From Nocturnal Emission, Bad Dreams to Lucid Dreaming: The Wonder World of Dreams

Dreams are among the more fascinating and mysterious aspects of the life cycle of human beings: both pleasant-one thinks of the wet dream-and frightening, such as nightmares and night terrors. But while most of us may forget our dreams or else write off the whole lot as weird and random, science says they are actually much more important with regard to emotional wellbeing, creative capability, and even judicial affairs. From the science behind it all to what each culture attached as meanings to them, or notorious cases where dreams became reality, this blog goes deep into the fascinating, mostly bizarre world of dreams.

Wet Dreams: The Much-Encountered Element among Women and Men

The wet dream, also referred to as nocturnal emission, is among the most pervasive types of dreams that are rarely talked about. Unlike the general perception, wet dreams do not occur only among adolescent pubescent boys. They occur in both men and women of all ages. In fact, the Journal of Sexual Medicine estimates that as many as 83% of all men can have a wet dream at some point in their lives and 85% of women can have nocturnal orgasm at an age of 21 years or even less.

Although women do not produce semen, they can be in a discharge, and wet dreams are just as common yet less talked about among females. Wet dreams, in particular in puberty, are thought to be the conventional antecedent of sexual maturation brought about by changes in the hormonal structure of the body. In countries such as Indonesia, for example, nearly 97% of men reported ever having experienced a nocturnal emission by age 24.

While for most people, emissions are nothing more than a curious quirk, wet dreams have long been conceptualized throughout history as impure and even dangerous within many religious or cultural ideologies. In fact, according to the scriptures of ancient Buddhism, wet dreams were thought to be a type of demon. Even today, judgement against those who suffer from this prospers in some countries, although time is slowly passing, with evidence mounting against such superstition.

Lucid Dreaming: The Master into Virtual Dreamland

This is one of the features of sleep that has intrigued both scientists and dreamers, wherein one realizes that they are dreaming and sometimes even takes over in conducting the dream narrative. Most lucid dreams occur during REM sleep or at any stage when most of our intensive dreaming occurs.

Evidence proved that at least 55% of the population has ever had a lucid dream once in their lifetime, while about 20% happen upon it frequently. A great number of those who reported being frequent lucid dreamers also cited having flown, breathed underwater, and even manipulated time and space within their dream.

Some of the induction techniques applied to trigger a lucid dream include a wake-up-back-to-bed technique, mnemonic induction of lucid dreams. In one scientific 2020 scientific study, it was noted that the induction rate was 18%, meaning five persons out of every ten with no previous experiences in lucid dreaming had one during this particular study. The process of lucid dreaming is pleasant; in relation, it has also been used as a scope of therapy by helping an individual face nightmares or any traumas.

Nightmare and Sleep Terror: The Bad Face of Sleep

Not all dreams are pleasant. Nightmares are fairly common among sleepers and, even more so, among war veterans who have PTSD. Research suggests that 8-30% of adults report having nightmares and about 2% of adults are known to experience the more extreme form, night terrors, causing physical movements during sleep, including violence.

Unlike nightmares-which occur during REM sleep-night terrors occur during non-REM sleep. Due to this fact, night terrors are classified as an arousal disorder. The person having the night terror will frequently scream, kick, and/or may even hit another sleeper nearby. Since they remain asleep during the episode this can be quite dangerous as the sleeper may inadvertently injure another person. Because of this, many people who have night terrors sleep alone.

Interestingly, these night terrors decrease in prevalence with the advancement of a person's years because only 1% of people over 60 years still have night terrors. However, in the case of people that suffer from PTSD, night terrors that are violent generally remain an occurring problem.

Sleep Paralysis: An Unnerving Limbo

One of the most frightening sleeping phenomena is sleep paralysis: the condition of one feeling awake and, at the same time, completely unable to move or talk. Sleep paralysis also frequently causes very real hallucinations or some sort of nasty presence in the room and can be quite disturbing. This phenomenon happens when a human brain is partially awake while the body is in its paralyzed state due to REM sleep.

The cultural explanations of sleep paralysis are varied and tend to evolve with time. Most of the cultures describe this disorder as being attacked by an evil spirit, especially those that normally sit on a victim's chest. These spirits are referred to as dab tsuam or night hag in Southeast Asia, which literally sits on the chest of its victim and prevents these victims from moving and screaming.

Most of these superstitions have been discounted by modern science, but the flight and terror accompanying sleep paralysis certainly are not. This is corroborated by studies that record incidents ranging from 8% to 50% of individuals who experience sleep paralysis at least once in their lifetime, with about 5% experiencing it more regularly. This usually occurs because of stress, anxiety, or disrupted sleep, although certain medications may also give rise to this disorder.

Famous People Inspired by Dreams

Through the ages, dreams have been credited as being the source of some of the most incredible works of famous individuals. Probably the most well known example of those being Abraham Lincoln, who reportedly dreamed about his assassination several days before it happened, Lincoln once said that he had dreamed he saw a corpse in the White House and had asked a soldier standing guard who had died. His response was, "The President."

Moreover, even Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, claimed that the idea about her novel was given in a dream where she could distinctly view some sort of "hideous phantasm of a man." Yet another creative mind was inspired by dreams: James Cameron says it was a dream caused by fever when he saw a chrome skeleton emerging from fire.

These examples represent how dreams can go beyond the boundaries of random images or thoughts and be a gateway to creative insight or problem-solving.

Sleepwalking and the Law: When Dreams Become Dangerous

Sleepwalking-or somnambulism-usually is innocuous, whereby people wander around their houses while they are asleep and do not remember the incident in the morning. But sometimes sleepwalking is violent. Several cases have been reported where someone has committed a crime, even homicide, in a state of somnambulism, posing convoluted legal dilemmas.

An extremely famous case is the one of Scott Falater, a man claiming he was sleepwalking while stabbing his wife dozens of times and then throwing her into the swimming pool. He was convicted of murder, although the case evoked some fascinating questions concerning the relationship between sleeping disorders and criminality. Another weird case from Spain was that of the man who claimed he was having a dream of fighting an ostrich when he managed to kill both his wife and his mother-in-law using an axe. Indeed, super-rare, but at times sleeping defense presents such cases that result in acquittal.

Dream Healing: Can Dreams Heal Trauma?

Some modern theories even go to the extent of suggesting that dreams serve some sort of therapeutic function, allowing the person to work through unpleasant emotions and traumas. Researchers have found evidence showing that dreams act like overnight therapy, taking the sting from what transpired during the day. That again does help explain why people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder have very vivid, very powerful nightmares while their brains attempt to deal with feelings of overwhelm.

Some of those very researchers are now investigating psychedelic drugs that elicit dreamlike states of consciousness, such as DMT and psilocybin, for potential use in treating people with depression and anxiety based on theorized "rewiring" of the brain by disrupting the cycle of thoughts and emotions related to these disorders.

Conclusion: Via Dreams, Lie the Gates of the Subconscious

The subconscious mind brings forth, through dreams, those hidden fears, fancies, and emotions which are, otherwise, not really reflected in reality. Be it a wet dream or a lucid dream, that nightmare which made your heart race forms a very intrinsic part of your psyche and psychological well-being. From boosting creativity to processing traumas, these nocturnal visions have the potential to unfold visions that may be elusive to access in waking states.

Staying right on the edge of science, by researching the world of dreams, we certainly became aware of their importance: the manifold uses in psychology for improvement in health, inspiration of creativity, and even in court cases. But the next time one sleeps, he should remember: his dream could mean so much more than anything he could have ever imagined and could very well hold the key to unlock one's deep and hidden potentiality.