So even though my boys are one and two years old we still find ourselves waking up at least once a night with each of them. Whilst our one year old only wakes for one bottle and goes back to sleep relatively easy, our two year old wakes for a drink of water and a trip to the toilet.


Waking up twice a night isn't overly bad compared to what some parents have to go through. It is when the boys wake-up early as well i feel exhausted, after a couple of restless nights and early mornings it feels like sleep deprivation starts to kick-in. It is when i am exhausted after a long week at work and or stressed i start to have short vivid dreams, i am probably not alone in experiencing this!

It is usually after i have fed one of the boys at night and i have fallen back asleep when these crazy dreams start. According to the International Association for the Study of Dreams we experience our most vivid dreams during a type of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.

During REM sleep the brain is very active, the eyes move back and forth rapidly under the lids, and the large muscles of the body are relaxed. REM sleep occurs every 90 - 100 minutes, 3 to 4 times a night, and lasts longer as the night progresses. The final REM period may last as long as 45 minutes.

Source: https://universe-review.ca/I10-47-stages.jpg

I guess waking-up later in the night induces REM causing me to have long vivid dreams. Whilst these dreams are not nightmares they often reflect the stress and worries that i have in my day to day life. I do feel that when i am having these crazy dreams that i am lightly sleeping, which is not ideal as when i wake i want to be well rested.

I am not one to read too much in to my dreams, but i had a go at analyzing one of my dreams to see what it could tell me about my current state of mind. I used mydreamvisions.com to look at a dream i had about someone showing up late to my house for tea and this is what it said:


Whilst the analyzer only looks at the keywords mentioned within the text to disperse dreams i really do think it has hit the nail on the head with the dream i had.

I came across a rather good short video that i recommend watching, the video is by Adjustamatic about how we dream. It features insight from the leading dream expert Ian Wallace who says that dreams are like the ultimate selfie, which i thought was a brilliant way of describing dreams.

The video also has kids talking about their own dreams which is rather funny:

 

Does your sleeping pattern cause you to have random and vivid dreams?