Compromising sleep is quite the norm, but it’s often taken for granted. “Goodnight” is one of the most universal phrases that we tell our loved ones, but considering how important sleep is, it’s no surprise. Sadly, ¼ of teens suffer from insomnia and with 73% of high schoolers not getting healthy enough amounts of sleep, it’s a topic that needs to be heard. Putting time towards sleep is hard, and with bigger priorities, sleep can easily be swept under the rug. The consequences of sleep deprivation are so gradual that it is difficult to even notice what’s really going on behind the scenes. Symptoms of sleep deprivation include delayed thinking, reduced attention span, worsened memory, lack of energy, and mood changes. Isabella Guiterez (12) noted that “a lot of people go through feelings of stress and anxiety but a quick fix could be as simple as a good night’s rest. It’s a noticeable difference”

You know that feeling when you first wake up from an amazing dream, and your mind is still trying to figure out what just happened? At that moment, life seems so simple and precious as you are not conscious enough to be worrying about real life tasks. You almost feel like an infant child trying to grasp on to the short moment of euphoria before life hits you in the head like a train. And then there is the opposite scenario where you wake up in a pool of your own sweat and scream your lungs out for help. That… is not quite as pleasant, but you still wake up with the same amount of confusion as the first dream I mentioned. 

For the most part, we have all experienced this phenomena as our brains are “active during dreams from the brainstem to the cortex” (sciencefocus.com). Charlotte Schultz (11), who has an incredibly vivid dreaming style, explains that “as an avid sleepwalker, my sleep is as lively as my wake. Often, I wake up and I’m typing on a blanket… for some reason. It’s very confusing but I love sleeping so it’s ok. I dream a lot and I can’t tell if it’s real or fake.” It’s very interesting how Charlotte seems to dream so much, yet others don’t dream at all. In fact, one of my friends mentioned that she lucid dreams almost every night, which is absolutely crazy to me. With that being said, what is the meaning of all of this? Why are some people so much more active? Does dreaming about specific things mean anything? 

Back in middle school, I would always search up the meanings of specific dreams online and get very sketchy looking results telling me that I have a grave future or something. Even though part of me knew it was dumb, I still felt a strange comfort in these un-scientific answers. For example, I used to dream about elevators a lot, and those sites would tell me that this meant I needed more control in my life. I stupidly believed  it for a while and I actually improved on my schoolwork. I stopped procrastinating as much and my grades improved. This obsession eventually faded away as I researched some more about dreams.

For one, we can look back at the ancient Greeks. Back then, people thought that dreams were “equal parts predictions of future events and visitations by the dead” (time.com). After that came the idea of psychology, which is the study of the human mind. To learn more about this, I asked the AP psychology teacher, Mr Walls (staff), to talk about the meaning of dreams. He says that “there is no consensus amongst psychologists as to why we dream. Originally, Freud believed that dreams were a form of wish fulfillment. Later researchers have alternate theories. Amongst those theories is the idea that it’s literally just the brain trying to make sense of random neural firings.” This idea basically claims that there is no definite meaning to your dreams. Just because you dream about dying doesn’t foreshadow anything. Just because you kissed your crush in your dream doesn’t mean they secretly like you back. We as humans are so complex, and we already have enough things to deal with during the day. Some of those thoughts linger or come back around in our dreams simply because we don’t have a moment of quietness in the day to sort them out.

No matter what you believe, dreams are fun to discuss. They don’t need to have a meaning to be a memorable experience, and we can even learn a thing or two from them. Although there will always be discourse surrounding this topic, there is no denying that dreams are powerful and can set out mood for the day very easily. To make more sense of this, I recommend keeping a dream journal as it is not only fun but also exciting to share with your friends.

Sleep paralysis is a condition where your body becomes paralyzed during “sleep”. Imagine yourself in bed and “awake,” but unable to move or even speak, in most instances, these occurrences include vivid haunting hallucinations–it’s quite literally a living nightmare. 

But centuries before it wasn’t just a nightmare. Over the years there have been many superstitions over sleep paralysis, during the 1st century BC it was considered to be a visit by evil threatening to push the life out of you. Sleep paralysis usually lasts several seconds to several minutes. There are three factors relating to sleep paralysis. The first relates to frightening hallucinations; these hallucinations are vivid, even auditory. The second relates to a factor called “Incubus’ ‘ associated with trouble breathing, chest pain, and chest pressure. The third is related to a vestibule-motor experience where you experience an unusual out-of-body experience, a floating/flying sensation. 

With all the chilling experiences from nightmares and sleep paralysis, it’d make sense to why there’s so much fear around the dark. But sleep paralysis begs the question: Could these occurrences be glitches in the simulation!? No. Sadly, your sleep paralysis probably isn’t real. Dreams of sleep paralysis have differing associations, usually playing off what the person fears most. In the 1600’s it was common to have sleep paralysis nightmares of demons, thieves, and big dogs- there’s a big contrast in what we find scary now.

When you’re going through the sleep stage of rapid eye movements (REM), dreaming is more likely. After you begin/end this stage regaining awareness becomes safer. Sleep paralysis is surprisingly quite a common universality with 8-50% (depending) chance of sleep paralysis occurring once at some point in life. Surprisingly, it occurs universally with quite normal sleepers- though, it has been linked to narcolepsy, stress, alcoholism, and sleep deprivation.