 Every individual at one point or the other have spent some time to reason their dreams. You may wonder if dreams are real or just a result of your imagination, or whether you are the only one who seems to forget your dreams and lots more of other thoughts. Well, in this video, I will be sharing with you 14 interesting psychological facts about dreams. 1. You forget most of your dreams. Everybody has dreams, but as much as 95% of all dreams are quickly forgotten shortly after waking. According to one hypothesis about why dreams are challenging to hold onto, the changes in the brain that occur during sleep do not support the information processing and storage needed for memory formation to take place. Thus, up to 60% of people do not remember their dreams at all, particularly after the first 5 minutes of waking up. Also, for the average person, 90% of details from the dreams disappear within a mere 10 minutes. This means you can only remember a small fraction of your dreams when you are fully awake. 2. Not all dreams are in color. While most people report dreaming in color, a full 12% of sighted people admit to only dreaming black and white. Studies which were carried out from 1915 to the 1950s supported that a majority of dreams had been in black and white. However, after the 1960s, the numbers shift over to the color and as the years pass, the number of people who dream in black and white are dropping. This situation has been linked to the prevalence of colored TVs. 3. Your mind is more active in your dreams than when you are awake. Sleeping has been very associated with the slowing down of the mind and body, giving that being asleep is all about resting, recharging and getting ready for a new day. However, don't assume that your reasoning is less active during dreams. It has been discovered that it is more active than it is when you are awake. This information is backed by factual data provided by sleep studies that track electrical activity in the brain. During sleep, the mind is busy learning from what you did over the preceding hours, processing problems that remain and making sense of everything you've said and felt during the day, thus it is more active. 4. Animals dream too. Have you ever noticed that when your pet is asleep, they sometimes make noises or switch their poses though they are running? Well, this is because animals also dream. Several studies which have been conducted have revealed that when animals are in REM stage of sleep, they all show the same brain waves as humans do when we are dreaming. The surveys comprise dolphins, dogs, chimps and cats. It's fair to speculate that most mammals dream, just like humans do. So, if animals can dream, then they can also be unsettled by the experiences of dreams. 5. Some dreams are premonitions. There have been cases where people have reported to have dreamt things to turn out actually to come true in reality. Some people assume that it is mere coincidence, while others acknowledge that they can see the future and experience premonitions. Some examples of such cases are Abraham Lincoln dreaming of his assassination. Many victims of the 9-11 had dreams wanting them, and there have also been 19 verified precognitive dreams about the Titanic, to name a few. 6. Dreams feel creativity. Research carried out by the American Psychology Society on the Psychology of Dreams reported that your dreams could greatly influence your creative faculty. You may have thought that apart from any subconscious message that might contain, dreams must be quite useless, but this is not so. Dreams can improve your performance in ostensibly unrelated areas of your everyday life. If you're an artist, a writer, or a musician, you might have already spotted this. Still, the type of creativity we're talking about here is not limited to some specific fields. It also applies to things like creative problem solving. 7. You can act out your dreams. There is an extreme disorder known as REM, Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior. RBD occurs when you act out vivid dreams as you sleep. For some individuals, this phenomenon can be mild, while for others, it can be severe. Some of the actions carried out during RBD are shouting, swearing, kicking, grabbing, etc. For example, a man with RBD may dream of playing in a game of football. In this case, he might dive from his bed to catch the winning touchdown pass. There have also been rare cases where people have left their homes or drawn gorgeous paintings that they cannot paint when they are awake. 8. Men and Women Dreamed Differently If there are differences between the physiological aspect of men and women, researchers have established that there are also some differences between men and women when it comes to the content of their dreams. In several studies, it has been revealed that men have dreams about weapons significantly more than women did, while women dreamed about references to clothing more often than men. 9. Dreaming Can Help You Learn If you are studying for a test or trying to learn a new task, you might consider taking a nap or heading to bed early rather than hovering over a test book for long hours without getting anything. Researchers at Harvard Medical School say that when the brain dreams, it helps you learn and solve problems. Also, a study that appeared in the recent issue of current biology showed that dreams are the brain's way of processing, integrating and understanding new information. They also suggested to develop the quality of your sleep and your brain's ability to learn. Avoid noise in the bedroom, such as the TV, as they may negatively influence the length and quality of your dreams. 10. Blind People Have Visual Dreams Researchers have found out in a study of people who have been blind at birth that they still seem to experience optical imagery in their dreams. They also discovered that blind people had eye movements that correlated to visual dream recall, although their eye movements were fewer during REM than the sighted participants of the study. The blind participants reported the same dream sensations, including visual content. 11. Negative Emotions As Common In Dreams Do you know that, according to research, about 50% of all dreams are generally negative? For more than 40 years, researcher Calvin S. Hall, PhD, collected over 50,000 dream accounts from college students. The dream accounts revealed that many emotions are experienced during dreams. However, negative emotions were much more than positive ones. In another study conducted, it was revealed that the common fillings that people experienced during their dreams were sadness, anger, fear and anxiety. 12. Dreams Can Be Universal Even though dreams are often highly influenced by our personal experiences, researchers have found that specific dream themes are shared across different people in different cultures. For instance, people from all over the world frequently dream about being chased, being attacked or falling. Other everyday dream experiences include feeling frozen and unable to move, eating, having sex, arriving late, flying and being naked in public. 13. You Can Dream More Than One Dream In One Night It's not just one dream per night, but rather dozens of them, says experts. You may not remember them all. Laura Quinn Lohenberg, a dream expert, author and media personality, explained that we dream every 90 minutes throughout the night, with each cycle of dreaming being longer than the previous. According to Larry, the first dream of the night is about 5 minutes long and the last dream you have before waking up can be 45 minutes to an hour long. It is estimated that most people have more than 100,000 dreams in a lifetime. 14. Sleep Paralysis Sleep paralysis is a situation where you are temporarily unable to move or speak. Sleep paralysis can occur either when a person is waking up or in the process of falling asleep. Research shows that most individuals will experience sleep paralysis once or twice in their lifetime. While others can experience it more frequently, sleep paralysis does not feel like you are in the dream. It feels real. According to some individuals, during their experience, the feeling of sensation that someone or something is in the room with them, sleep paralysis can last from a few seconds to several minutes. Dreaming is one of the most mysterious and exciting experiences in our lives. Hence, it is only appropriate for us to know how much we can about the psychology of our dreams.