16. DO PEOPLE REALLY HAVE PSYCHIC DREAMS? This question is open to debate. While reports of such dreams are amazingly common (2 out of 3 people surveyed by researchers David Ryback and Letitia Sweitzer claimed to have personally experienced a psychic dream), many of these are probably "false positives." For instance, let's say that you dream of a tornado one night, and then awaken to hear news reports of a destructive tornado that touched down the previous evening. Chances are, you are likely to feel a bit spooked by this correlation between your dreams and outer, waking reality. Was it just a coincidence, or was your dream "psychic"?Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself before deciding that your dream came true: · Were there tornado warnings on the weather before I went to bed, which might have triggered my dream? · Could I have subconsciously incorporated external noises I heard while I was asleep (such as wind, tornado sirens, etc.) into my dream? · Have I ever dreamed of a tornado before? (Perhaps tornados are a common theme for you. If so, the odds dictated that sooner or later your dreams were bound to coincide with an actual tornado, by mere chance.) Were there any unique details of the dream which identified the tornado in my dream as the specific tornado that actually touched down? On any given night, hundreds or even thousands of people may dream of tornados, airplane crashes, earthquakes, floods,etc. Scientists would be very surprised indeed if no one ever dreamed of these disasters on nights when they actually occurred. Simply put, the laws of probability would predict a fairly large number of these coincidences. On the other hand, there are many compelling examples of dreams whose details match those of actual events so closely that it would be hard to attribute it to chance alone.And there are some very interesting studies of dream telepathy, which suggest a weak (and highly individual) psychic effect. These studies are difficult to refute from any methodological standpoint.

17 HOW CAN YOU TELL WHETHER YOUR DREAM WILL COME TRUE? Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way to separate or identify psychic dreams until after the fact. If you feel that you frequently experience psychic dreams, you may be able to identify some personal patterns if you pay close enough attention.Documenting your dreams, and telling them to other people before the event takes place in reality, can lend credibility to assertions of psychic dreaming ability.

18. IS IT TRUE THAT IF YOU DIE IN YOUR DREAM, YOU WILL DIE IN REAL LIFE? Absolutely not. Many of us would be happy to share examples of dreams in which we clearly died. And I promise that I am, as of this writing, still alive to tell about it! =) Many people dream of falling, but wake up before hitting bottom. Perhaps our minds, even while asleep, have such a strong survival instinct that they often simply do not permit us to dream about the actual phenomenon of death. People who do dream their own death and live to tell about it may be more curious about death, so much so that their curiosity overcomes their natural fear of it.

19. ARE DREAMS RELATED TO OUR HEALTH? Dreams have always enjoyed a special relationship with the area of physical health. In ancient Greece, sick people slept in special temples designed to incubate diagnostic or curative dreams. Later, famous psychic dreamers such as Edgar Cayce suggested a link between dreams and information about our physical health. Some scientists suppose that, during sleep, we may have greater access to information about the state of our bodies, which may be incorporated into our dreams. (For example, germs loose in the body may be represented as insects or other pests running loose in our house. Or a high fever may be depicted as a fire raging out of control.) When we are awake, there are hundreds of external stimuli competing for our attention. While we sleep, on the other hand, we may shut out the external stimuli in favor of internal ones. Maybe this allows us to pick up on very subtle signs of bodily infection or distress.

20 HOW DO SUBSTANCES LIKE DRUGS AND FOODS AFFECT OUR DREAMS? It is a fact that many substances affect dream recall. Laboratory studies suggest that depressants such as alcohol, marijuana, sleeping pills, and sedatives tend to reduce REM sleep and therefore reduce dream recall. (Some people report the opposite. This is probably due to an effect called REM rebound. For more information about REM rebound, see number 2 above)Some drugs, such as certain anti-depressants, greatly increase dream recall. Some people enjoy these strong, vivid dreams; to others, they may be upsetting or disturbing. People should discuss such drug side-effects with their doctors.Some people say that products such as Ginko, Choline, B vitamins, and/or Zinc may increase dream recall. Others have no success at all with such products. In any case, a word of caution is certainly advised - some substances may be toxic when ingested in large enough quantities.Certain foods, such as milk and turkey, contain a substance which may increase drowsiness. Lastly, it is probably a good idea to follow the common wisdom, to avoid heavy and/or spicy meals near bedtime. When our bodies are very busy with digestion, it may negatively affect our dreams.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 16-20
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