Dream on Dreamer: What Dreams Tell Us and Why We Need Them

The average person has five dreams every night and yet many of us struggle to remember them at all. But dreams have a specific purpose and are in no way the fantasy they might seem.

“The best way I can describe dreams is that dreams are you witnessing your brain speak to itself in its native language,” explains Michael Grandner, Director of the Sleep and Health Research Programme at the University of Arizona and LYMA’s Sleep Ambassador. “We take in all these experiences during the day and we learn all kinds of stuff but evolution figured out there are things that enhance survival that we can't learn directly. There are subtle connections that are not obvious when you think about them linearly. Only by processing them through dreaming, can they help us survive, rewire and learn new actions that you would have never normally figured out. Dreams give us a unique depth of understanding,” explains Professor Grandner.

So, dreams are our ancient in-built chemistry using a different platform to teach us something new. In which case, why are they so forgettable when we wake? Wouldn’t it help to have total dream recall? “Dreams are built to be forgotten. You're not conscious when you have them and the only time you remember them is when your consciousness peaks as you wake up. That’s when you might lucid dream, where you have some consciousness inside the dream,” says Grandner. Lucid dreaming supplements have gained in popularity recently, as we become more in-tune with our mental health and attempt to decode our cryptic brains. Let’s be honest, listening to others recount their dreams is akin to watching magnolia paint dry but most of us are still fascinated by our own.

Lucid dreaming supplements contain botanicals that can calm the mind, help to rest and aid restful sleep but none have been proven to be scientifically robust yet. It’s widely thought that you can teach people to lucid dream though. “Indeed, you can train people to lucid dream but dreams do their work whether you know them or not and you'll probably have multiple dreams every night, more towards the end of the night,” says Grandner. “Those who dream a lot are spending more time in the REM state which is the most restorative stage of the sleep cycle.”

Dreams happen in REM sleep when we're totally cut off and our dreams get more intense as the night progresses because those REM episodes get longer. So, if you're waking up after five or six hours of sleep, you're missing out on almost all of your potential dreaming time. People who sleep in later, report much more vivid dreams because they’re allowing them the optimum time to form. In fact, the first symptom many LYMA customers report is that they dream more; both increasing in number of dreams and remembering those dreams. This is due to LYMA’s KSM-66^® Ashwagandha; the highest concentrated, bioavailable and only proven form of ashwagandha when dosed at the correct 600mg daily dose. Ashwagandha is considered by experts to be the most effective natural extract to aid restorative sleep, although the market offers varying qualities. Ashwagandha leaf compounds are known to be highly toxic and well-avoided, the best quality supplements like LYMA, instead harvesting only the roots which are free of toxicity. Peer- reviewed studies have demonstrated its role as a world-class nootropic, immunostimulant, anti-inflammatory and cortisol regulator, able to create the optimum physical environment for deep, restful sleep. Put simply, the KSM-66^® Ashwagandha in LYMA helps you dream big and wake up brighter as a result.