Parasomnias And The Dream World: Unraveling The Mysteries Of Sleep

Parasomnias are a collection of undesirable behaviours, occurrences, or sensations that happen during sleep or while shifting between sleep and wakefulness. These include things like sleep-walking, sleep-talking, sleep paralysis, night terrors, and sleep-related eating disorder. All of these are things I will cover here, as well as normal dreaming, lucid dreaming, and nightmares.

Let's start off with normal dreaming. How is it possible? While there is not much explanation of why we dream, there are still facts and points of research.

Dreams occur in REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, a stage of sleep that happens in cycles of roughly 90 minutes, repeating 4-6 times per night. REM sleep is strongly associated with dreams, and is often seen as responsible for them as well. It is possible for dreams to occur during other sleep stages, but during REM sleep, they are generally more vivid, elaborate, and emotionally charged. During REM sleep, your brain activity resembles paralysis of involuntary muscles. This means that your body is paralyzed, except for essential muscles like your heart and lungs, so you don’t physically act out your dreams.

During REM sleep, the brain’s visual, emotional, and memory-processing areas (like the amygdala and hippocampus) become highly active, while logic and self-control areas (prefrontal cortex) are less active. Neurotransmitters responsible for memory, muscle movement, and learning increase, boosting vivid imagery, while serotonin and norepinephrine drop, reducing sensory filtering. Your brain then pulls fragments from recent experiences, long-term memories, emotions, and even random neural firing. It then puts them together into a “story”- the dream.

Now, why do we do it? Scientists still debate exactly why we dream, but most agree it’s not just random nonsense. Dreaming likely serves several overlapping purposes. During sleep, especially in the REM stage, the brain processes and reorganizes memories from the day, deciding which to keep and which to let fade. This process also helps regulate emotions, giving you a sort of safe mental space to work through fears, anxieties, or unresolved conflicts. Sometimes, dreams allow creative problem-solving, offering fresh ideas or unexpected connections that you might not notice while awake. From an evolutionary perspective, they may even act as a kind of simulation, letting you rehearse responses to danger without real-world consequences. And while part of dreaming might be the brain trying to make sense of random electrical activity, the end result is often a deeply personal, emotional, and sometimes surprisingly insightful mental experience.

We even dream every night, but its known that around 95% of us don't remember them in the morning. This is partly because the chemical processes that help store memories are less active during REM sleep, making dream recall more difficult. Unless we wake up during or right after a dream, the details usually fade quickly, leaving behind only vague impressions or emotions. This forgetfulness doesn’t make dreams any less significant- it simply means that most of the intricate mental work happening during sleep remains hidden from our waking mind.

So, what about lucid dreaming? Is it any different from normal dreaming? Like I said, normal dreams occur naturally during REM sleep, and in them, you are usually unaware that you are dreaming. Because of this, you have little to no control over what happens, and the events simply unfold as if you are watching or experiencing them without influence. These dreams are often fragmented or forgotten shortly after waking. In contrast, lucid dreams are a unique type of dream where you become aware that you are dreaming while the dream is still happening. This awareness sometimes allows you to influence or control what occurs, such as changing the setting, choosing your actions, or even doing things that are impossible in real life, like flying. Lucid dreams also tend to feel more vivid and are easier to remember compared to regular dreams. In short, regular dreams are like watching a movie you can’t control, while lucid dreams are like realizing you’re the director of the movie while still inside it.

Now, nightmares. Nightmares are a specific type of dream that are often disturbing, frightening, or emotionally intense. Like regular dreams, they usually occur during REM sleep, but what sets them apart is their negative or threatening content, which can cause strong feelings of fear, anxiety, or sadness. Nightmares can sometimes wake you up in the middle of the night, leaving behind a lingering sense of distress or unease. While they are common and often just a normal part of dreaming, frequent nightmares may be linked to stress, trauma, certain medications, or sleep disorders. Unlike lucid dreams, where you might gain awareness and even change the outcome of the dream, nightmares usually feel uncontrollable until you wake up.

Now that we’ve looked at dreams, let’s turn to parasomnias, which are unusual behaviours or experiences that occur during sleep. Sleep-walking is one of the most recognized parasomnias. It occurs when a person gets up and moves around while still asleep, often performing simple actions like walking through the house or opening doors. In many cases, the sleepwalker has no memory of the episode once they wake up. Sleep-walking can be harmless, but it can sometimes be dangerous if the person wanders outside or interacts with objects without being fully aware.

Sleep-talking is another common parasomnia. This happens when a person speaks while sleeping, ranging from quiet mumbling to full conversations. The speech is often nonsensical or unrelated to reality, and the person is completely unaware that they are talking. Sleep-talking is generally harmless, but it can disturb bed partners or reveal random thoughts from the dream state.

Sleep paralysis is a striking experience that occurs when the brain wakes up but the body remains temporarily unable to move. This paralysis can last from a few seconds to a couple of minutes and is often accompanied by vivid hallucinations, such as sensing a presence in the room or feeling pressure on the chest. Because of these frightening sensations, sleep paralysis is often remembered as a very unsettling experience.

Night terrors are episodes of sudden, intense fear that occur during sleep, most often in children. A person experiencing a night terror may scream, thrash, or sit up in bed with a look of panic, but they are usually difficult to wake and often don’t remember the event the next morning. Unlike nightmares, which happen during REM sleep, night terrors occur during deep non-REM sleep.

Finally, Sleep-related eating disorders are a parasomnia in which a person eats food while still partially asleep. Episodes can range from grabbing simple snacks to preparing full meals, but the individual typically has little or no memory of it in the morning. This condition can lead to safety issues, such as eating raw or inedible items, and may also impact overall health.

In conclusion, sleep is far more complex than simply resting our bodies. From the ordinary experiences of dreaming to the more vivid states of lucid dreams and nightmares, our minds remain active in ways that shape memory, emotion, and creativity. Parasomnias such as sleep-walking, sleep-talking, sleep paralysis, night terrors, and sleep-related eating disorder further show how unpredictable sleep can be, blending unconscious processes with physical actions and unsettling sensations. Together, these experiences remind us that sleep is not just a passive state but an active, mysterious, and essential part of human life that continues to fascinate scientists and challenge our understanding.