What Are We Really Doing While We Sleep | Compilation 

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Hank's speech delivery and body mannerisms while he talks is what makes him so great. Every word seems like a natural thought and not like he's reading off a script

I used the memory consolidation thing in UNI, I would start early in the evening: study for 2 hours and then sleep for 2 hours, wake up, study 2 more hours, sleep 2 more hours, rinse and repeat, all night long, before big tests. Did wonders for me, I would remember a lot of what I read and not be too tired.

As a teenager I practiced recognizing when I was dreaming. Each morning, I would keep my eyes closed when I woke up and deliberately try to remember what I had just been dreaming about. I’d start with whatever was happening as I woke and challenge my brain to backpedal as far as it could, all the while noticing anything that could have tipped me off about my dream state (but that didn’t, of course, because of my “red flag department”, as I still call it today, operating with only a “skeleton crew on the graveyard shift” while I was asleep). A shower head on the living room wall above the sofa. The car I was driving being clearly not mine (not to mention the gas pedal persistently moving farther away from my foot). Our single-story house having a basement or a balcony. The very identity of a certain individual shifting across multiple personas, or perhaps a total stranger filling in for a friend. I would try to memorize anything that my alert brain (with its red flag department under fully manned daytime operations) would readily notice as, well, a red flag, and then every night while drifting off, I would imagine myself as vividly as possible taking notice of recently memorized examples, snapping my fingers and declaring, “HA! This is a dream!” By the time I graduated from high school, I had effectively eighty-sixed nightmares from my psyche (which, having childhood PTSD, was my goal). At nearly the age of 50, I still don’t ever have nightmares. And I mean NEVER. Or if I do, my brain reliably remembers nothing about them. To this day, I can (and often do) still catch myself dreaming, at which point I take control over the whole thing. But, it’s never a nightlong advantage. Even in my most lucid takeovers, where I literally grab a dream by imaginary handles, throw it away, and with the vociferous demands of a drill sergeant, order up a whole new scene piecemeal, my awareness soon wanes again and I wake up thinking, “Ugh! The neighbor’s cat playing a candy apple red piano in church!? Talk about a dead giveaway! I haven’t been to church since 1992!”

Long ago after I was mugged coming home late one night & ended up wrestling the guy's gun down from my heart, I was probably moving toward PTSD. It definitely sent me into a depressive phase (I'm bipolar). I had this dream one morning, though. It was essentially about the traumatic experience, but also really different - I was with friends in the dream, alone IRL; we were headed inside, I was in my car IRL; the guy had a knife, not a gun, etc. I woke up at least 3 times during the dream and could not stay awake. Each time I fell back asleep, the dream picked up. Until it got me to a point where it basically told me the main thing that was bothering me, then I woke up completely ready to get out of bed. I think other things helped me move past that, but that dream sure was an amazing experience.

I remember the time my entire class couldn't solve a math problem. The next day, most of us could because we dreamt it the previous night. It was hilarious

What about being able to feel different things in your dreams? I have incredibly vivid dreams, but I also feel sensation that I have never experienced when awake. Thankfully I have never experienced these, since most that happen in these dreams are painful like breaking bones, being stabbed, electrocution (the list goes on). They all feel differently and while painful, they’re almost muted/reduced. So i can only guess it is not nearly as painful as they would be if I experienced them for real. I just dont know how my brain is making these unique pains and textures I’ve never felt before. The brain is super wacky, Love for any insight!

I think weird dreams are like what Richard Feynman said "Everything happened, you only saw what didn't cancel out."

And this was when scishow died

It's not the first time that people lucid dreaming were communicating back. Such experiments were done long ago.

As a sleep technician, I really love these videos :) I'm always impressed when my patients say I'm so knowledgeable about my job and I honestly think watching these videos have helped a lot with learning and retaining that knowledge for me 😊 Sometimes I don't even realize how much I know until I start rambling on for a half hour about it 😅😅 I had a sleep study last week actually for a patient potentially with RBD but it was the first time I've had an RBD study where I actually DID observe movement in the patient's REM sleep! It's always so fascinating to learn about our brains and what they do at night when we're sleeping, and to be able to pass on that knowledge to my patients to help them :)

Before I watch the video, I can tell you when I was younger I remember that I always had the best ideas and genius moment between fallling asleep and sleep and if I don’t put them on paper I forget them. In the other hand I am a bad sleepers since my 20 I wake usaly 8 to 12 time in 8 hour, and I do remember very well my dreams most of the time image, or feeling.

