dark turn the sky would go dark the chirping would turn into ominous cing and out of nowhere your third grade teacher dressed as a zombie clown is chasing you with an AK-47 and blood running down
her body the thing is the nightmare logic in the true sense of it makes zero sense and that's why it's so terrifying basically nightmares know how to create the perfect storm of fear by taking the ordinary and twisting it until you're frantically trying to escape one minute you're fighting off a giant snake with a spoon the next the snake is inside your spoon all the details are so wrapped and scary and even familiar faces would suddenly morph into monsters trying to terrify you now unlike most dreams which fade away in the morning nightmares leave a
mark ever notice how after a particularly bad nightmare you wake up sweating heart pounding and questioning every Creek in your house well that's because nightmares activate the amydala the brain's fear Center making the terror feel as real as if you'd watched a scary movie marathon in a dark basement when you finally wake up it's hard to shake the feeling that something unnerving just happened however sometimes nightmares are just your brain's way of hitting you with unresolved fears or stress maybe the zombie clown is actually your fear of public speaking or the Giant Wave that swallowed
you whole is is just stress about that looming work deadline so while nightmares are terrifying they can also be a sneaky way of helping you process what's on your mind like therapy with a terrible sense of humor recurring dreams so for the past 2 months you've been having the same dream every single night you see yourself in high school dressed in your cheerleading uniform but there's poop all over your face and everyone is laughing and pointing at you sounds like the worst thing that can ever happen to you right well in your Dreamland the plot
setting and theme represents itself night after night and this type of dream is called a recurring dream basically these dreams are the classic reruns of the Sleep world like your brain's favorite show that just won't stop streaming these dreams are persistent like that one song you can't get out of your head except it's more like a weird mini movie that leaves you scratching your head in the morning now the thing is that recurring dreams usually have a purpose they're like your brain trying to send you a note in a bottle but then you keep missing
the point often recurring dreams stem from some unresolved issues like fear regret or a problem you've been putting off think of it as your subconscious waving a flag and asking you to deal with the issue already the good news is that you can actually break the cycle all you've got to do is play Dream detective and ask yourself what the dream might be trying to tell you for instance if you're stuck in a recurring dream about being chased it might mean you're avoiding something in your Waking Life like a difficult conversation or a decision you
dread the point is that even though recurring dreams can be unnerving they're actually your brain's way of nudging you towards some kind of growth or resolution false Awakening dreams you know how on a normal morning you'd wake up stretch maybe curse your alarm clock and roll out of bed well a false Awakening has all of these ingredients but they come with a Twist you might think that you're up and ready to face the day only to get a weird feeling when something is a little off it may be that your toothpaste is purple or your
dog is suddenly reciting Shakespeare and before you can even process what's happening you'll realize you are actually not awake but trapped in a weird ass Dream It's like your brain is giving you a warm-up round only for you to flop back to square one the thing is false Awakenings often come in layers like some kind of dream lasagna you wake up do your normal routine and maybe even start getting ready only to realize you're still dreaming and then you'd wake up again repeat the same process with some minor changes but then you are still in
la la land for some people false Awakenings can trigger a bit of panic imagine thinking you're late rushing to get dressed spilling your coffee and then realizing bam you're still asleep this pattern can set off an anxiety Loop where you're scrambling in each new layer of the dream to get ready only to wake up and repeat the chaos over and over it's like running up an escalator that's heading downwards now this type of dream tends to pop up when you're under stress have a disrupted sleep cycle or deal with big changes it's like your brain
throws a dress rehearsal for something and then makes you practice waking up until you get it right however once you've become aware that you are actually just looped in a dream you can often break the cycle or at least take control of the situation and have some fun with it healing dreams healing dreams are like your brain's Wellness Retreat where the Mind pulls out the soft spa music and lights the metaphorical candles these dreams help you process recover and work through emotional mental or even physical stuff weighing you down with this type of dream your
subconscious creates a mental environment where you can unwind focusing on the places that make you feel safe and comfortable it could be your childhood home or The Treehouse you played in as a child sometimes you might even encounter a wise figure like a dream Mentor or mystical guide who shows up with advice reassurance or even a kind word it's your brain's equivalent of a trusted friend who offers the exact pep talk you need sounds a bit wild but some people actually experience dreams that feel as though they're helping their bodies recover say you're getting over
a cold or dealing with a pesky muscle ache in these healing dreams you might see yourself surrounded by bright warm lights or floating through soothing water imagery that seems to help with actual physical recovery and while they aren't a replacement for medical care they can boost your spirit which does wonders for your overall well-being one of the best things about healing dreams is the wakeup effect you might emerge from a healing dream feeling refreshed rejuvenated and oddly inspired like you've just completed a yoga class you didn't sign up for these dreams can leave you with
