55+ Living Guide 55+ Living Guide Fall 2017 | Page 50

The Vine
Dreams ?
WHAT ARE YOUR
THE DOME CAR
RETURNS TO THE
ADIRONDACKS...
September 28 – October 29
~ By Frank Buck ~
Whether we night dream or day dream, we all do it.
Men do it, women do it, babies do it and even your dog
does it. During a typical lifetime, you may spend six
years of your life in night dreams and believe it or not,
you may spend up to eight hours a day, daydreaming.
As much as 95% of all night dreams are quickly
forgotten. It has been shown through brain scans that
the frontal lobes of the brain are inactive during REM
sleep, the stage in which dreams occurs. About 80% of
our dreams are in color, while only a small percentage
of people claim only to dream in black and white. Men
tend to dream more about aggression and women tend
to have slightly longer dreams. Some people can have
lucid dreams and some more often than others. A lucid
dream is one in which you are aware you are dreaming
even though you are still asleep. In these dreams, you
can often direct and control the content of the dream.
The most common emotion experienced in dreams is
anxiety.
While dreams are often influenced by our personal
experiences, it has been found that certain themes are
very common across different cultures. People from all
over the world frequently dream about being chased,
being attacked, falling and yes even being naked in
public! Other common themes were repeating an action
over and over, about teachers, sex and seeing deceased
people as if they were alive and the death of loved ones.
There are a lot of books out there dealing with the
symbolic imagery of dreams, but probably your dream
relates to some element of your daily life.
50
Paralysis can occur during REM sleep. The phenomena
is known as REM atonia and prevents you from acting
out your dreams while your asleep. Basically, your
motor neurons are not stimulated and your body does
not move. This paralysis can carry over into the waking
state for as long as ten minutes. If you have ever woken
up from a terrifying dream and been unable to move,
this is perfectly normal and should only last a few
minutes before muscle control returns.
So once the night dreams have finished, that only leaves
the daydreams. And boy, do I like to day dream. Some
psychoanalysts refer to this state as La-La-Land. Freud,
in fact, found daydreams to be fascinating glimpses into
the brains ability to depart from drudgery. Regardless
when they strike, whatever you do, don’t resist them.
The beauty of a daydream is that they are private,
personal moments between you and God knows who
or what. The scientific community has pointed to a
recent discovery, that there is a negative correlation with
technology, finding that the constant presence of screens
and devices in our lives to be robbing our weary brains
of restful daydream moments.
So, keep daydreaming. Miss your exit on the highway,
stare away, wonder if you already put salt & pepper in
that recipe or get caught drooling out of the corner of
your mouth with a crazy look on your face. Just think,
if humans had banned our daydreaming nature, we
wouldn’t have art, invention, philosophy, progress or
spirituality.
Book now and save 15% *.
Visit Amtrak.com.
Hey, are you awake over there!
Fall 2017 | 55PlusLivingGuide.com
*Restrictions apply. Amtrak and Adirondack are a registered service marks of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Photo by Kevin Burkholder.