I used to sleep like a log and have wild lucid dreams multiple times a month. Now I sleep a few hours at a time and have very few dreams at all, and rarely remember anything of them beyond “one happened” when I wake up.

Why is this channel dead!

Weird, I’m not a sound sleeper at all, and I can count on one hand the number of dreams I’ve remembered in my entire life

Yikes. I've been a mobile, chatty sleeper my whole life. My parents even put in a motion detector aimed at the one external door I could open while I was asleep. You can come talk with me while I sleep. Full conversation but through the entire conversation it's clear that I'll tell you whatever you want to hear that will make you go away so I don't have to look awake anymore. The video recordings are kinda creepy. Mostly because I have absolutely no memory of ever having a conversation with anyone. My sleep study didn't show much other than I barely dipped into REM and my apnea is supposedly mild enough that they almost didn't set me up with a cpap. But I did quit wandering after I got my cpap and started using it. And figured out that my attention deficit hyperactive disorder inattentive type was slightly off. I am absolutely hyperactive, I was just too sleep deprived (even though I was sleeping 14 hours and was still feeling exhausted) for the hyperactivity to show. I still want naps and struggle to stay awake, especially after stressful events, probably narcoleptic, but confirmation would be another $2000 sleep study + a whole day of monitoring which I can only assume would be at least another $2000. American health care is expensive. So I am perpetually sleepy. But I'm not out of bed wandering around while I sleep anymore and I'm not flat out exhausted so it'll suffice for now.

R.E.M, shiny happy people having Dreams...pleasant dreams to all

That could explain why I remember more dreams from when I'm sick and have a very light sleep than those from normal nights where once I'm finally asleep, I won't wake up until muuuuuch later.

@PsyShow Psych, I'm surprised you didn't mention sleep talking. Both my brother and current husband occasionally will speak while dreaming, and are able to kind of answer questions about what they are dreaming about. When my husband did so last year, it freaked me out, because he seemed wide awake, in bed, having screamed my name to get me to come to the bedroom, only to find him demanding to know where more parts were, because he couldn't do his job without them. He is a factory worker, and was dreaming some coworker hadn't been supplying the parts to him he needed. This weird conversation lasted a full 3 minutes, as I was trying to understand what he wanted, and he was frustrated I didn't understand, and wouldn't believe me when I told him he was at home, in bed. I had to ask him, "Where do you think you are?" He looked around and claimed to be at work. Had this been a violent dream, he might have harmed me, believing me to be someone else. The next day, he had no recall of having sat up in bed and said all he said.

I wonder what it means if you grew out of moving around a lot in your sleep? Like when I was a kid, I was told during sleepovers that I was a DANGER to share a bed with because apparently I was kickboxing with Jean Claude VanDamme in my sleep; I would wake up flipped around (head where feet were), once my sister said I got out of bed. But in adulthood no one ever said I did such things.

“Dreaming is kind of like a simulator where you can’t hurt yourself” *drops whatever I was holding* 🥺🥺🥺

as somebody in the medical field with fascination of A&P, im delighted by this video! i often find ones whose subject matter intrigues me, only to watch and find myself bored with the basics. i found myself pausing this video more than a few times and connecting the content to my lectures, clinical experience, and even pharmacodynamics of my own medications! this is my first video from you guys & im very excited to watch more

I noticed that about remembering my dreams, I can sorta remember it better when i wake up slower. But drinking water before I sleep doesn't help ... it just makes me wet my bed, I often just dream I'm going to the bathroom and never actually wake up to go.

What I want to know is why when I dream, I'm not always myself. I'm a dream version of myself, like I am someone with a different past and set of experiences and even identities but still having at least a little bit of that sense of self that I do in reality. Or the other half of the time I'm someone else completely with a vague understanding that the person I am now isn't real, and its temporary. It's very rarely when I'm just me in a dream.

