Why does time flow slower in our dreams?

When we run and run and get nowhere, dreams where we feel like time doesn’t flow We wake up startled by the sequence of events and realize that it hasn’t been that long after all. The mystery of dreams is still not fully explored. But no matter what anyone says, dreams are personal reflections of the mind.

scientists Today, as in the past, they continue to conduct various researches on dreams. So why does what we see in our dreams move in slow motion compared to what we experience when we are awake?

We see our dreams during the deep sleep phase.

As we know, most of our dreams REM (rapid eye movements) We see it in a phase called Everyone has an opinion about dream duration, but the length of dreams can vary according to their content. Scientists say that dreams, especially in real life, in which work or actions that require effort are seen, take more time.

This thought will make sense if you try to remember one of your endless dreams even though you did something simple.

When we think of dreams, we all think of the movie Inception.

In the movie Inception, we saw that 1 hour spent in dreams corresponds to 5 minutes in real life. In fact, time does not slow down when we sleep and dream, but dreams move in slow motion for us.

In a way the concept of time in dreams is distorted. As a result of various studies, scientists say that there may be many reasons for this, but there is no clear answer.

Actually, dreams don’t last as short as we think.

You must have come across the information that dreams take a few seconds on the internet and in many places, but this is not exactly correct information. According to the data of the US National Sleep Foundation; some of our dreams are a few minutes and some are 30 minutes It can take up to two hours in total, or longer.

during one night We have about 6 dreams. In order to determine the duration of the dream exactly, it is necessary to know clearly which dream begins and when.

Of course, measuring the duration of dreams is a very difficult process.

in 2014 at Frontiers in Psychologypublished a study in which they concluded that we perceive time differently in our dreams than we do in real life. These studies consist of studies in which dreams are observed in which lucid dreamers exert physical and mental effort.

Studies show normal dreamers not carried out with lucid dreamers who can control their dreams. ‘Bright dream’ actually, ‘lucid dream’ An expression used in our language for the concept. It is easier to observe the start and end times of dreams with ‘lucid dreamers’.

Scientists are conducting a series of experiments consisting of mental and physical activities with people who can control their dreams.

Every lucid dreamer participating in research has to perform some activities in their dreams; are asked to convey the start and end times of the activities to the observers. in research 10, 20, 30 steps walking; Counting to 10, 20, 30jump and activities such as rolling.

As a result of the research; activities desired to be done in dreams, regardless of the taskIt is concluded that it takes longer to complete in a dream than in reality.

According to these results, there are several different opinions.

One of the reasons why it takes longer to perform an action in a dream than in real life; body when we dream associated with limited muscle movements. We may dream that we are trying to put on a shoe or that we are making a great effort to escape from somewhere.

However, in order to provide the necessary physical movement, our muscles and limbs we can’t move it as easily as it actually is. This is an element of security applied in order that the events in the dream do not harm our body.

As if the slow progress of our dreams is not enough, we are also much more familiar; We can have overwhelming experiences such as not being able to run or shout while we are in a dream. You can read another of our content, where we explain the scientific reasons for this situation in detail, here.

As a result; While we are dreaming, our mind perceives that our every action is realized and takes longer to process the dream. In addition, while asleep fluctuations at different levels in our brain It is also among the factors that may be related to the duration of dreams.