The Positive Effects of Dreaming
Why do individuals dream? Are there any benefits to dreaming? The average person spends approximately six years of his or her life dreaming. “Over a seventy-year life span, you’ll devote at least fifty thousand hours to dreaming” (Segell 42). The earliest documented research about dreams came from the works of the Egyptians, followed by the Greeks in the 8th B.C. But studies have shown that dreams do in fact have a positive effect on people’s everyday lives. Only through thorough examination can one truly see the positive effects that dreaming has on someone’s life, some of these aspects include the emotional, psychological, and physical effects on their minds and body.
Dreams have many positive effects, one being the emotional outcome they have. According to Milton Kramer, a dream specialist, dreams set the stage for our actions the following day, priming us to either rise and shine and conquer the world, or crawl back under the covers. If an adult has a good dream during the night, then the chance of him having a good day is very high. Males usually have better dreams then women because women have many hormones that mess up their sleep cycle. In addition, “Dreams are being used to heal people with posttraumatic stress disorder who have once been a victim of rape, witnessed a murder, or trapped in a fire” (Peay 5). For example, in Houston Texas a woman was having panic attacks due to stress so she did some research and tried a type of dreaming called lucid dreaming and to her surprise her stress eased until it stopped. Also individuals who dream and remember their dreams heal more quickly from depressive moods associated with divorce. They can also be used to cope with daily pressure. “Dreams perform emotional homework that helps us master life¹s lessons” (Graves 190). The mind will work sub-consciously on the small things in life that are often missed because of larger problems. This evidence proves that dreams can heal people and that they are vital to emotional health.
Dreams also have a positive psychological effect on people. For example, dreaming can make someone overcome their fears and phobias to certain things. It can also make people feel more confident and get over certain barriers, like shyness or if someone is afraid to talk to new people. Most of the time dreams mimic social interactions and can make people accustomed to talking to new people and this could