Apparently i need to sleep. I thought i read the title as "can we learn in our sleep"

Does anyone else go to the same place almost every night when they dream? I’m starting to think the way we dream when we are alive sort of constructs the landscape you go to when you die.

A girl told me about lucid dreaming when I was 20, and I’ve experienced it quite often. I simply realise that I’m dreaming and usually I choose to go flying, which is brilliant. But I also have very vidid terrifying nightmares. I have severe PTSD. I’m on clonazapam and it really helps.

I really want to go to a sleep study. I dream every night, all night and it's never good. I remember them and it sucks. It's been this way as long as I remember.

I always attempted to get a good night sleep before any test. It absolutely helped.

Some years ago I was very stressed because of the potential of failure in my career. Whenever I fell asleep with that level of stress, I dreamt that I was walking, going somewhere, and usually in a hurry to get there before it was too late. Sometimes the path I took was kind of known, but most of the time it was in roads I never been to, or under bridges that don't actually exist where I live. Either that, or I was trying to get out of a buliding without being noticed (with the feeling that I wasn't supposed to be there in the first place). Those nightmares have since stopped and I sleep very deeply now, but I think that's because I don't care about anything anymore, which I think it's a sing of Depression.

What about when your dreams don't stop even when you're awake

Golden content! You guys ROCK!

I was having terrible nightmares so much that my brain stopped letting me go to sleep (insomnia). I tried everything but nothing helped because I would always dream. I finally tried lights out drops (THC drops) out of desperation and it worked right away. How? I no longer dream because I don't go into REM. I wear a sleep watch that confirms it. Maybe REM is important but to me it was the worst part of sleeping. I am so glad I found this and I hope anyone else who has this issue finds relief as well.

I don’t remember everything about this dream, but all I know is, I had a dream one time where I was trying to disco dance in outer space. Most of the time your dreams tell you about your interests or about day-to-day life, or about things you wish you could do.

My brother in law got RBD. He might walk around while asleep and talk to himself and others. He even respons if you ask him something while asleep. Was a bit creepy until i understood what was going on.

Watching this at 4 AM is either seems about right

3:30, The same thing happens often with PTSD.

I love these compilation videos

I love dreaming. It's the only time my body isn't in pain, and I can do all the things I used to be able to do before I became ill. If someone asked me to do math problems in my sleep, I'd think I was having nightmares!

Yep I'm a light sleeper but I still feel like I get good sleep and I always thought it was weird when people said they can't remember their dreams when I can remember mine almost like a play-by-play. And I also thought it was weird when people tell me that they don't ever dream because I have a dream every single night The only times I do not dream is if I was drinking and I passed put. Other than that I dream every night and I remember most of them for days at a time some of them I remember much much later this is just some of the details I lose. Also usually I have two dreams every night one at the beginning of my sleep and one right before waking up. And if a dream was strong enough like strong enough to keep me thinking about it for a while I'll probably have the same dream the next night because when I lay down I'll be thinking about the dream I had the night before and that just triggers a continuation of the dream I had before or an alternative version of it which is really fun. I have more control during the first dream of the night than I do the second dream of the night The second dream of the night I feel like I am and observer and the first stream of the night I always feel like I'm a participant because I have control

Interesting, even as a child with sleep apnea I basically never remembered dreams. I do have crappy autobiographical memory for daytime stuff too, though my semantic memory is great, so not that surprised. Though rarely I have a day when I can actually remember past events beyond just basic facts, so I suspect the memories are there, just can't recall them 99% of time. Not sure if that's dissociation, ADHD or what?

When I was a kid I was told you only dream during REM sleep. But I've always known that's not true because I dream regardless of how long I'm sleeping. Once I dozed off for one minute (I was watching the clock and my eyes drooped lol) and I dreamed I was at McDonald's before snapping out of it and realized I was still at work. The other night I dreamed I was beefing with Kanye West for some reason. Dreams are weird.

I didn’t know lucid dreaming was that rare 😅 I’ve been lucid dreaming almost every night since I stopped a nightmare from progressing (time literally froze in it). I always remember my dreams afterwards and even pick up where I left off, jump back in time to change dialogue and reactions from characters and have full control over what happens in my dream. Although sometimes I’m so tired, I don’t try to control my dream, I just let it play out. Those dreams are by far the most bizarre dreams I have, often involving chase scenes, hazards like fire, or most annoying of all, scenes looping or barely changing with each loop. These dreams are harder to remember, but I usually do remember chunks of it. The randomness makes it harder to remember.

