What causes vivid dreams?
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M$3 Answers
Dreams can be more vivid than others depending on many factors that affect neurotransmitters in your brain. Anything from stress, to medication, disease, alcohol, drugs can make your dreams more or less real. Vivid dreams is a side effect of taking medications and withdrawal of some medications.
There is also documentation that people with certain medical conditions like bipolar disorder have vivid dreams. If you think about it from a chemistry perspective that is in tune with what i said above, because bipolars have disordered brain chemistry. Even pregnancy can cause vivid dreams (again, hormones affect brain chemistry)
I even found information about a supplement that claims to enhance vivid dreaming! It's called Brilliant Dreams.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D91730F93AA15751C1A961...
http://www.babycenter.com/0_vivid-dreams-disturbing-your-sleep_7523.bc
http://www.pregnancy-info.net/vivid_dreams.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7346/rem_sleep_produces_vivid_drea...
http://bipolar.about.com/od/sleepissues/a/040729_dreams.htm
http://www.brilliantdreams.com/product/dream-faq.htm
http://www.drugs.com/enc/nightmares.html
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M$However, another sources says that both bipolar and diabetes can also cause vivid dreams because they interrupt REM sleep, which makes the body less able to differentiate between dreams and waking perceptions. They are also a symptom of too much vitamin B6 in the body or low blood sugar. (2)
Pregnancy can also cause vivid dreams. (3)
And I must mention that vivid dreams can be cause by a group of parents, should they decide to go after a mass child murderer and set his hideout on fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adgp0v_mfTk
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M$
Excellent answer, as usual, Darcy. It had never even crossed my mind that mental or physical disorders (such as bipolar disease or diabetes) could have an effect on the type of dreams one had. Very interesting. Freddy himself could probably teach a graduate course on Vivid Dreams...maybe that'll be the next sequel!
Me either until I started looking for sources for interrupting REM sleep--since I know that can cause vivid dreams or at least cause you to remember them.
I once had a very vivid dream that I was trying to catch Godzilla (the one from the Broderick movie) that woke me up it was so terrifying--and the movie did not scare me at all. I like watching it now, because the dream added a new level to the Godzilla chase scenes.
I like the way Darcy numbered her sources in this answer.
That is all. :-)
Low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, is another cause of vivid dreams. When the brain senses that glucose levels are low, it will do strange things to get stored glucose into the blood stream. One way it does so is through adrenaline spurts. If your vivid dreams are accompanied by a feeling of being “wired” (if, like me, you find yourself doing ninja kicks around your bedroom at those pesky alien invaders), it likely stems from a blood sugar issue. I solved my problem by adding more protein to my diet, especially before going to sleep. It keeps my glucose levels regulated throughout the night and I sleep much more peacefully.
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M$
This is an interesting answer, and it's great that you provided the link to back up the claims.
However, it looks like what you've written is copied exactly out of that resource to which you linked. In the future, try to write the answer in your own words based on your research. Or, if you're going to quote extensively from an outside source, it's best to note this in the answer and put quote marks around the response, so people know you are referencing someone else's writing.
Good catch Lon. This answer is, in fact, cut and pasted and should have a note about that before the actual quote. For example, saying "According to WedMD: 'quoted text in here'"
This is a simple mistake folks make in the system... good that we're letting folks know how to properly cite stuff!
This is a well put together answer with 100% original writing (I think, I checked to see if any of it was cut ad pasted and it wasn't!) Well done you super smart dumb blonde!!! :-p
Thanks. I did write it all myself based on the sources. Neuroscience is cool! (although I've never studied it formally). And I know for a fact this is true. I know my dream patterns change depending on different factors like if I've been drinking, if I'm stressed out at work/school or especially if I'm taking medication. My allergy medicines give me trippy dreams. (They inhibit histamine receptors in your brain therefore altering your chemistry - that's why they make you drowsy).
My dreams are so vivid, and have been since puberty. I actually feel as if I live them and I have gotten no rest.
@dumblonde: you may already be a neuroscientist, we smell our kind.
Excellent answer! Great sources.
This is a very interesting question and this is probably the best answer.
It is true that the research topic is not still clear and there isn't an official concensus regarding the actual definition of vivid dreams and what are the best parameters that determine when they are vivid or just dreams.
They are considered one of many RBDs (REM sleep behaviour disorder).
It is also true that neurotransmitters play important roles. That is because vivid dreams were more studied in patients whith neurotransmitters imbalances (like in Parkinson's disease).
(Curr Opin Neurol. 2008 Aug;21(4):472-7. Abnormal sleep and sleepiness in Parkinson's disease.)
This doesn't mean that the rest of us do not "suffer" from them, nor that if you do, then you have a neurotransmitter imbalance. It is just that we are rarely test subjects.
Considering how complex the problem is (an interesting) it is surprising how little research has been done in normal subjects.
Sure neurotransmitters are involved (they always are) and their alterations may cause vivid dreams directly. However, many other stimuli that could cause a momentaneous neurotransmitter imbalance (noise, smell, light, movement), could be candidates for the same effect.