Sleep and Time!

[somebody]

I really dont know if this goes under medical or physics but here it goes. Today morning i woke up at 6:30 am and then i went back to sleep and had a dream. In the dream i have gone through almost a whole day but when i woke up it was 6:36 am.

 

so my question is that how can i spend almost a whole day in dream when it's only been 6 mins??

[CraigD]

Today morning i woke up at 6:30 am and then i went back to sleep and had a dream. In the dream i have gone through almost a whole day but when i woke up it was 6:36 am.

 

so my question is that how can i spend almost a whole day in dream when it's only been 6 mins??

Assuming that your clock readings are accurate (a reasonable assumption, as we humans are pretty good at that sort of remembering), I’d start by ruling out the possibility that you actually experienced 24 hours of experiential life in 6 minutes. We have a pretty good, high-level understanding of the energy metabolism of the brain when it’s experiencing life, enough to safely say it just isn’t capable of churning out experience at 240 times its normal rate. Likewise, time warps and other physics-based phenomena require huge energies and/or gravity fields, none of which are likely to have visited your patch of the universe between 6:30 and 6:36 AM today. So some other explanation is necessary.

 

Consider carefully at what you mean by “spend almost a whole day in a dream”. Is your impression of a whole day passing based on many complicated experiences, or a few key impressions, such as it being morning, day, evening, night, etc? Try to recall something from your dream that you know takes a lot of time, but can be confirmed to have been done. For example, reading a fiction novel with characters and events you’ve never read of before, and being able to retell the story in detail. By comparison, try the same exercise on your previous day of waking life, and note how it differs from when you try it on a dream.

 

I suspect that if you probe your recollection of your dream enough, you’ll find no such experiences, but instead a series of “signal” events – often very emotionally intense - giving the impression of the passage of time. In short, I suspect you experienced little more and likely less than 6 minutes, but that the experiences were about the passage of time. Dream impressions are often (some might say always) deceptive.

[InfiniteNow]

I propose that somebody really does recall a full day’s experience in the dream, regardless of it’s duration of only six minutes according to the time piece beside his bed.

 

I am speculating based on many different readings and understandings I’ve acquired through my life, so please take this more as opinion than fact, but…

 

Dreaming is a function of memory sorting and creation, and the way memory works is in packets of information (bundles of nerves forming greater connectivity… the regions of bundles and connections can be verbally represented as packets). During the process of recall, we stimulate these regions or packets in successive manner, each connection being activated and more connections being stronger memories, and then this data is sent to other regions of the brain for contextual interpretation… all based on the neural linking with other regions/packets.

 

My presumption is that in somebody’s dream these memory “packets” were being formed and organized in such a way that the normal mundane details of experience were left out, essentially compressing the experiential time that would be involved during memory processes while awake (using the restroom, walking to the mailbox, feeding the dog… all of the details that were minimally necessary for a coherent memorial story line). So, he had a “full” day, but there were gaps in the dream that were not essential to the dream’s core plot flow.

 

So, despite the fact that there was no 1:1 temporal alignment with the perception of time passage in the dream state with the actual time passage according to his clock, somebody’s recall of the dream lasting a full day is accurate, and (with the exception of the irrelevant story gaps which were not part of the dream) his recall of the dream is not very different than recall of a full day while awake.

 

In other words, I’ve had the same experience whereby I had an incredibly full dream lasting long durations perceptually, but only minutes when comparing times on the clock awake. The above is a method I’ve decided may adequately describe the temporal disconnect.

[somebody]

you guys know better than me.

 

you guys are correct, i actually didnt experience the WHOLE day but here is what i recall:

 

i usually have 10:00 am class so in the dream i was talking exam in that class so i suspected that that was during morning time.

 

then i went for lunch with my cousin (who doesnt even live in US). So that was the afternoon call.

 

The last thing i remember is watching HOUSE MD and then i just woke up and house md usually comes around 9:00 pm.

 

 

So i guess in a sense i havent gone through whole 24 or so hours but all these events lead me to believe that.

 

so any comments?

[jackson33]

the mind doesn't work by the clock. when watching a movie or TV show that interest you or your wrapped up in, in may seem like a sort time period. however when doing your taxes or at the opera or something you would rather not that time seems very long which in reality was very short.

 

as a kid, put to bed early, i figured out early that to dream would cause me to sleep. i liked to build things in my dreams, though had never built anything and for years, worked building a big boat. even today, i occasionally fall asleep with that boat in mind, by the way has never been finished and i have built lots of things...in real life.

 

i don't recall the scenario, but someplace i heard or read dreams or the brain activity for them occurs in short spurts and usually early in the sleep period.

[InfiniteNow]

i don't recall the scenario, but someplace i heard or read dreams or the brain activity for them occurs in short spurts and usually early in the sleep period.

Most dreaming occurs during REM sleep, which generally will not begin until around the 2nd hour after falling asleep. However, this may happen more quickly depending on level of fatigue, age, and other factors.

 

Here's a good primer on the topic. Pretty straight forward and I encourage you to view the rest of the page if curious:

 

Neuroscience for Kids - Sleep

While we are asleep, our brains are on a bit of a "roller-coaster" through different stages of sleep. As we drift off to sleep, we first enter stage 1 sleep. After a few minutes, the EEG changes to stage 2 sleep, then stage 3 sleep, then stage 4 sleep. Then it's back up again: stage 3, stage 2, then a period of REM sleep...then it's back down again, and back up again, and down again...you get the picture. As shown in the figure below, in an 8 hour period of sleep, the brain cycles through these stages about 4-5 times.

 

 

 

[jackson33]

interesting article, generally what i recall. i would question the aged and sleeping less, since its been my understanding older folks sleep longer. i did make a quick google check and found nothing to agree with me, but most i have known over 80 sleep no less than 12 hours per day. maybe medication or some factor i don't know of, but an older fellow living next door, sleeps about 20 hours a day, takes no medication but is 101.

[InfiniteNow]

i would question the aged and sleeping less, since its been my understanding older folks sleep longer. i did make a quick google check and found nothing to agree with me, but most i have known over 80 sleep no less than 12 hours per day. maybe medication or some factor i don't know of, but an older fellow living next door, sleeps about 20 hours a day, takes no medication but is 101.

Sometimes, our understanding is mistaken. Also, as you alluded to, there are often extraneous variables which need to be considered.

 

 

 

Here's some more data:

 

Sleep and aging: 1. Sleep disorders commonly found in older people -- Wolkove et al. 176 (9): 1299 -- Canadian Medical Association Journal

 

Normal sleep progresses through several stages in a predictable fashion. This cycle repeats several times during the sleep period. With age, important changes in sleep structure occur; perhaps most characteristic is a phase advance of the normal circadian cycle. The result is a propensity toward an earlier sleep onset, accompanied by an earlier morning wake signal. Thus, elderly people often go to bed early and report being early risers.

 

With aging, the total amount of time asleep shortens: infants and young children sleep an average of 16–20 hours per day; adults, 7–8; and people over 60 years of age, 6 1/2 hours daily. Delta sleep (stages 3 and 4), the deepest and most refreshing form of sleep, diminishes with age.

 

 

 

 

 

See also the references cited at the above link. Lots of extra goodies available there for the enquiring mind that wants to know. :hihi: