“It’s not a huge, dramatic effect but it certainly seems like paying attention to your dreams can have positive effects,” says Harvard University psychologist Deirdre Barrett, author of The Committee of Sleep.

Research shows that dreaming is not just a byproduct of sleep, but serves its own important functions in our well-being.

We Learn When We Dream: Our Vivid Dreams Shape Our Memories

dream sleep actually provides at least two benefits for the brain.

The first is actually creativity, because it's during REM sleep and dreaming specifically when the brain starts to collide all of the information that you've recently learned together with all of this back catalog of autobiographical information that you've got stored up in the brain.

The second benefit of dream sleep is essentially a form of overnight therapy. It's during dream sleep where we start to actually take the sting out of difficult, even traumatic, emotional experiences that we've been having.

There are thousands of anecdotes of creative greats having eureka moments when they dream.

dream recall is thought to require some amount of wakefulness during the night for the vision to be encoded in longer-term memory.

The sleeping brain cannot store new information into long-term memory

Dream themselves exist first in working memory, or the memory we use to hold and manipulate thought fragments.

REM (rapid eye movement) is the stage of sleep in which dreaming usually occurs.

Dreams are potentially massive indicators of your overall sleep health, and, more specifically, your REM sleep health.

The process of hammering and forging our daily experiences into long-term memory through REM sleep is how we learn to master any sport, art, musical instrument, surgery, etc. through daily practice.

The more regularly you exercise, the better you will sleep, the more you will dream during REM sleep, and the more of a creative powerhouse you will become.

When you’re awake, your thoughts have a certain logic to them. When you sleep, your brain is still active, but your thoughts or dreams often make little or no sense. This may be because the emotional centers of the brain trigger dreams, rather than the logical regions.

The occasional nightmare is considered a dream that’s simply more frightening or upsetting. Nightmares tend to be caused by stress, anxiety, or sometimes as a reaction to certain medications.

if you have nightmares frequently, you could have a sleeping disorder.

Regularly occurring scary dreams can be labeled a sleeping disorder if the nightmares: -cause you to be anxious about going to sleep -lead to frequent disruptions of your sleep -bring about other sleeping or psychological problem

 Sleep hygiene involves ensuring both your habits and sleep environment are ideal for quality rest.

Dark and quiet room. Temperatures in the 60s to low 70s are considered best. Remove or turn off light sources like TVs, VCRs, and alarm clocks, and consider light blocking shades if you live in an urban area or sleep past sunrise. White noise machines or earplugs can be helpful for drowning out bothersome noise.

Some psychologists believe talking about dreams and getting social support to put them in perspective is key to reducing anxiety following nightmares.

Other approaches can focus on routines or working on areas of your life that could be contributing to stress or fear.

The American Psychological Association’s 2013 Stress in America poll found that stress was associated with poorer sleep, and that poorer sleep was also associated with higher stress

When you’ve had a tough day, take a few minutes to de-stress before bed. Try a warm bath, relaxing music, yoga or other techniques to see what helps you most.

Knowing something about a dream or nightmare can significantly help a person identify any “real-life” stressors that they can easily modify to prevent restless night.

The dream-deprived nod off quickly, sleep soundly and emerge from sleep fully awake.

The processes that allow us to create long-term memories largely lie dormant while we sleep, which is why most dreams are forgotten shortly after waking.

The emotional content and logical consistency of a dream also affect how much of our dreams we remember.

before going to bed, drink three full glasses of water — not beer or wine, because they suppress R.E.M. sleep — which will force you to get up and go to the bathroom. “Middle-of-the-night awakenings are frequently accompanied by dream recall,” Stickgold says.

repeating the phrase “I’m going to remember my dreams” three times before you drift off to sleep. And keep a notebook and pen by your bed. Both preparations establish recall as a priority.

On waking up, don’t open your eyes, don’t move, don’t say a thing — any sensory perception or movement tends to wipe out memories of a dream.

As the brain awakens, it starts to turn on processes needed for long-term storage.

If a belief is not realized immediately in open deeds, it is stored up for the guidance of the future.

Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.

I was bused to a school in Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn in 1972. I was one of the first black kids in the history of the school.

He who does it first may do well but he who does it best will do better.

Twenty-first century buildings support a 21st century education - because it is difficult to learn or to teach if you are shivering.

Look what's happened to Barack Obama over the last two years or George Bush for eight. It's a blood sport. But at some point I may feel the need to run for office again.

I have become a different person. I don't know whether this person is better, he certainly is not happier.

It's such a lonely existence, living with a rock n' roller. No matter how much he loves you, he will always love his music more.

I don't rise to the occasion unless I'm really moved.

I've found the 90-10 rule to be pretty true: 90 percent of what I come up with and write down is kinda 'eh,' and then somehow, someway, 10 percent of it happens to work out really great in my act.

Neglect is enough to ruin a man; a man who is in business need not commit forgery or robbery to ruin himself; he has only to neglect his business, and his ruin is certain.

Sunday morning church service is not an enormous priority; spending time with other believers is.

Labour ministers often look puzzled when reports show that Britain has one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the developed world. They just don't get it. They see poverty, inequality, fairness, as all about income. For the past 12 years, they have relied on tax credits to solve this. But tax credits do not solve poverty: they mask it.

When you have walked through the hell of your negative thoughts and survived, no pain on this earth will ever again worry you.

I used to say to my late wife, 'I have great faith in the American people.'

The whole business of reading English Literature in two years, to know it in any reputable sense of the word - let alone your learning to write English - is, in short, impossible.

We are going to find, I think, several different kinds of Crohn's disease.