I love sleep paralysis. Fighting to wake up, the feeling, all of it. I also act out a lot of my dreams. I've fought in my sleep, done push-ups, had sex, and many others.

I dreamed a tune a few nights ago that I didn't recognise as a quote from any piece that I knew, but it wasn't that startlingly wonderful, and because I didn't write it down, it was gone a few minutes later.

My brother would sleep walk. Me and my siblings would be afraid to wake him. Because, if you were to wake him after he fell asleep on the couch while watching tv in the evening, when we tried to wake him to go to his own bed, he would throw punches at you. We learned to stand back and nudge him to avoid getting hit. It would take him several minutes to actually wake up, and he would never remember punching at us. Oh, he would also say weird things while sleeping. I also talked lots in my sleep and would record it. I only have a mild form and it troubled me as a baby. I actually had insomnia as a baby. crazy brains

If someone made me solve math problems in my dreams, I would never want to sleep again

I have RBD I fell off the bed and hit my face/ head on my nightstand. I looked like I was beaten by a horrible person, black eye, swollen face etc.

So perfect for pre sleep routine

My least favourite dreams are when I have anxiety attacks within them. I don't usually remember what triggered the attack in my dreams, but I do usually remember having the anxiety attack (unlike when I'm awake and have one), and I wake up with the awful after effects on my mind and body.

I watch your stuff every day and love them (along with other awesome creators, no offense).

Oh my, I learned about this when I was dating and then married a VietNam vet with PTSD. While dating, I woke up in a headlock being punched by my fiance. He was pretty easy to get away from, but at the time PTSD wasn't a diagnosis available to VietNam era vets until long after the VietNam war. I learned to wake up from a sound sleep and get away from him when he was having those dreams, turn on the lights, get a broom and poke him from a safe distance to wake him up. This did nothing to help my own mental health issues associated with familial abuse. Myself, I've found clonazapam does the trick for the most extreme nightmares and night terrors. I believe regular dreams help flush out the garbage we collect but don't need during our lives. The categories of dreams make them memorable or not. Most are entirely forgettable. Some are recurrent, and those tend to be the naked in middle school anxiety dreams. The naked middle school part is really irrelevant in the larger population, but the anxiety dreams recur. Then there are those that seem to be memorable forever. I have had a few of those, and they tend to be nightmares. There was one during a period of extreme life change that was horrible, and I woke up, went back to sleep and it continued on being more horrible, and I woke up, and then fell asleep and it continued on hideously all night. I still remember the dream in detail 30 years later. Since there never was a nuclear attack on St Louis, I'll say it was the life change that inspired it. And since I have CPTSD the introduction of clonazapam into my daily meds really helped those dreams calm down. Now the dreams tend to be just sad instead of horror movies inside my eyelids.

Thanks for letting me know i might go bad in a couple years💀

I'm kind of surprised that they didn't know about externalCommunication in your dreams I listen to a lot of space related videos and also your channel that influence my dreams to be well pretty awesome the best dreams I've ever had is when I'm in space as for being an actual control just don't get too excited lucid dreaming you wake up and damn it

After I stopped working I started sleeping when my body wants to sleep from 3am till noon. Sleeping when is natural for me stopped my sleep walking and I no longer remember most dreams. I also no longer have night terrors. All of my symptoms and health problems just resolved on their own once I was allowed to sleep when my body wants to. The one time I had these problems again was when I went to Italy, the jet lag caused it to come back. I'm thankful to find that just sleeping when natural cures it all for me. It started after being left unconscious for a day after being ran over by a motor cycle as a child.

