Stages of Sleep

The stages in your sleep cycle are organized by the changes in specific brain activity.

STAGE 1:

• Light Sleep
• Non-rapid eye movements
• (NREM) 
• Muscle relaxation
• Lowered body temperature 
• Heart rate slows down

Your body is preparing to enter a deep sleep. 

STAGE 2:

• (NREM)
• Body temperature decreases more 
• Relaxation of the muscles decrease more as well
• Immune system works on repairing the day's damage
• Endocrine glands - secrete growth hormones (Put hormones in the blood)
• Blood is sent to the muscles to recondition 

You are now completely asleep. 

STAGE 3:

• (NREM) 
• Deeper sleep

STAGE 4:

• Eyes move back and forth erratically (Like you're watching something from underneath your eyelids)
• REM SLEEP - 90-100 minutes after you fall asleep
• Blood pressure rises
• Heart rate speeds up 
• Breathing increases
• Brain activity increases
• Involuntary muscles become paralyzed 
• Your emotions are being tuned and played with

Dreaming usually occurs in this stage, and if you wake up during this stage then you will most likely remember your dreams or most of them. 

These 4 stages repeat themselves during the night as you sleep. 

While they repeat, you will spend less time in stages 1, 2 & 3 and most in 4.

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamresearch.htm

Your Sleep Cycle

There are 4 stages of the sleeping cycle. There is a fifth stage but that fifth stage does not repeat itself throughout the night like the others so it's not part of the "Sleep cycle". 

The sleep cycle repeats itself about 4-5 times per night but can go up to 7.

You can dream in any of the 4 stages of sleep but the most vivid and memorable dreams occur in the last stage of sleep (REM). 

This is why you can have several different dreams with a variety of different themes of each. 

But you usually dream near the morning when you are soon going to wake up. 

You may wake up and think back and not remember having any dreams but you did, you just don't remember them. 

You have several dreams a night, and you dream anywhere from 1-2 hours. 

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamresearch.htm

Falling into Darkness

Have you ever had a dream where you were falling into darkness? And you just kept
falling &
falling &
falling &
you just weren't hitting the bottom?
Well.
Falling dreams are a common type of dreams that many people have.

Ever heard of the myth, "You will died if you do not wake up before you hit the ground during the fall?" Well it is a myth, you will not die if you don't wake up before you hit the ground.

Falling in your dream represents insecurities, instabilities and anxieties. May be reflecting from a relationship or in your work life.
Keep your head high and stay positive not negative because it gives you negative thoughts and that can cause falling dreams.

Your falling dreams can reflect a sense of failure such as failing at your job, school, or love. Your self-esteem has been lowered.

According to Freudian theory, falling dreams indicate that you are contemplating giving into a sexual urge or impulse.

When you are in your falling dream, you're usually in your first stage of sleep. The symptoms include muscle spasms in arms, legs, and anywhere else.
If you remember ever sleeping and then all of a sudden jerk or twitch and you wake up with a rush and your heart is beating fast?
Well that is because you were in the middle of a falling dream and the muscle spams caused the twitch which can wake you up.

http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/fallingdreams.pl?method=exact&header=dreamid&search=fallingintro

DREAM FACTS

1. You will spend 1/3 of your life sleeping

2. Average life span: 6 years of it is dreaming.
(Over 2,100 days spent in a different reality)!

3. Dreams have been with us since mankind.
In Roman Era, significan dreams were sent to the Senate for interpretation and analysis

4. EVERYONE dreams. Most of the time you do not remember, unless it is a nightmare but you have several dreams EVERY NIGT.

5. Average person has around 4-7 dreams a night, averaging from 1-2 hours.

6. Blind people have dreams

7. 5 minutes after a dream = half the content forgotten
10 minutes after a dream = 90% forgotten

8. On average, men dream about other men,
women dream equally about men and women.

9. Studies show, your brain waves are more active when you're dreaming compared to when you're sleeping

10. Researchers found in a physiological way, that during REM sleep (stage 4 of the sleep cycle, blood pressure rises, heart rate speeds up, brain activity increases, dreams occur during this stage) it DOES NOT MATTER ON THE DREAM ,males have erections and females have increased vaginal blood flow.

11. "Wet dreams" are not always because of a sexual dream content . ^

12. People who are in the process of quiting smoking usually have intense and longer dreams

13. Toddlers DO NOT dream about themselves. They don't appear in their own dreams until 3 or 4 years old.

14. You will not dream when you snore.

15. From a poll: 67% of Americans have experienced Deja Vu appears more in females then males dreams

16. Most common setting: Your house

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamfacts.htm

Why do Dreams Recurr for Anyone?

