Yahoo News Sleep expert reveals why you're having such vivid dreams in spring - and what they mean
We all know the feeling of waking up after a particularly eventful or weird dream and wondering where on earth it sprang from.
And it seems that we have more vivid dreams at this time of year, according to a sleep expert. If you have found that your dreams have been pretty weird recently and far more vivid than usual - maybe even interrupting your sleep altogether - then it seems you are not alone.
Sleep expert Martin Seeley has an explanation for why dream life feels so real and becomes much more colourful in spring, reports The Mirror. Seeley, who is chief executive officer of the company MattressNextDay, has explained to FeMail why vividness of dreams can increase around April.
He said: "A study found that we experience the most disruption to our sleep in the spring season. This is because our wake times are earlier - due to the longer daylight hours - and, therefore, our sleep duration decreases.
"It's also been recorded that our time asleep is shorter when there are longer days." So, we sleep less as the amount of light increases and this disrupts our sleep hormone cycle, leading to more intense dreaming.
"In fact, the same study revealed that, during spring, our time asleep is reduced by 25 minutes - even when going to bed two minutes earlier than in winter," he said. "This could be attributed to melatonin production, which is a hormone that helps you sleep.
"Melatonin is regulated by light and darkness: when there is more light - such as in spring and summer - you don't produce as much melatonin. With less light, you produce more."
Some of the most commonly experienced dreams at this time of year, according to the report, can involve hair or teeth falling out; getting lost; infidelity; drowning; fire and spiders. These dreams can have many interpretations, depending upon how you yourself perceive them, but one dream analyst expert offered FeMail some potential meanings.
Inbaal Hongiman said losing your teeth could be related to age and transformation, indicating anxiety about losing something such as a romance. Equally, losing hair can be related to age and may indicate worry over getting older or how you perceive your image.
Getting lost in dreams may indicate you feel like you don't quite fit in somewhere or have recently lost a loved one, claims the expert, and it can mean your brain is trying to process grief. Dreams of being cheated upon might mean you are feeling insecure in your relationship.
Dreams of drowning can mean you feel overburdened in your life while spiders can represent feelings of being afraid. But the expert recommends you use their presence as inspiration and draw upon their web-building abilities to try to deal with any difficulties you face.
Dreams of fire, meanwhile, can have a variety of meanings so the advice is to take your feelings about it into account. If the flames did not seem threatening then the fire could indicate an inner transformation.
