Dream States and What They Mean

We human beings spend about one third of our lives sleeping. That means that the average person, living to the ripe old age of seventy-five, spends about twenty-five of those years sleeping. And, whether or not we remember it, we spend most of that time in some kind of dream state.

With all that dreaming taking place, it seems prudent for us to try to understand how that time is spent. If, as most scientists believe, our dreams mean something, it would certainly behoove us to understand the meaning of those dreams.

If would, of course, be helpful if experts in the field of dreaming all agreed on how and why the process takes place and what the literal interpretation of dreams mean. However, that would obviously be much too simple. Therefore, over the course of this series we will explore the many stages of states of our dreamworld.

Experts estimate that dreams take up about twenty to thirty percent of our overall sleep time. That means that each individual can expect to experience more than one hundred thousand dreams during their lifetime.

Each night, as we sleep, we pass through several phases. Each phase is an important part of the whole.

Beta is the first stage of sleep. During this time the brain begins to shift the mind from it waking consciousness to prepare it to enter into the next level of sleep. The body automatically lowers the heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature and the muscles of the body begin to relax.

Alpha is the condition we enter during the time between the stage of being awake and actually drifting off to sleep. During this state we often feel the sensation of drifting. Most of our dreams happen during this stage of sleep. It is easily recognizable by rapid eye movements (REM) which can last several minutes.

The Theta stage is when the body is fully engulfed in sleep. During this stage brain waves move quickly from theta to delta waves. If we are awakened during this state, we often become disoriented because it takes the body several minutes to snap back into its conscious state.

Delta is the deepest level of sleep. Most people don't dream during this state.