I had a really tough night of sleeping and dreaming last night. And I had a lot of dreams for someone who fell asleep so late and did not sleep that long. I found out when I did a Google search that having more dreams than you would on a regular night of sleeping is actually linked to both sleeping less and depression.
There is so much information on just this aspect within dreams that the three articles below are just a small sample, though definitely some of the best ones:
"In the 1970s, psychologists noted that people suffering from depression also report more dreams than average. In fact, people who are clinically depressed may dream three or four times as much. The quality of REM dreams (also called “paradoxical sleep”) is different too: more intense emotions, more negative themes, more nightmares, and more unpleasant dreams, in general." from: http://dreamstudies.org/2009/09/15/depression-ssri-and-dreams/
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/08/dreaming-depression-and-how-sleep-affects-emotions/261051/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-less-sleep-means-more-dreams/
When I was younger and would go to sleep sad I actually would have beautiful dreams that were so good they made waking up worse instead of better. I never could find a link between the two and, in fact, articles I have found seem to suggest going to sleep sad makes you actually dream sadder. There are so many aspects related to dreaming I want to research and I also have to wonder: do we just have more hope in our hearts when we are younger so that is why we can have such beautiful dreams when we are sad? Is it just a weird fluke? Or is there a part of our brains trying to give us a break, like say...when we are trying to desperately escape our grief?
Right after my grandmother died years ago and for months after she passed away, I would dream she was still alive. There were wonderful dreams...until I woke up and remembered the truth. People experiencing the loss of a loved one often have dreams like this and mention that very brief second between sleep and fully waking where they have forgotten for a second and the dream is lovely...and then everything comes crashing in with remembrance.
I have always found dreams interesting to read about and even enjoyed some of my own dreams and had some amazingly wonderful ones...but the worse the dreams become and the harder they are to deal with, the more I think I would just love nights of no remembering. They say you cannot not dream, that even if you think you did not dream on a certain night, you actually did and are just not remembering. I am starting to think that I kind of envy people who never remember theirs...
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