Your unconcious self is sending you a message that is demanding you to understand it and until you do it will never stop recurring.
Anytime you have a dream, it contains a message, that is the purpose of them. But most of the time you won't remember having one, and if you do it's because you woke up right in the middle of it. Most of the time you don't remember having one at all during the night. But with a recurring dream, you have them because the message is so important that its never ending and keeps recurring. Since the dream is that powerful, it will keep recurring until you notice what the message is, stop pushing it away and trying to ignore it and do something about it.
Since the dream is recurring and is trying to get your attention really bad, it will usually be a bad dream or a nightmare therefore making you have a better memory of it so you DO NOT forget it.
Like childrens nightmares, recurring dreams are common and are usually caused by a certain life situation, changing phase, or a problem that is never ending. Sometimes they can be looked at as a weakness in something you're doing, fear in something or someone, or you being unable to cope with something that happened/happening. Unlike the average childrens nightmare (couple times a month), recurring dreams can happen as often as every night, once a week, or once a month.

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtypes/recurringdreams.htm

Why Did Nightmares Reccur During Your Childhood?

Well Abena I found this, I hope it helps you with what your looking for!
Nightmares reoccur because they are a series of events that terrify you. Recurring nightmares are a common disorder for children because it represents any fear that the child has. Once you have a recurring nightmare, you will continue to have those nightmares throughout your childhoo.d There is no specific age when nightmares begin but usually when the child has learned to start speaking, and it continues to well averages around 4-6 years old.
A childs nightmare will reocurr many times in one month, the reason it scares a child so much is because the child gets so involved with the nightmare it seems so real.
Some "Popular Recurring Nightmares" are :

• Being followed by a horrible person
• Confronted by a monster
• Trapped in a dark or scary place
• Mommy leaving

But a terrifying nightmare usual are metaphors of a frightening real life situation. Just like how it is said that the people in your dreams are all images of people you have seen before.
Nightmares usually stop whent the child gets to preteen or teenager. But for someone people nightmares never stop, it stays with them even into their adulthood.
Because children get so attached to their nightmares (Makes them believe it is truly happening and terrifies them) when they wake up they are in a critical state. This means that it is difficult for them to explain or talk about how they are feeling. Almost like they are in a state of shock. Since a nightmare is fear, the child wakes up and does not speak about the nightmare properly because they are afraid of the threatening memories that is now in their mind.
A lot of nightmares can come from parents, because children and infants are afraid of their parents leaving and this is a frequent cause of a nightmare and therefore when they wake up they see their parents and it reminds them of their nightmare and the memory is stuck in thier head.
So basically, nightmares recurr for children when they are going through a hard time such as being bullied, society, or school which is very scary for children especially if there are being bullied on, or they aren't learning/understanding the work it creates more stress. A child only has to have ONE nightmare, and it will recurr. Same with adults.


http://sleepdisorders.dolyan.com/what-causes-recurring-nightmares-in-children-2/

Nightmares are good

Have you ever woke up breathless or grasping for air or just terrified?
You wake up scared and look around to try and remember where you are and whats going on?
Well this is called a nightmare.
A nightmare is in a subcategory of dreams. Usually in a nightmare it is about emotional or scary content. It will never be happy thoughts otherwise that would be just a dream. Since your nightmare will be vivid and scary, when you wake up you are more likely to remember it and what happened. When you do wake up for the day, it has an impact on you and causes you to remember what happened and the images that you saw in the nightmare and it affects you all day. Your nightmare has a bigger impact on you when you're awake during the day then when you are actually experiencing the nightmare.
If you're a person that is sensitive, creative, imaginative, or intuitive then you are more likely to have a nightmare because you are more tuned in and pay attention to your surroundings.
If you are in a situation or problem and it is affecting you or you're trying to avoid it, you will have a nightmare. This is because your conscious is getting your attention and it's telling you to fix the problem and stop pushing it away.
Sometimes a nightmare can actually warn you about a problem that might be rising in the future. If your health is not safe or someone elses you will have a nightmare about it. This also goes for an accident, if something is going to happen.
If you actually pay attention and not be afraid of your nightmare you will start to realize what the message is and analyze what is going on.
I think nightmares are now somewhat a good thing in the sense that they're helping you in the way of fear. It is your own mind and thoughts that are causing the nightmare because you're pushing away those certain thoughts, that you're really suppose to be taking care and solving them.
Next time you have a nightmare, if you rememeber you should try and analyz what happened and what it could mean and maybe it will help you.

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtypes/nightmares.htm