Expert: Walter Hintz - 9/2/2007

Question
On average a person will sleep maybe 6 hours a night. If this is the case, how do we cram such long dreams into this short time. Situations in dreams can last for days or even weeks. How is it that this works?

Answer
Hi Jeff
There is still a lot of mystery about dreaming and we really do not know exactly the brain processes them. Events that occur in dreams are not sequential skipping from one topic to another.  Parts of the dream really make no sense but when we wake up and think about it we put everything in order so it does make sense.  The long time that may pass during a dream is an illusion.
Even though you may be asleep for 6 hours the actual dreaming may last only an hour.