BRAIN: Sleep and Dreams

One thing i'd like to understand more is human brain - but the fact is, its the most complex & least understood part of human anatomy.

One of the facts about human brain is  - Its much more active in the night than during the day. Logically speaking you can argue that your brain does much complex calculation when you are awake but in reality its not true. your brain is active when you are asleep. Scientists don't know yet why this is but research is still going on.

Broadly speaking there are different stages of brain activity and each activity is differentiated by analyzing the brain waves.

BRAIN WAVES: 


Beta waves: beta waves are the waves associated with day to day activities when you are awake. these waves are very low in amplitude and high in frequency. (non technically - these waves are small & very close to each other). These waves are non consistent and this is expected as the brain does all the calculation s related to day to day activities.

Alpha waves: alpha waves are the waves associated with states of relaxation, for example when you are meditating. These waves are of high amplitude and low frequency.

Brain waves during sleep.

Generally there are 5 stages of sleep. stage 1 & stage 2 of sleep is characterized by theta waves. stage 3 & stage 4 of sleep is characterized by delta waves and finally stage 5 is REM sleep this stage is generally associated with dreams.
   
Theta waves: theta waves are the waves associated with light sleep. these waves are of higher in amplitude and lower in frequency when compared to alpha waves.
stage 1 and stage 2 of sleep is characterized by theta waves. These stages are light stages of sleep, in fact if someone is woken up during these stages they will often report as not being sleep. If u are a student i'm pretty sure you will be stage 1 and stage 2 sleep during your lectures.

Delta waves: delta waves are the waves associated with deep sleep. these waves are highest in amplitude and lowest in frequency.
delta sleep is our deepest sleep, its very hard to wake up a person during delta sleep. when the sleeper is awakened from delta sleep he/she will be usually sleepy and disoriented.

REM sleep: well this is an unique stage of sleep. this stage is generally associated with dreams, btw REM means rapid eye movement.
when a sleeper is awakened during REM sleep, great majority of them will  report they were having a dream.

Usually during your sleep you'll dream every 90 minutes. At first the dream time will be less and gradually the dream time will increase.

Another interesting fact about human brain is, Scientists believe that more you dream the higher is your IQ. if u dream more go ahead and boast that you have high IQ :)