Sleep and Dreams, Article by Kenza (online member)

Here is an article written by our online club member, Kenza, about sleep and dreams, which we discussed in Session 35.

Dreams come in three stages: light sleep, deep sleep and REM. During REM (Rapid Eye Movement), our eyes roll around rapidly under our eyelids. During deep sleep, we have almost no contact with the real world. And if we wake up naturally, we’ll be in light sleep until we actually awaken.  

When we dream, we don’t know we’re dreaming. In our dreams, we often think the world around us is reality even if the things that appear in front of us are absolutely unreal. The reason for this is that our frontal lobes (the part of the brain at the front) aren’t acting much. However, they are when we’re awake, and at those times we’ll know for sure that we’re definitely not dreaming. 

While dreaming, we have no sense of time. We don’t even know how long our dreams last - they might only last an hour. But still, according to a fact in What Makes Me Me? by Robert Winston, you’ll spend around five years of your life in dreams. And another that states, the average person dreams about 1,825 times a year. 

Furthermore, you won’t copy the motions you make in your dreams; for instance, you won’t start running a marathon if that’s what you’re dreaming about! This acts as a barrier to stop you copying the movements you make whilst dreaming. This is because your brain signals to your muscles to move (to correspond with the motion you make in your dream) but your spinal cord ignores these signals. 

According to some people, if you want to remember your dreams well, lie your pillow flat before you sleep. This helps keep a good recollection of your dream, because your blood circulates better this way. 

To sum up, dreaming is an interesting topic that even scientists can’t completely understand. And maybe some of it will always remain a mystery.


By Kenza, Online Club Member

I think my dream came true.

Report: Thinkers' Club Session 35

Date: 24th May, 2015
Session # 35
Attended by: 10 participants
Report written by: Fatima Salman

This session started with a round of introduction as many of the members had come after a long time. Instead of the usual style of introduction, this time we had to introduce ourselves by telling about a mistake we made in our lives and we learnt something important from that mistake. Everyone had to think for a couple of minutes and then tell them. We all make many mistakes in our lives, and that is how we grow. We continuously make mistakes and then we realize our mistakes and improve them. For example, was our first attempt to say something perfect? Of course not! Each of us made mistakes in the beginning, and then learnt from the mistakes to eventually become perfect.
If we learn from our mistakes, then they are good for us, and if we don't, then they are a loss for us. We all make mistakes, and we should learn from them, otherwise, we will continue to make the same mistake again.

Then we were asked what we would like to talk about and if we have any questions. Some of the members wanted to talk about Dreams. We talked about dreams, and how they are often related to certain things in our life. 
The dreams we see are often some visuals which were stuck to our mind, and then we see the same visual in our dream. Sometimes, we see something in our dream which we have actually experienced in life. 
Dreams can also be our thoughts, or can be reflecting our thoughts. They can be of something we have been thinking a lot about, and we see or experience the same thing in our dream.
Dreams can also be of our imagination. What we see might not have happened, and might never even happen, but is something we are only imagining about. Dreams can also be fantasy.

Or, dreams may contain a message from God. Sometimes, Allah wants to tell us something prior to its happening, for some reason. We can see it in our dream. Usually, the people who see true dreams are very pious and good people.

We usually forget our dreams within a few minutes of waking up. The dreams we remember are usually our great fears, which we experience in our dreams, or great wishes which we experience in the dream. We also remember the dream we have talked about a lot, or narrated to many people.

We ended up talking about sleep. Sleep is an experience of death. We will talk on this topic in the next session. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to, they can do some research or make a presentation about Sleep and Dreams.

Thank you.