It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.
Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Dr. James Watson saw a spiral staircase leading to the double helix spiral structure of our DNA.
Dimitry Mendeleev, a chemist, saw a table where all the elements fell into place as required after ten years of research.
Niels Bohr had a vision of the planets circling the sun on pieces of string. When he awoke from his dream, he was able to see the movement of electrons.
Albert Einstein had a dream that he was walking through a farm and came across a herd of cows huddled up against an electric fence. When the farmer suddenly turned on the electric fence, he saw the cows all jump back at the same time – but the farmer saw them jump one by one in a Mexican wave.
German soldier René Descartes had a series of three dreams that spurred him to question the nature of reality. He quit the army the next year to study mathematics and philosophy and created Analytical Geometry.
Elias Howe found himself surrounded by cannibals about to be cooked and eaten. While observing them dance around a fire with spears moving up and down, he noticed holes on the top of the spears. Upon awakening, he realized that having a hole in the needle close to the point, rather than the other end, was the solution he needed for the mechanical sewing machine.
I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping, but I began researching why it's important to get enough sleep. This article solidified that. I never knew that mortality rates went up if you didn't get enough sleep. I am going to try eliminating blue light from my bedroom more at night now. I am also going to install some air conditioners. I already grabbed some blackout curtains to ensure that it's dark enough for me to hopefully get some uninterrupted sleep, there is a street lamp right outside of my house and the light used to shine directly into my bedroom window. Another great read, thank you!
Reading this article because I’ve been researching the importance of sleep and reasons why adults might be having trouble sleeping. Somebody close to me in my life has expressed how they have a hard time sleeping at night and it affects them during the day making them tired and groggy. I also know this person does drink a couple beers every day it was interesting to find the correlation between how alcohol affects your sleep every night or by drinking too much makes you feel like you fall asleep good but will actually cause you to have a poor nights sleep. Getting enough sleep is so important to your health and I know having this further knowledge will help my friend in making better lifestyle choices.
Interesting piece! I have always wondered about the origins and purposes of sleep and dreams. I often find myself having the more imaginative, immersive, and nonsensical dreams you described, so it is fascinating to see how this might improve my creative problem-solving ability. There is no doubt sleep is important in everyday life.
Great information here on sleep in general, but especially dreams. I've been getting more and more interested in dream analysis!
It wasn't until the passing of both of my parents (right after the other) that I appreciated and understood the importance of dreams. Both of my parents suffered from chronic illnesses that eventually took their lives. When they were each in the hospital, and after each of them passed, I remember dreaming of them quite often. I still do. Sometimes the things they say in my dreams include advice or things that I wish they had told me in the past, and they represent part of my thoughts that happen to be on my mind when I go to bed. Maybe they are trying to reach me from the other side, or maybe it's my own subconscious and my conscience working together to get me to look at something in a different way. Either way, I've always believed in the power of dreams and how they help me function in the waking hours of the day.
This article really resonated with me because last night I had the most vivid dreams and I was very interested in reading about the different stages of sleep today. I’ve probably learned about this before but I forgot all about it. I wish I would have life-changing dreams like some other famous people mentioned in the article but I usually have the most straightforward dreams. Last night I dreamt I was buying furniture for our addition and discussing prices with the company. No need to figure that out because it’s probably what I’m going to do in the next month. Interesting to read about adults my age and how much sleep they need maybe I do need to get some more sleep! Good to know.
I have always been a big believer in 8-10 hours each night. I will never forget one of my favorite musicians from the band Y&T saying "He always gets at least 8-10 hours and he is in his 70's looking amazing!
Most people I know that only get 6 hours or less look their age.
I didn't know that muscles are paralyzed to prevent the legs and arms from flailing in response to consciousness and the dream experience.
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Leonid, I think that it's interesting you mention that because I definitely agree with Jung. I don't think that all dreams are even necessarily nonsensical, but an experience in a higher realm that we have yet to understand. There are so many more encounters where we have discovered some of the biggest mysteries in life just by dreaming . I've been getting more into lucid dreaming lately so this was a great article to read on how I could deepen my sleep even more.
Thank you for taking your time to write this. It's an interesting contrast to Jung's view of dreams, where they are seen as attempts of psyche to balance itself.
"Jung felt that the psyche sought balance, much like the concept of entropy from the field of physics. Entropy, in simple terms, is a thermodynamic principle that all energy within a system (including the universe) will eventually even out. "
^ https://pdx.pressbooks.pub/thebalanceofpersonality/chapter/chapter-5-carl-jung/
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