8 surprising facts about dreams that will leave you like "What the hell"

Here are 8 surprising facts about dreams that you might know about:

1. The average person has about 1,460 dreams per year; in other words that’s about 4 dreams a night.

Most people over the age of 10 dream at least 4 to 6 times per night during a stage of sleep called REM (for Rapid Eye Movements, a distinguishing characteristic of this stage of sleep).

During REM periods our brains become as active as they are during waking, although not all parts of the brain are reactivated.

2. You forget half your dream within five minutes of waking up!

And within 10 minutes, you forget 90% of it. This being attested to the fact that the function of dreaming is to weed out unnecessary memory connections that the brain makes over time.

Being able to recall most of your dream would defeat this very purpose.

3. Men experience up to five erections every night while dreaming.

So, other than that 'morning wood' that dudes have, the average man is said to typically have 3-5 erections per 8 hours of sleep, usually at night. Yep. But don't fret just yet, your body is still functioning normally.

4. You can't scream for help while having a nightmare.

Here you are having a nightmare and you eventually wake up screaming to the top of your lungs. The fact is you might wake up screaming but cannot scream during the nightmare itself.

Reason being with most dreams (and nightmares) occurring during REM sleep, your voluntary muscles are essentially paralysed.

5. Women may be more prone to nightmares than men

A study reveals that women experience significantly more nightmares than men and have more emotional dreams.

6. Some people can only dream in black and white.

Close to 12% of people in the world dream entirely in black and white. Reason being childhood exposure to black-and-white television. It is more common in people over 55 years of age and is reported less in those under 25.

7. You can totally be diagnosed with something known as "nightmare disorder."

Nightmare disorder symptoms include repeated awakenings from the major sleep period or naps with detailed recall of extended and extremely frightening dreams.

Those who suffer from such disorder end up having distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

8. Recurring dreams could be a sign you have unresolved issues in your life.

If you keep having recurring dreams, it could be a manifestation of some unresolved issue. They usually begin in one's childhood, and can persist through one's lifetime.