a sense of calm or encourage you to take better care of yourself it's your brain's gentle reminder to slow down be kind to yourself and give yourself permission to heal prophetic or precognitive dream dreams let's say you fell asleep and started dreaming but then suddenly in the dream you see something bizarre but oddly specific you're in a bright room with yellow walls a cat is knocking over a vase and a strange song is playing in the background you wake up and shrug it off as some random imagery from the Land of Nod but a week
later you find yourself in an eerily similar room at a friend's house watching the same cat knock over a very real vase with a strange song playing on the television this is exactly what the Spooky World of precognitive Dreams is all about in a way precognitive dreams are like extreme Deja Vu where your brain seems to be playing both sides of Time Regular Deja Vu is that feeling of I've been here before but with prophetic dreams it's like I literally saw this in my dream these moments often involve seemingly small specific details rather than huge
life-altering events although people occasionally report big ones too it's like your subconscious gets an advanced screening of a trailer for the future and it would usually make no sense in the dream until you're right there in reality now a lot of people really don't understand how prophetic dreams work and some even go as far as calling it a superpower however science generally chalks these up to coincidence memory quirks or our brains incredible ability to pick up subtle cues and piece them together without us consciously realizing it basically you might not have literally foreseen that a
cat would knock over a vase in a yellow room but your brain could have noticed subtle Clues like seeing random videos of cats knocking things down or seeing a house that was completely covered in yellow paint and Tuck that information away until it bubbled up in your dream there's also the confirmation bias effect at play we remember the dreams that end up coming true and tend to forget the many random dreams that don't so when a dream matches real life it sticks out like a light bulb moment while all the others Fade Into dream memory
dust Daydreams picture this you're at work nodding along to a presentation when suddenly your brain hands you a do not disturb sign and zooms off your boss is still busy explaining quarterly goals but in your mind you're hosting a talk show where you just one most interesting person of the year this is your brain switching to daydream mode often triggered by boredom or routine tasks it's like the mental equivalent of doodling you're technically still there but your mind is giving itself a break you see unlike regular nighttime dreams you're usually wide awake during a Daydream
yet your mind decides to ditch the to-do list and go on a mini mental vacation now while Daydreams might feel like Pure Fantasy they're actually great for creativity and problem solving imagine you're stuck on a problem maybe you're trying to figure out the right way to word an email or come up with a new idea in a daydream the perfect solution just pops up that's because Daydreams help you think around things rather than through them because your brain goes off-road ditching the well-worn thought patterns and tapping into fresh ideas in those moments technically the brain
regions involved in daydreaming are linked to What's called the default mode Network a group of of areas that light up when we're not focused on a task when you're daydreaming the brain doesn't switch off it goes into this mode which is associated with self-reflection imagination and creative thinking so far from being lazy your brain is actively processing reflecting and connecting things in new ways in fact Studies have shown that imagining a situation in detail seeing hearing and feeling it can help you feel more confident when the real thing comes or help you get better at
a problem you're trying to solve night terrors so for the past 2 weeks your 8-year-old son has been falling asleep only to start screaming loudly shaking from intense fear and sometimes wildly thrashing but unlike nightmares he is completely unaware of the fear-filled spectacle he's putting on sometimes he might sit up Eyes Wide Open looking absolutely terrified and yet be totally unresponsive to anyone who tries to comfort them later when he wakes he'd have zero memory of what just went down and it's you that's left traumatized wondering if You' just witnessed a real life horror flick
well what you've just witnessed is a classic night terror episode and they're like Nightmares on steroids except the only person going through this nightmare is the one witnessing the night terror because the person having them won't even be aware of the pandemonium they're causing one of the strangest Parts about night terrors is that the person having them looks awake they might even be sitting up eyes open or even trying to escape some Invisible Threat that would make it seem like they're reacting to something they're fully aware of but in reality they're indeed deep deep sleep
this is because night terrors happen during the non-rem Sleep stage specifically during the deepest part when the brain is cruising through a slow wave phase they're not dreaming in the way we'd experience in REM sleep instead they're caught in a glitch between Consciousness and unconsciousness a Zone where rational thoughts take a vacation sadly night terrors are most common in kids about 20% of children experience them at least once think of it as the brain's version of a toddler throwing a tantrum chaotic noisy and over something no one quite understands the good news is that it's
usually just a phase like their obsession with Dinosaurs or that time they insisted on wearing a cape to dinner it's all part of a developing brain adjusting to sleep cycles kind of like figuring out how to switch gears on a bike without falling over however some adults have them too and it is usually triggered by sleep deprivation stress fever or certain medications now the wildest thing about night terrors is that even though they seem terrifying it's not entirely clear what causes is the fear response and because there's no memory no one really knows for sure
it's more like an automatic alarm going off with the brain's fear response firing off in the dark literally [Music]
