Sleeping Experiment

Dreaming. Everybody at some point in time has dreamed while sleeping. However, have you thought to yourself what exactly a dream is? Annotated within the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, dreams are “…Series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep, particularly sleep accompanied by rapid eye movement (REM sleep). Dream reports range from the very ordinary and realistic to the fantastic and surreal” (Dream, 2017). With that being said, are there certain factors that could potentially influence our dreams? To answer that question, I have kept a detailed dream diary the last few weeks to find out for myself. From the data I’ve collected, I will explain the interaction between physical as well as psychological factors that I encountered

Prior to this experiment, what I physically did on a daily basis wasn’t something I would consider being a factor when it came to an influence on dreaming. However unbeknownst to me it has a large impact to it. During the experiment, my exercise levels were what they are on a regular basis, my typical morning 3 times a week moderate workout with some cardio involved. On the nights I had a workout earlier in the day, I found myself falling asleep earlier and faster than the rest of the nights and having an increased amount of dreams in comparison to days I didn’t have any. Interestingly enough, detailed within a blog written by Julia Guerra in regards to the same topic, (Bergland, 2007). “Regular aerobic exercise, sleeping well, and vivid dreams go hand-in-hand. Regular exercise allows you to sleep deeper and dream better.” In addition to physical fitness being influential to dreaming, nutrients that you consume during the day can also be a factor. Throughout the study, I did my best to maintain a well-balanced diet however, I found myself consuming caffeine throughout the week to help me keep going during work. That caffeine was either from a coffee to start my day in the morning or the water

The first and the most frequent I dealt with was from stress. Rather it be from a long day of work, paying bills or just from the day to day routines of being a husband and dad. I found myself planning out in my head ways I could do things differently to help issues going on with my kids or solving problems at work as well as connecting the dots to ensure enough money is in our bank account to verify everything gets paid this month. A report from the American Psychology Association states “findings show that stress may be getting in the way of quality sleep. American adults report sleeping an average of 6.7 hours a night — less than the minimum recommendation of seven to nine hours. In addition, 42 percent of adults report that their sleep quality is fair or poor and 43 percent report that stress has caused them to lie awake at night in the past month” (National Sleep Foundation, n.d.). The last item that could have altered my dream in a psychological matter is dealing with grief. Two years ago, my sister passed away from rejection after a double lung transplant during her battle with Cystic Fibrosis and it has had quite an effect on me. Many of my dreams since her passing involve her singing which she loved to do however I never remember seeing her. Now that I’ve covered everything I captured during my study, lastly, I will discuss how I will use this information to