I love you man. I have so much problems sleeping. Still having problems ..... But you entertain me lol

Speaking of sleep I highly recommend everyone get into lucid dreaming. It has many benefits including: Euphoria Higher self awareness More creativity Getting rid of recurring nightmares Improving mental health Getting rid of fears Getting better at other skills Problem solving It's a great tool for pretty much anything in life and it can provide lots of fun. I highly recommend it to everyone, besides it also helps you get more time out of your life. The only problem is that there's lots of misinformation

And very informal 😁😁

I’ve tried to watch this 3 times and I keep falling asleep

It seems like "science" doesn't actually understand very much at all abut sleep and dreaming. I'm so glad that you don't let stand in the way of telling everyone about sleep and dreaming. I think it's great that you're totally comfortable using your imagination and creativity to make up explanations that give value to the experimental data, which on its own can only provide the public with information that all of us already know from our own first hand experiences. I look forward to more videos on topics that you don't understand.

I vividly remember this, I was tired and playing Portal, or rather, Aperture Tag. I was stuck on one of the space levels with the blue gel and the excursion funnels. I tried over and over again to the point where I gave up and went to bed. That night, I had a dream. In my dream, I was playing that level, and I don't know why but I solved the puzzle and got to the end in my dream. I must have played or tried on that level so hard that I memorized the entire layout of the room too. I woke up and went on my laptop and immediately tried the solution that I dreamed about in my head, and it worked.

Not Hank mentioning fighting Voldemort in dreams haha I thought that was just me haha

I only remember dreams if I am startled awake up during them. Sometimes the dreams will wake me up. I also thrash around when I have a PTSD nightmare.

Friend content is divine ❣️ 😄

I used to listen this everyday and every night

I took an SNRI for years and now I realize why a side effect was vivid dreams!

You explain at least 4 times what REM is. My memory is good enough to keep it in mind.

I almost always remember my dreams.. sadly. Sooo many nightmares.

My husband suffers from this. It started when he suffered a major traumatic brain injury. He punches, kicks, yells, & even jumps out of bed & runs. He now takes anti seizure medication but it works only about 50%of the time. He still fights with dream nemeses & we have huge body pillows between us to save me getting beat on. He feels horrible & hates himself but he truly has no control over it. I hope they find something better than medication that only sometimes works, if only so we can both get sound sleep!

Heeeyyy I do research on alpha synuclein! I was NOT expecting Scishow to mention my favorite protein 😁😁😁 idk why this made me so happy lol but it did

17:31 again i suffer from complex ptsd, if you need help then reach out to your doctor or a professional and i recommend you to do so if you have experience some traumatic event or events and before it gets to a point where no longer capable to think normally or disrupted feelings and be honest when you speak to your doctor or a professional, it is important to tell what is on your mind and feelings, i also recommend to read your own body language so you can be aware and setlle it if necessary to a comfortable state so you can concentrate better, i know it can be hard but it helps the doctor or professional to understand you better, i go to sleep with youtube on and most on about stories with one narrator cause if there are more voices i get more awaken rather than falling asleep suddently cause i do not feel tired either when i am going to bed or just woke up and i have notice when i am at new prescription drug i do feel tired then it fades away and then stops the feeling of tiredness, most of what i watch is about galaxies and the empty space that went on for 3 to 4 hours on low volume and turn my face/body away from the screen while hugging a 50 x 150 pillow and trying to relax while trying to ignore those intrusive memories/thoughts,, it helps a litlle to fall asleep but i go to bed at 19;00 and fall asleep around 22;00 to 01;00, if i go to bed at 22;00 then i fall asleep late at night, i also walk between 20 to 30k steps a day to try ignore intrusive memories/thoughts wich helps a little to distract my thoughts of ways but some days i only walk around 16k so my feed and legs and my spine can relax and i drink alot of water but not too much and at the same time i talk with a family member or with a friend about somthing else like a normal conversation or i listen to music that i like and liked wich helps a bit during the day,,

Me watching this after having 4 hour sleep the night before and now slept for 14 hours last night. FML

strange about the neropanehrine thing because for me, the clearer I remember my dream, the more refreshing the sleep I just had was

Thanks

I write computer programs, and sometimes it takes forever to find a problem in the coding. I can spend hours searching without finding the problem, however, if I give up at that point and sleep, many times I wake and go straight to the problem line of code. I don't remember dreaming about it, but my brain has obviously worked it out while I was asleep.

