Our dream is an intimate terrain, whose only explorers are ourselves. Seen this way, dreaming is making, every night, a vital journey to the unknown: to the representations we make of the world, to what we live, and sometimes to what we did not even know we know and that only by dreaming can we reveal.
For this reason, dreaming was seen by the fathers of psychoanalysis – Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung – as a moment of life as important as waking, which is capable of revealing fundamental personality traits, which, by the way, He was passionate about studying Jung.
Thus, there is no doubt that they form a kind of fundamental balance. Furthermore, neuroscience has helped us delve deeper into the importance of dreaming for maintaining health, something that could not be proven before.
According to New Scientist editor Rowan Hooper, chronic non-dreaming has truly unsuspected consequences for our waking hours, which is related to disorders that are beginning to be considered a threat to global public health.
Not dreaming chronically is related to the fact that at least 20% of the world’s population suffers from some sleep disorder.
involves a repair cycle; If not met, this affects our entire metabolism, causing:
Mood disorders
Stress
Poor digestion
Exhaustion
Not dreaming is a symptom that this cycle is being interrupted, since we can only dream once we have reached the REM (rapid eye movement sleep) stage while sleeping, which precedes sleep. another three cycles that last an average of 90 minutes.
Reaching the REM stage takes at least 3 and a half hours; If we don’t spend enough time in this stage it is difficult to achieve its rest benefits, according to Hooper. Even, as some studies have pointed out, not dreaming (or not dreaming enough) affects memory, since it is during sleep that it is consolidated.
Added to all this, not getting enough sleep drains our energy: not dreaming can affect our perception of reality and how we function, and even diminish creativity, which we can only unlock (among other things) with proper rest.
So do not underestimate the importance of dreaming: it is a vital process both to idealize (dream in the metaphorical sense) and to be able to do what we propose, when we have the necessary rest.
*Images: Oh Gigue