Opinion: '8 hours sleep is the best amount to have' - Dreaming

Dreaming I feel has a strong link between sleep and the amount you have, for instance, many of us can be woken by a nightmare, and to dream we have to be in a certain state of sleep.

-Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.

- The scientific study of dreams is known as oneirology

- Scientists believe that everyone dreams, but people will tend to forget them when they naturally pass out of sleep through the traditional sleep cycle

- If a person is awoken during REM sleep, they are much more likely to remember the dream.

- Dreams mainly occur in the R.E.M. stage (rapid-eye movement) of sleep, that is when brain activity is high and signalled by continuous movements of the eyes

- Dreams are a connection to the human subconscious. They can range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre

-  Dreams can often at times make a creative thought to the person or give a sense of inspiration

- Dream interpretations date back to 5000-4000 B.C., where they were documented on clay tablets. The earliest recorded dreams were acquired from materials dating back approximately 5000 years, in Mesopotamia

- In some of the earliest societies, people were unable to tell the difference between the dream world and the waking world. They just simply chose not to make the distinction because they believed that the dream world was an extension of reality, though a more powerful world.

- The most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Other emotions include abandonment, anger, fear, joy, happiness, etc. Negative emotions are much more common than positive ones.

- A small minority of people say that they dream only in black and white.

- A daydream is a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake.