FHS students are bursting into spring with scholarship applications, spring concerts and sports. With stress levels rising and amounts of sleep decreasing, students could be setting themselves up for some wild nights — with an increase of vivid dreams. Stress has been a dominant factor in the dreams of junior April Walker. With deadlines, practices and serious time conflicts, Walker feels overwhelmed by having more than she can handle. “Ever since I’ve been stressed out and worrying about the various commitments I have, all of a sudden I remember a lot more of my dreams,” said Walker. “They’re so vivid that they seem like they happened in real life.” Walker may not be the only FHS student experiencing an increase of stress in the spring season of warm weather and more activities. “In my opinion, we sense heightened anxiety among the students,” said guidance counselor Callie Langohr. “They’re running out of time to finish their projects, get their grades up, and they don’t know what they’re going to do this summer or next year, and that brings on anxiety.” Sophomore Jenny Fawcett finds that she is more stressed with drama projects going on and the rush of her teachers trying to get through the textbooks. From all of the stress, she’s having more vivid dreams and is more easily remembering them. “I get a lot less sleep trying to finish my homework and rehearse for quartet,” said Fawcett. “I think that when I’m stressed out, there’s a lot more fear-oriented feelings and since fear is such a strong emotion, your subconscious is kind of freaking out.” With stress levels at an increase, students may find they are experiencing lack of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep during the final stretches of the school year. “If you get deprived of REM sleep, ” said psychology teacher April Boveng, “the next time you sleep you slip into REM sleep easier and then you dream more quickly.” According to The Secret Language of Dreams by David Fontana, REM sleep is the stage of sleep when the most vivid and detailed dream scenery occurs. However, there are two other stages in which a person dreams between being asleep and awake. These stages occur as one falls asleep, called hypnogogic, and as one is about to wake up, called hypnopompic. Junior Shawn Pettersen took his knowledge of sleep, combined with sleep deprivation, to entertain himself with his quickly produced dreams. “I hadn’t slept for so long,” said Pettersen. “I’d fall into REM in 30 seconds and sometimes even less. I’d have totally wacked out dreams in REM sleep.” Pettersen would have someone wake him up after he had been asleep for one minute. “Every time that I would fall asleep, I’d have a different dream,” said Pettersen. “I remember there was a black bean at the bottom of Big Mountain and someone kicked it onto the chair lift, where it was carried to the top, where there were a whole bunch of jelly beans.” Although Pettersen intended to stay up take advantage of his sleep deprivation, others are deprived of sleep for other reasons. “Usually I catch up on sleep on the weekends,” said junior Anna Semple. “But in the spring I have so much going on that I can’t sleep in.” Semple’s time is occupied by track and music, in addition to time for school, but other simple reasons could cause someone to sleep less. “Another thing that could cause lack of sleep would be the increase of social activities like staying out late,” said Boveng. “That could definitely result in sleep deprivation.” Various factors such as stress and sleep deprivation are believed to affect dreams, but there is no solid facts that prove that to be true. “No one knows exactly why we dream,” said neurologist Dr. Patrick Burns. “One theory is that it’s a way to keep an active state of mind. In a sense you can say it’s your brain working while your body’s resting.” The world of dreams has been fascinating for centuries to all who sleep. Research is constantly in the works, but no one can really explain the cause of dreams or their capabilities. “If you have something that is prominently on your mind, it could surface in your dreams,” said Dr. Burns. “It’s possible problems can be solved in your sleep. Sometimes dreams have that capability.” Dreams intrigue many and so these people record their dreams in a dream journal. “If I don’t write down what my dream was about,” said junior Karee McBroom, “I forget it by breakfast and it bugs me the rest of the day trying to remember what happened. McBroom records her dreams in a little rainbow notebook by her bed. She writes them down when she wakes up from a dream. “It’s fun to go back and read what your dreams were about in the past,” said McBroom. “When I was little, the only nightmare I’ve ever had in my life was green bees chasing me.” According to Dr. Burns, the best time to remember your dreams is right after you wake up. “Dreams are probably not stored in our memory as much as regular events throughout the day,” said Dr. Burns. “Most of us dream every night, but we don’t remember them.” |
