Dreams in History: Albert Einstein

The famous E = MC (squared), is, yes, another product of a dream. It is the equation for the Theory of Relativity. This theory, among other things, suggests that time travel is possible when energy and mass are equivalent and transmutable. Einstein said that his theory was inspired by a dream where he was hurtling down a mountainside. He kept going faster and faster until he looked in the sky and the stars' appearances were altered as he approached the speed of light.

Dreams in History: Mary Shelley

The beginning of Frankenstein:

In 1816, teenager Mary Godwin and her husband-to-be Percy Shelley visited Lord Byron, the poet, in Switzerland. Lord Byron owned a villa on a lake, that sometimes experienced stormy weather, and his guests would have to take refuge inside his mansion. For entertainment, it was common for his guests to read ghost stories to one another, and Lord Byron gained much amusement from this. The day that Mary was forced stay at the villa, Lord Byron asked his guests to write their own horror stories for a change, and share them the next day.

This is what transpired. . .
 "When I placed my head upon my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think... I saw - with shut eyes, but acute mental vision - I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous Creator of the world.

...I opened mine in terror. The idea so possessed my mind that a thrill of fear ran through me, and I wished to exchange the ghastly image of my fancy for the realities around. ...I could not so easily get rid of my hideous phantom; still it haunted me. I must try to think of something else. I recurred to my ghost story - my tiresome, unlucky ghost story! Oh! If I could only contrive one which would frighten my reader as I myself had been frightened that night!

Swift as light and as cheering was the idea that broke upon me. 'I have found it! What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted me my midnight pillow.' On the morrow I announced that I had thought of a story. I began that day with the words, 'It was on a dreary night of November', making only a transcript of the grim terrors of my waking dream."

This dream helped to create her masterpiece, "Frankenstein".

Dreams in History: Paul McCartney

    If you are familiar with recent pop culture in America, then you are most likely familiar with the hippie-era band,  The Beatles. Singer/songwriter of The Beatles, Paul McCartney, dreamt up one of the band's hit songs one night, while the band was staying in London filming Help!.  The song was later named "Yesterday", and according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it has the most cover versions of any song ever written. In a dream he heard a classical string ensemble playing, and, as McCartney tells it :

 "I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, 'That's great, I wonder what that is?' There was an upright piano next to me, to the right of the bed by the window. I got out of bed, sat at the piano, found G, found F sharp minor 7th -- and that leads you through then to B to E minor, and finally back to E. It all leads forward logically. I liked the melody a lot, but because I'd dreamed it, I couldn't believe I'd written it. I thought, 'No, I've never written anything like this before.' But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing!"

pretty cool!

Recurring Dreams

Does this sound familiar : 

You're in a creepy place, or a place where you are very far from comfortable, and then suddenly someone is after you. They are coming for you and you need to start running. Fast. Frustratingly, and quite uneasing, you can only run in slow motion. It feels like there is an invisible force holding you back no matter how hard you push to move forward. Just when you can't push any longer your dream ends, or at least the thing chasing you has disappeared. 

This has been a recurring dream of mine for quite some time. I remember having these dreams when I was a little girl. It is never a pleasant dream, and I usually wake up feeling stressed or foggy-minded. 

I was reading an article by Dr. Michael Brues that discussed the meanings of recurring dreams. He said that recurring dreams fall into two main categories : stress related and full-on nightmares.  He had an explanation for my kind of recurring dream. Being chased and not being able to run may signify that a person is in REM sleep, when the body is paralyzed so they don't act out their dream. He also thinks that recurring dreams represent a question or a message, and that the recurring dream may even stop once the message is figured out.

SOMETHING INTERESTING -- Abe Lincoln was quoted talking to General Grant during a cabinet meeting. He told the general that there would be big news from the warfront, and when asked why he thought so he said, "I had a dream last night, and ever since this war began I have had the same dream just before every event of great national importance. It portends some important event that will happen very soon."

That evening, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. WHOA.

Chemicals in the Brain

A study done by the reasearchers at the Greater VA Healthcare System and UCLA revealed for the first time, the different roles of the three chemicals serotonin, norepinephrine, and histamine in regulating our sleep. The researchers studied dogs with a sleep disorder called narcolepsy. A strange phenomenon called cataplexy takes place, where the body goes completely limp (as if sleeping), but the mind stays completely alert. They found that during cataplexy, nuerons in the brain with histamine remained active, while nuerons with serotonin and norepinephrine fell silent. So that means. . . serotonin and norepinephrine control muscle tone, keeping the body still at night, while histamine controls wakefulness.

"Red Dawn"

I just wanted to share with someone about the dream I had last night because it was so cool!! If you've ever seen the movie "Red Dawn", you will understand why my dream was such an adventure. Basically I was living in "Red Dawn" as a part of a rebel uprising that was fighting against the communists taking over America. PRETTY INTENSE. I remember a part of my dream when someone was saving me from this burning building that the communist soldiers had been lighting with flame throwers, and I was being pulled up the stairs to avoid getting shot. When I was almost to the top of the stairs, someone behind me got shot, and their brains and blood splattered all over the back of my head. I could even feel the blood. I guess you could say this dream was a nightmare, but it was fun and exciting to me. Although, it did wake me up in the middle of the night, and I couldn't get back to sleep.

...Nightmares...

Random or recurring, nightmares suck! They can disturb a whole night of peaceful resting and leave you tired in the morning. Not only that, but some nightmares can be traumatizing. By definition, a nightmare is "A nightmare is a bad dream that brings out strong feelings of fear, terror, distress, or anxiety." What causes nightmares? What do they mean? Often, people will have recurring nightmares about a horrifying or traumatic experience. Although most nightmares are spontaneous,  there are other causes for different kinds of nightmares in adults. Late-night snacks, for example, increase brain activity and can cause a nightmare afterward.Other things like medication, such as narcotics and antidepressants, can cause nightmares as well due to their reaction with chemicals in the brain. Some people are just unlucky and suffer from chronic nightmares and sleep disorders. If a person is having recurring or frequent nightmares, there will be ill psychological effects. Nightmares have been associated with suicide, although the relationship isn't fully understood. Less intense effects include heart disease, depression, and obesity. So people, I would really recommend getting a dream catcher!!!