Thread: Dreaming less

Since I was young, I've dreamt with incredibly vivid recollection. I still remember several dreams from my childhood. Needless to say, they've only intensified. I've read that its a link to increased depression.

I am always so fucking exhausted. My mind works for what feels like hours at night, and when I wake up I don't want to move at all, I need to take amphetamine or caffeine to pay attention to anything at all. As I'm very depressed all the time, its not a very good combination, especially in a scholastic sense. I've found that dreaming is of the most mentally exhaustive activities out there. Does anyone know how I can dream less?

I hate it, really, that I'm trying to suppress my subconscious thoughts, I usually embrace them so readily. But its gotten to the point where I am trying to take every precaution I can to just function that much more competently in my day to day life, and so any help as to stunting my dreams a bit and allowing me more time in deep as opposed to REM sleep would really help.

Thank you.

Well dreaming is a natural function of the human body; without it things begin to deteriorate more. You should try and find what it is about dreaming that causes so much mental and/or physical exhaustion. It could be that the subject matter of the dream is very stressing, thus preventing your body from fully resting (dreams cause somatic changes just as easilly as real-life situations can). If this is the case, try and do something calming before sleep, like reading a soothing book, drinking calming herbal tea (non-caffeinated), or meditating (which has the added effect of rejuvinating energy).

If you are taking any type of psychoactive drugs, caffeine, or alcohol, this may affect your sleep pattern and thus prevent a fully restorative sleep. If this is the case, I would recommend weening yourself from them, or going cold-turkey all together. Exercising 3-4 hours before rest can also affect the sleep cycle in a negative way. Try to exercise before then if you must.

But if you still want to not dream, it is a pretty difficult thing to change. It would be like trying to get rid of the breathing reflex. You could try sleep aids which affect the sleep cycle (preventing your brain from entering the REM cycle for very long or at all). You could also try listening to binaural beats with low frequencies (in the theta or delta ranges), which are characteristic of NREM cycles, thus coaxing your brain to remain there.

Other than that I'm not sure what you can do but see a physician (but I would only recommend this if things get debilitating; most problems have a natural remedy that you can create yourself).

Cheers!

-Scott

I'm guessing the age in your profile is wrong.

People follow natural sleep cycles, and some of them are associated with dreaming.
As we get older, we spend less and less time in those cycles, and spend less time dreaming, particularly dreams we can remember.

If you have any kind of sleep disorder (OSA, PLMDs, etc) getting therapy for those can help you re-attain normal sleep for some time (as well as releive the sleepiness, etc) and are a MAJOR help in life, but in all eventuality we quit dreaming altogether when we get older.