I had lucid dreams, and sleep walk, and sleep talk constantly as a child. People would say they figured out I was asleep when I started to not make sense. I would NOT remember the conversation but they accused me of having sleep conversations almost every day. They also said I would argue that I was awake but I was actually asleep, so I even argue in my sleep.

Great info. I now need a robot Llama in real life (not just in a dream)

Hey, I loved your video, thank you! I wanted to show it to my grandparents but they don't speak English. Have you ever considered translating your content into different languages?

When I was in the final months of grad school and working my butt off, I would dream my chem lab reports in detail. The next morning when I got to school, I could quickly type up the report because the info was already organized and the concepts clarified. Thanks brain!

Good Information. but in my experience, sometimes, the counter-reality dream was big problem. For example, In a sleep after watching this SciShow Psych cotntent, i dreams a very vivid dream about "Dream is just junk information". And Then I wrongly remember that false but vivid dream as real experience. And in a classroom i make an incorrect answer about dream to professor, and get D. it is Not exactly true, but i want to tell it was more seriously bad and embarrassing situation.

I've had a few dreams where i can actually feel and taste what I've touched and ate or drank. Its pretty neat how our brains are sometimes

Dreams are highly underrated

We go into another world!

Melatonin worked really well to help me get to sleep but I realized it was putting me in this awful fog all day and it only worsened as it built up in my system over time. Some people are overly sensitive to it.

It's literally 4 pm and I'm watching this

Fascinating if norepinephrine means remembering dreams how do night terrors work

14:34 i dont dream mostly and i suffer from complex ptsd,,,,,,,,,,, and i sleep between a little over 3 to almost 5 hours atmost and sometimes now 7 hours here and there but not regulary, only when i am awake i have strong visual traumatic memomies that changes rather quick and they are soo intrusive at some points that i eather break down towards fear/anger or numb just numb no feelings then it comes back to that i dont know what i feel but i do get help,,, if you need help then contact your doctor or seek professional help and be open about it instead of like me hidding my true feelings that comes out,,, i have to act normal not to startle anyone or make anyone worried and it is also linked to one of my ptsd´s,

I use to sleep walk a lot, sleep talk and a few times as a kid I was told I attacked others while asleep 😥

I am 69 and I guess I have been lucid dreaming all my life. Ihave often been totally absorbed in a dream and then something happens that some part of my mind knows information about the incident. Either scary or back story is impossible and I have in middle of dream said that is wrong or important, impossible or very scary . Then I ask why then I realize. "oh I'm dreaming!" Then I remember being relieved and then sinking back into my dream! Exactly true

wouldn't asking yourself frequently throughout the day and for a long period whether or not you were dreaming prime you for a borderline attachment to reality? or some other dissociative disorder?

3:45 don’t forget withdrawals, dependence, addiction, and drug induced cognitive impairment. It would have to be a severe issue for a doctor to prescribe this controlled substance to someone for something other than seizures and unfortunately severe anxiety attacks these days.

I taught my little brother his abc’s and how to count to 100 by using them like lullabies-makes sense now!😊

I have reoccurring dreams but its not the same dream it's the same world and it expands and continues to move on while I'm awake and I can fall asleep and wake up either in the middle of hanging out or doing mundane stuff even work shopping anything and the people I'm around that I know say things like oh we were wondering when you would get back or oh there you are and then fill me in. Its all connected and I e been able to make maps and a list of everyone I meet and interact with. It can sometimes be large groups per dream sometimes it's a small group but when a bar pops up and the Tender says oh its good to see you again and brings up your last visit and says because you disappear suddenly sometimes and we are never sure you remember.

I sleep very heavily. But I can recall every dream that I have after waking up. I feel like I had a better night's sleep if I dreamt as well. Does that just make me an outlier?

*WHERE ARE YOU GUYS NOW???WHY NO NEW VIDEOOOOO???*

Sleep paralysis is horrible I have experienced this. I’ve had anxiety attack while I’m sleeping! Horrible

Mugwort tea before bed can also help with lucid dreaming and remembering dreams.

Nice...❤❤❤

I have extremely vivid dreams/nightmares every night, and I def have a terrible sleep cycle

Just this morning I dreamt that I was fighting my way out of a serial killer's house. Sigmund Freud might say that I'm currently confronting a serious threat to my ego 😂