Top 10 Weirdest Things About Dreams

Okay, let's be honest: unlike the rest of my solid lists about weirdest [insert topic here], there's nothing that isn't weird about dreams, but these facts about dreams are particularly weird.
The Top Ten
1 Not everybody dreams in color

Early on (the early 1900s to the 1950s) it was a total of 12% of people never dreamed in vividly colored dreams. This started becoming less common in the 1960s. Nowadays, maybe four percent of people under the age of 25 dreams in black and white. Many theorize that black and white dreams are declining because colored dreams became more common around the same time colored television became more common. It's quite plausible

That's funny but makes sense - people's dreams often relate to the television or media they've been watching, and as there is less and less black and white films/television programs these days the number of black and white dreamers declines. That's a good fact for a great list!

Like others, I can only remember dreaming in black and white at a young age, and then in color at some point. I do have a red/green color deficiency, so maybe there's a correlation there.

2 Dreams can be symbolic

Most people just dismiss dreams as those realistic (or often not very realistic) visions that you experience when you fall asleep, but they're much more complicated than you think. For instance, thorns can symbolize heartbreak or other emotional wounds, a red rose can (not to my surprise) mean romance, a vehicle can symbolize people in your life. I think we get the idea.

I had a dream last night where I was getting my wisdom teeth removed, but for some reason, the oral surgeon stopped in the middle of the procedure, and I was left with this large gaping hole in the upper right quadrant of my mouth. I wasn't freaking out since I was still inhaling nitrous oxide. This has to be one of the weirdest dreams I've ever had.

I knew a gal that would try to interpret my dreams. Maybe I should have given her more credit, as I initially played along, but quickly dismissed the whole concept. Also, I can't remember ever having any precognitive dreams, but maybe others do. It is fascinating now that you bring it up.

3 Most of your dreams are forgotten quickly

Every once in a while, you might have a dream that really resonates with you, and you remember them longer, but most people forget the vast majority of the context of their dreams within a span of ten minutes, and people are left with a phantom sensation of what was so vivid just a few minutes ago.

Off the top of my head, I can only remember 3 or 4, and bits of others.

I remember most of mine for some reason.

4 During dreams, your body is paralyzed

This is a brain mechanism that is triggered during REM (Rapid Eye Movement,) so you can't act out those potentially life-threatening things that you do during your dreams. Your muscles are paralyzed during this stage to keep you safe in your bed, although there are some occasions that this mechanism doesn't work. These are commonly referred to as sleepwalkers. It's uncommon, but it's possible for this mechanism to be triggered in earlier stages.

I don't sleepwalk, but one time, I was writing in a notebook in a dream. And my hands were moving in real life as I thought I was actually writing.

5 Some people know when they're dreaming

No, this is not exclusive to characters created by Rick Riordan. It's extremely uncommon, but some people in the real world are aware of when they are dreaming. I actually used to be one of those extremely uncommon people, years ago. Usually, this is because the individual is a light sleeper. It is thought that these people have a deeper understanding of life because they can solve problems in their waking hours better. The scientific term for this is "lucid dreaming"

Yes, and some people can control what happens in their dream, one time, I have a dream that giant ants were crushing me, but then I figured out that I was in a dream, so I made myself grow huge so I squished the ants, and then made a rainbow appear.

When I was a kid, I regularly had the same nightmare, and I wanted it to stop. The very last one I had, I knew I was having this nightmare and I forced myself to wake up. Never had this nightmare again.

6 Women dream more about men more than men dream about women

The cast of characters that a man dreams about is about seventy percent, other men, whereas women dream about men and women equally. Uh, this doesn't mean men are sexist by nature or anything, but I personally tried to do a count of how many dreams I remembered having one female in, and I recalled three, and none of them were recent dreams. *shrugs*

Uhh interesting, if I would of had to guess, I would of thought the opposite.

7 Reality can be incorporated into dreams

This usually means that one of your senses (most often smell and hearing) picks up a whiff of reality, and it can have an effect on what you are dreaming. For example, if you are hearing someone playing the guitar, you might have a dream that you're at a concert, or if your grandma is baking cookies, you might dream you're at a candy shop.

One time, my dreams told the future. I left on a cliffhanger in my book, and in my dream, I dreamed that I was reading the book, and it told me that someone was the fourth person in the prophecy, then, the next day, I read it and it was true. I was so shocked!

Sometimes I've had dreams based on real life events.

8 Blind people can dream

Depending on whether they've been blind for all of their life or not, this might be different. If said blind person became blind after birth, they might be able to see maybe their mom's face or family, depending on when they became blind. If they were blind since birth, they can still dream, but there are no visuals. Their dreams consist of smell, touch, hearing, and emotion.

Yes, and they can also see in their dream.

9 You are taken to different places that don't even exist in this world

I remember once being in this building with bright lights and gold walls in one of my dreams despite never seeing anything close to that in real life.

I've had dreams where I'm at these magnificent places that I want to know where they are only to realize they don't exist when I wake up. I should start creating a new map of them.

10 Dreams can be premonitions

So...a premonition is a fancy way of saying dreams can become reality and predict the future. Their called precognitive dreams. A perfect example is in the late 1960s, Kate Middleton had a dream about Robert Kennedy being assassinated. It was supposedly a recurring dream- recurring for months. Finally, she called this thing called the "Premonition Bureau" three times (The title is self-explanatory, regarding what it is affiliated with,) and the very next day, Robert Kennedy was assassinated.

This has happened to me a few times.

The Contenders
11 They can be surreal
12 Let It Be came to Paul McCartney in a dream

Lots of people think he's singing about the virgin Mary when he says "Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom/ let it be." It's actually a song inspired by a dream that Paul McCartney had about his mother (named Mary) telling him to let it be.

13 They feel so real

Last night I had a dream about a building that only had real snow and I and 20 other people my age were sitting in the building listening to some old guy.
At first, we made snow owls and showed it to the guy (which were basically just snowballs with black circles and orange beak) and mine was falling apart a bit at the bottom, but I patted it and it wasn't falling apart.
Then, we were informed that for lunch, we could either have ice cream sandwiches or participate in a snowball fight.
We listened to the old guy talk about something (I dunno what) and then he said that it was lunch time.
That's when I woke up.

14 It's thought by some that dreams are messages from God

While no one has seen a vision of the Angel of the Lord in a couple of centuries, it actually makes plenty of sense to me, and just about everyone who believes in God. God can't be in the presence of sin, as He is perfect, and He had turned His back on Jesus Christ Himself when Christ was put to death, because God can't look on sin, much less be in the presence of it, so why not have a loophole via dreams? Plenty of Christians have dreams about Jesus, too. Most dismiss them as nothing, (I could be wrong about that part,) but plenty of people see them as visions of the Son of Man

15 Sleepwalking
16 Dreams can sometimes just be memories
17 Some dreams are silent
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