Help me understand what's going on with my [Sleep]?

Susan Delgado

I know the basics about sleep and dreaming... I took anatomy and psych in HS and college. I get that there's a cycle and different phases of sleep and then REM sleep where we supposedly do our dreaming.

What I don't understand is how you can fall into dream sleep so quickly.

I normally get 7-8hrs of sleep a night, I assume that I dream during it, I don't always remember unless there's a dream right before I wake up.

Here's what I don't understand. Let's take this morning for example, because it happened, twice.

I woke up early when my bf was getting ready for work. Got up, checked some email, stayed up to see him off to work, went and laid back down in bed... BAM! dreams a go-go. I was only asleep for maybe 20-30 min and I was having a very detailed dream. I woke up because I thought I had forgot to set an alarm for later, realized I had, and I actually had another 15 min before it went off. Laid back down, and again BAM! dream times. Another very very detailed dream.

So, I thought that you had to spend a certain amount of time progressing through the stages of sleep before reaching "dream sleep", but it seems like I lay my head down for a quick nap and it's like my brain is all "Hey! Let's make a movie!". I'm not scared or overly concerned, but I am confused. It's obviously possible for this to happen, but is it "normal" or common to speed through to "dream sleep"?

bowen

Likely your brain wasn't fully awake yet and when you laid back down you went immediately into REM. You can also train your body to do this by habit if you're doing this a lot.

Susan Delgado

The first time I got up, I was up for about 20-30 min, the second time was only a couple of minutes at most, so that seems possible for the second time.

bowen

I'd imagine that the full wake up time for your brain to exit sleep state is probably in the neighborhood of an hour. But I can't find any sources on that so it's likely probably based completely on the person.

Do you do this every day?

Wolfrider

If I'm really tired, and I lie down for a nap, I will sometimes have dreams, even if I'm only napping for fifteen minutes.

Susan Delgado

bowen wrote: »

I'd imagine that the full wake up time for your brain to exit sleep state is probably in the neighborhood of an hour. But I can't find any sources on that so it's likely probably based completely on the person.

Do you do this every day?

No, not every day, but it's happened enough to notice. I don't usually nap a lot, maybe a little on my days off.
Some times I am out cold, sleep hard for half an hour and I don't recall any dreams (could be some though), others I seem to dream almost immediately and I wake up with my brain kind of flapping like the end of a movie reel, and remembering what had been happening.

It's just weird to me. I never heard of people being able to go right back into the dreaming stages.

Rook

Susan Delgado wrote: »

It's just weird to me. I never heard of people being able to go right back into the dreaming stages.

Pretty much everyone I know has the most vived and recollectable dreams in between their snoozes on the alarm clock.

Raif Severance

There's basically 5 stages of sleep: 1,2,3,4, REM. When you sleep there is a normal transition between these stages and it isn't linear usually. Generally it goes 1,2,3,4,3,2, REM. You bounce back in forth between stages as you are sleeping. It is generally believed that REM sleep is most important for feeling rested and recharged. In people that are sleep deprived REM sleep is achieved very rapidly.

Are you taking any medications? Are you actually sleeping through the night?

BEAST!

You do not need to be in REM sleep to dream, it's possible to go from awake to stage 3 very rapidly which is where dreaming is very common...

as rook said, most of my dream recollection is between when i hit snooze and when i finally wake up

Susan Delgado

Raif Severance wrote: »

There's basically 5 stages of sleep: 1,2,3,4, REM. When you sleep there is a normal transition between these stages and it isn't linear usually. Generally it goes 1,2,3,4,3,2, REM. You bounce back in forth between stages as you are sleeping. It is generally believed that REM sleep is most important for feeling rested and recharged. In people that are sleep deprived REM sleep is achieved very rapidly.

Are you taking any medications? Are you actually sleeping through the night?

Nope, no medications and I usually sleep like a rock through the night...takes me a while to fall asleep (thanks to the bf AND the dog snoring) but once I'm asleep I'm out cold.

Didn't realize that it was so easy to go right into the dreaming stuff... interesting.