Most Interesting Facts About Dreams You Might Not Know About

Dreams are images and stories that our minds create while we sleep. Dreams can be fun and romantic, but they can also be frightening, strange and bizarre.

But, why do dreams occur? What do they mean? Can we control our dreams?

Here is our list of 26 fascinating facts about dreams that you might have never heard about!

Within five minutes of waking, 90% of your dream is forgotten. However, if you're awakened at the REM (rapid eye movement sleep) stage, it is likely to remember the dream. If that's not the case, you can continue your dream if you get back to sleep and sail off to dreamland once again.

The longest dream usually lasts up to 45 minutes and occurs in the morning.

Negative emotions, such as anxiety, sadness, guilt, and anger, are more commonly felt in dreams than positive ones.

The average person experiences three to five dreams per night. Some people have more active brains so they dream as much as seven dreams every night.

Dreams take about two to three hours of the usual sleeping time.

Did you know that you are paralyzed whenever you are dreaming? Dreams usually occur during the REM stage of sleep and even though the brain is very active, the body is temporarily paralyzed. This is called sleep paralysis.

Not all dreams come true, but there are some that do come true in real life. It might be just a pure coincidence, but 18 to 38% of people claim that they experienced at least one precognitive dream.

You can only dream of faces you are familiar with.

Sleeping in colder rooms causes terrifying nightmares. The temperature of the room in which you sleep plays an important role in your dream phase.

You can control your dreams. A study has shown that some people know that they are in dreamland and can even control their visions. This is called lucid dreaming.

Unborn babies can dream, too! A fetus in his mother's womb has dreams that focus on touch and sound. On the other hand, toddlers do not dream until age 3.

Blind people also dream. People who became blind after some medical condition or an accident, are still able to experience intense dreams. Those who were born blind experience dreams that focus on the sensations of touch, smell and sound.

Pets also have nightly visions. So, if you see your dog or cat moving their paws or making strange noises, this means that they are having vivid dreams or terrifying nightmares.

Spicy food can make you remember more dreams and nightmares.

Surprisingly, men and women dream about sex the same amount.

Women experience more emotionally intense nightmares than men.

Dreams have inspired many great inventions of mankind. They are responsible for the invention of the sewing machine, periodic table, DNA's double helix spiral form and Google.

In the state of REM (rapid eye movement) stage of your sleep, your body is paralyzed. However, there are people who act out their dreams and these have resulted in broken legs, arms, and furniture.

Sleepwalking is a rare and dangerous sleep disorder. Sleepwalkers don't just act out their dreams, but they go on real adventures at night.

Studies have shown that men and women dream differently. Men have violent and aggressive dreams and they dream more about other men.

Every human being on the planet Earth dreams. If you think that you are not dreaming, you should know that you are in fact dreaming - you just forget your dreams.

People who are snoring can not be dreaming at the same time.

People spend around six years of their lifetime dreaming.

Our brains are more active when we sleep than when we're awake.

Drug, alcohol and nicotine withdrawal can cause more intense dreams.

Our bodies burn more calories sleeping than it does during the day.