The question of the dreams of people who have mental problems has been studied by medical scientists for many years. There are many examples of how a certain condition affects the appearance of certain visions during a night’s rest.
Not so long ago, people were sure that dreams are a kind of bridge leading to the afterlife. Although today there are such individuals. Yet the results of brain and sleep research, as well as science in general, reject such a judgment. Yes, mystical meanings can be attached to dreams, and some dreams do come true. Scientists explain this by the desire of the person himself to realize what he saw in a dream, to which he unconsciously strives. As a result, it seems as if the event happened by itself.
The first studies of human dreams
It became possible to study the period of human sleep and his dreams only at the beginning of the 20th century. At this time, the first electronic amplifier tubes appeared, with the help of which it was possible to measure and record changes in the brain during a night’s rest.
At the same time, the scientist Hans Berger identified «alpha rhythms» that indicated relaxation during sleep. This gave impetus to further research, when representatives of Harvard found that dreams visit a person only during superficial sleep.
From the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, many studies have been carried out, during which scientists came to one or another conclusion. So, there were versions that:
- color dreams are seen only by mentally ill people;
- schizophrenics can be exclusively in the superficial stage of sleep;
- violations of sleep and wakefulness in people with mental disabilities are observed in individuals prone to neurosis and depression.
As for color dreams, an experiment was conducted on this issue. We collected three groups of people, of which the first was schizophrenics, the second included people prone to its manifestation, and the third included people with a healthy strong psyche.
The study was conducted for 12 months and during this time it was possible to establish that in the vast majority of color dreams, including nightmares, it is the first two groups that see. At the same time, healthy people also see them, but much less often.
The plot of dreams in schizophrenics
This question also interested scientists. To consider it, two groups of people were assembled: the first are schizophrenics, and the second are healthy recipients. The study consisted of waking them up 10 minutes after falling into light sleep. Immediately after waking up, a person had to describe his feelings, emotions, what he saw, and so on. It turned out that mentally ill people more often had angry, aggressive visions, while healthy individuals did not see this.
Scientists believe that our dreams are accumulations of emotional experiences, experienced fears, worries, doubts, anxiety, as well as intense joy and delight. This is all that worries a person very much. And the more emotions are accumulated, the more vivid the dreams will be. That is why in schizophrenics they are more emotional, vivid and plot.
In addition, it happens with schizophrenics when dreams are so real that it leads to sleepwalking. The patient begins to walk and move around in his sleep. At the same time, he remembers absolutely nothing in the morning, except for the dream that he had. Of course, in practice it has been proven that waking up a sleepwalker is very dangerous, and if it is also a schizophrenic, then doubly so. Therefore, it is important to treat the condition in the early stages.