Is there any way to stop, minimise or forget dreaming while you sleep ?
A warm glass of milk, certain vitamin supplements, certain foods, prescription drugs ?
I know of several people who can recall a dream only several times a year. Is it possible to (for a person who has regular vivid remembered dreams) change your diet, habits or body chemistry so that you won’t remember your dreams ?
Goo, why would you want to stop??
(Apparently) Dreaming happens at certain times of sleep (something like 4 hours after falling asleep, and then every 90 minutes after that)
Lucid dreamers train themselves to wake up at cetain times so that they can go back into a dream with the will to make it lucid.
So maybe it is possible to time yourself to wake up in the opposite way, so that you miss the dreams, and then go back to sleep when you are next due to be not dreaming.
Something like that anyway.
Oh, and I have heard that certain things inhibit dreams (and there are things that make them more likely) The following things do something (can’t remember if it’s inhibit, or ‘hibit’) Turkey, Alcohol, Sleeping Pills, Seratonin etc…
For me, it has been staying up really late - I tend to hit the sack between 1 and 2 AM every night; I don’t dream much anymore (or I don’t remember them).
I miss dreams, why would you want to stop?
“Sleep usually begins with a cycle that consists of 80 minutes of NREM sleep followed by 10 minutes of REM sleep. This 90-minute cycle is repeated three to six times each night. With each cycle, the amount of slow-wave sleep decreases and the proportion of REM sleep increases.” - http://www.ambien.com/importance3.asp
I have found that not thinking about or trying to remember my dreams when I wake up or during the rest of the day, helps in reguards to what you want to do. I went from always experiencing and remembering my dreams to hardly ever doing either. When I used to dwell on my dreams during the day, I found that I experienced my dreams more and recall became easier. Also, lucid dreams were more frequent. I have a friend who had nightmares everynight. Since she got on a SSRI, they went away. So, if nightmares are the problem, you may want to look into it. Goodluck.
According to Star Trek, no dreams drive you insane. 
Considering that people don’t know how or why dreams happen, I doubt there’d be an obvious way to stop them.
Satasha I’m sure this a really dumb question, but what is an “SSRI” ? I googled, but got a variety of stuff, primarily the Social Science Research Institute.
I will try the ‘trying not to think about it’ option. Thanks for that hint, I hope it helps.
SSRI = selective serotonin uptake inhibitor
Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, and Celexa, and a host of other antidepressants are SSRI’s.
Thanks Squink.
SSRI = selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor = antidepressant
They keep serotonin in the neural synapses longer. Supposedly this can dampen or cure depression in many people. The one she had success with as far as ending the nightmares was Zoloft.
My wife has much more vivid and strange dreams since she started “effexor” a different type of antidepressant. I don’t remember my dreams, and the trick for me seems to be a constant state of sleep depridation (I’m an insomniac). I dream almost immediately upon going to sleep(my wife says I say the strangest things about two minutes after I doze off) but don’t remember a thing.
A question-- why does all the research say dreams start after you’ve been asleep for awhile and then repeat every 90 min or so, but many times I’ve started falling asleep for just a few minutes, then been woken up by something and can remember a dream I was starting to have? I also think I’ve taken twenty minute naps and had dreams during those, but can’t remember any specific occassions so I’m not sure about those. Does anyone know how this is explained?
Me, I’d love to learn how to stop dreaming, or change the types of dreams I have, because I’ve always suffered from nightmares. Once in awhile I’ll have a dream that’s just ‘okay’, but usually they’re full-blown, all out, Kezermezer-eating-zombie-vampire dreams. Lately they’ve been ever worse, and frequently wake me up with a jerk and some hyperventilation. That sure makes em stick in your head. Getting quite sick of it.
2 points here.
I always sleep on trains (daily process), my train trip never takes more then 30 mins. I will usually have 1 dream from every train 2 train sleeps. I think this 90 min mark might be an Average taking into account people whom do not remember their dreams.
Secondly.
There are ways to increase your dreaming, but as for not dreaming ?
I do not dream if i am on strong pain killers … and the one time in my life i was anti depressents i did not dream either.
I second the get-less-sleep option. About 4 years ago it became fairly routine for me to get only 5-5.5 hours of sleep at night.
Only when I sleep longer do I get any dreaming done at night.
My friend usually doesn’t dream when he goes to bed after smoking pot.
You can “dream” almost immediately upon drifting off, but true dreams occur in REM sleep, which takes about an hour to get to.
Well, you could make a note of whatever I do, and do that- I never dream.
Well, OK, I’m aware that’s not true, but I never REMEMBER dreams, so from my POV, I don’t dream… even when Mrs Warrior says I was tossing and turning all night, or even sitting up and talking, I have no memory of any dreams when I wake up.
Oh, and I sleep for around 7-8 hours a night,