Have you ever had one of those dreams where you wake up, your heart’s pounding, and your eyesight has not completely come back to you so it’s like you’re still in the dream. It’s like you can’t breathe in fear that whatever you just saw might still be lurking in the shadows waiting for a golden opportunity to attack. They say out of sight; out of mind. It isn’t in your sight, but it is still in your mind. It’s not real, yet you still believe it might be. To you, it’s as real as a memory. Whatever you just saw, really happened; it was really there. There was a monster. Or perhaps you saw a memory. It was something that happened that scared you out of your mind, so you couldn’t stop thinking about it, and suddenly it is in your dreams too.

Monsters, as you put it, are often over exaggerated fears, irrational. Thoughts could also trigger monsters. Thoughts being out of control or not being in touch with reality could create these evil beings that haunt your dreams. Maybe you're dreaming about someone killing you. That could often mean you fear their reaction to anything you may tell them to be bad, or you did something that you don’t believe they would approve of. Perhaps, you believe they are a bad person, and your dreams are portraying how you actually think of them.

Now, what is your physical reaction to dreams? You may be having an out of body experience, but you still are in your body. Say you got shot in this dream. It could be caused from something hitting you in your sleep and your body interpreting it into something bad, because it hurt. It’s not an uncommon experience, it is actually a normal thing. Your pain could also be caused by your brain making pain. What happens is say you get hurt in your dreams, then your brain takes that pain and releases a stimulant that causes pain to the part of your body that was harmed.

Have you ever realized you’re dreaming, in the dream, and realized you can control what happens inside the dream? If you have you have experienced what is known as lucid dreaming. You can practice containing a lucid state during sleep. It is a very difficult thing to maintain, your mind either wants to drift deeper into sleep, where your subconscious self will once again maintain control of the dream, or it will wake you up. Not many people can easily obtain the state of mind that allows them to be lucid.

Not remembering all of your dreams can lead you to ask the question; Do we always dream? Yes, we dream every night. Dreams are complicated and they confuse our minds which is a reason you don’t always remember the dream. It is estimated that over 2 hours every night are spent dreaming or in a dreamlike state of mind. The time right before we wake up is often the time when your dreams are most active because your eyes are very active during that point of sleep. The activity of your eyes is called REM which means Rapid Eye Movement. The reason your dreams are most active is because of the firing rate of most neurons throughout the brain increases, which causes your imagination to become more active.

The reason you're disoriented and confused in the mornings is because you are in stage 3 of sleeping often times.  Stage three is the last stage of sleep. It is a very deep sleep, that is when it is hardest for you to be woken up and often the reason you wake up confused and disoriented. There are only three stages of sleep. The first stage is the part when you are most easily woken up, this stage usually only lasts 5-10 minutes. The second stage is a light sleep, your heart rate slows down during this and your temperature drops, your body is getting itself ready for deep sleep.