Is it true that if you don't dream for a long period of time you go nuts?
112830
Lack of sleep can cause some extreme physiological and psychological changes, and lacking REM sleep (the stage in which dreaming occurs) can lead to such symptoms as personality changes, incresed anxiety and irritability, and impaired concentration.  This may not qualify as going crazy, but I'm sure such interruptions in a person's sleep schedule can make them feel as if they are going crazy.
447395
Great question! I used to think that I didn't dream very often. The truth is that we all dream quite often, but sometimes we just don't remember it. I've heard the mind is a powerful tool, and now I firmly believe it. When I asked someone who had studied dream therapy (Not sure if this is what it was called), she suggested that before I go to bed at night, every night for a week, to tell myself that I want to remember my dream in the morning. OK, laugh now - I did when I heard it too, but in all seriousness, I am absolutely amazed at how well it worked!
690137
To be honest, I think it is just what you suspected : While you may have felt that you never slept......you really did drop off a few times each evening.\n\n  If you do any reading on this subject, it's pretty clear that the brain needs sleep, or the person really does start exibiting some fairly serious symptoms. \n\n   Not just being tired, but....things like rather major delusions and hallucinations of fairly spooky proportions.\n\n  So.....if you actually spent some time in bed.....my guess is that you did get sleep, even if it may have not seemed like it at the time.\n\n  Bob J.
1165115
No, I haven't, but if you have you may want to see a doctor so you ask them about Night Terrors or other sleep disorders.
857962
Most human beings can go for 16 to 20 hours without sleep. After 20 hours, the first symptoms are usually listfulness, a noticable kinetic energy depletion in the extremities, lack of mental focus on complex activities, and irritability. A tendency for the eyes to droop and the head to become limp briefly are also indications. Operating heavy machinery (like driving) without sufficient sleep should definitely be avoided.\n\nMood swings tend to increase after a full 24 hour period without sleep is reached, and even the simplest of activities can become cumbersome. If the mind refuses to allow the body to rest beyond this period, the subject can display zombie-like characteristics. While, dementia, hallucinations, and increased levels of crankiness and irritability occur as a sleep-deprived person approaches over 48 hours without sleep.\n\nIt is believed sleep deprivation for more than 72 hours straight can lead to schizophrenia and irreversable brain damage. Although the scientific results are still inconclusive. \n\nThe record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.\n\n- It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.\n\n- Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.\n\n- A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year\n\n- One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children.\n\n- The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.\n\n- REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.\n\n- Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.\n\n- REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.\n\n- Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analagous to watching a film\n\n- No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans.\n\n- Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.\n\n- Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.\n\n- Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless byproduct of two evolutionary adaptations - sleep and consciousness.\n\n- REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have 75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term bubs. Similarly, a newborn kitten puppy rat or hampster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all.\n\n- Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain's sleep-wake clock.\n\n- British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset soldiers' body clocks so they can go without
291862
No..\nThey are going to think you've lost your mind...\n\nDreams are simply a state in your unconscious mind that reveal your inner most thoughts, fears, wishes, and sometimes it's just a carnival of emotions.\n\nAs you hide your feelings from others, your subconscious needs to let those feelings go....  And dreams are one way of safely accomplishing a "mind purge."\n\nYou could also pick up a gun, climb up a clock tower, and go ballistic on the public.\nIt's really all up to you...\n\nBut bring a few doublecheese burgers on your way up the tower.\nAt least you won't starve.
53055
Off and on I believe yes. It depends on what you think is a realistic dream or not. Realistic dreams I believe in some respects are predictions, depending on how you live your life and what kind of path you take. I think those kind of dreams trigger those deja vu feelings when we are awake, alerting you possibly to a realized outcome that you had dreamed about previously.\n\n  The unrealistic or fantasy dreams I believe are symbolic of events that all was,are, and are about to take place. In order to decipher those dreams, you will probably need a dream dictionary to decode what those dreams mean.
1014332
Nope, but a handy trick is to think about what you want to dream about right before your fall asleep. If you are focusing on not dreaming about a certain thing, it will be on your mind and you will more than likely dream about it....
774375
no. dreams are part of your subconscious. if you are worried, you will have disturbed dreams. try to regulate your life and relax. good luck
311013
i never had a wet dream ethier but i started mastu*bating even before i could produce sperm.  wet dreams happen when there is to much in your balls and it has to release and it usually happens in puberty.  You are fine even if you did not have sex or wack off now the sperm you don't use will some out,  very small amounts, in your urine
337258
After you die the brain live for about 7 minutes. \n\nI have heard that these 7 minutes hold the answer to the question, "what is heaven". I believe in this 7 minute unconscious stupor, you dream. And as everyone knows, time passes at a different rate when you dream. So in these 7 minutes you could be in a dream which is perceived as endless. And in this endless dream you re-live your life and dream of a heavenly place. The body can not perceive the difference between dream states and conscious states, and basically reacts the same to both. So in reality you really do go to heaven, and never wake up. But this is conditional of course on how you lived your life. If you die with a guilty conscious, your last dream will be a direct result of the way you lived. For instance you may have a nightmare after you eat late at night, just as you may go to hell in your last eternal dream if you let a miserable existence. I think religious figureheads caught onto this concept early on and have capitalized on it since.\n\nPlease e-mail me to discuss jodiamon@syr.edu or visit my blog which discusses this subject to death at http://krunkbox.blogspot.com/
513047
do you mean like sleep paralisis? at night, if you wake up and find this happening, don't panic, it is normal. sometimes when we have bad dreams, our bodies produce hormones which keep us from thrashing and hurting ourselfs in our sleep. if we wake up to early, we find ourselfs unable to move for a period. go to webmd for a rewally good artical on it
521233
I have had it a few times. Right after I saw a nightmare.\n\nNothing to WORRY, it is STATE OF DEEP SLEEP, the body is temporarily paralysed. It is only normal to have it. No docs or medicine required.\n\nI remember I felt like shouting, i was scared, but couldnt move my jaw, my arms. legs, man it was scary... but I am proud I had a wierd experience like that ...
365357
When you are experiencing a dream your body will try to simulate the experience. That might explain why if you have a bad you toss and turn.
960449
I eat lots of different foods at all hours of the day and  night (including cheese) and can honestly say that i sleep so heavy that it is very rare i am aware of dreaming at all (although my wife says i talk a lot in my sleep) - so do i dream or not? and as for the cheese it made no difference to my dreaming or lack of at all.
903148
I'm not sure...but dreams are usually made by random thoughts and memories. Your subconscious is constantly working 24 hours 7 days and that's what's making you dream. They are just jamming all these things together then you have a dream...most of the time it doesn't make sense or sometimes even it comes true! Dreams are sure fun and weird!
123904
Yes, actually, because of various medication I take.\n\nNo superpowers, just the usual dream weirdness but it seems real.