I heard that dreams never end, it's our waking up that ends them. If we were to sleep forever, we would dream forever. I'm not sure if that's true or not. I've had dreams that actted like movies. It had a plot, characters, an antagonist, a musical score, and dialogue. After about two hours it seemed, the main character said a final line, the music played a long ending chord, and the dream went black for a few seconds, like credits were going to roll. Then I woke up.
well my best answer would be that is unknown. i think sometimes dreams are like movies in the sense of making it possible for our awairnessess to recover from stressess just like sleep itself does for our bodies. i can only speak for my own though, which take place in a consistent alternative world that goes on when i'm not there in it, just as this one does when i'm asleep and dreaming and in my dreaming being in that other one. i don't know if there's a sleeping version of me in that other world when i'm awaike in this one, or if, when i'm not there, i'm just not there. but in mine, it is just another whole universe that doesn't begin and end with my stepping in and out of it. another whole universe that differs from this one in having its own geography and some things working differently then they do here. but with all of the things it takes for a word or a place to be interesting. that it takes for them to be to me. perhapse more perfectly then this one i'm awaike in. it's interesting that yours are like something composed like that, with plotlines and all. mine are more like slices of life that just begin in the middle of almost anything and anywhere and end in the middle of almost anyting and almost anywhere. although sometimes, often, there is more closure, and at least as much gratification, as ever in this one. =^^= .../\...
Yes and no. If dreams never end then it is probably because thinking never ends. Indian sages say that after the dream state there is the unconscious state where there is no thinking (noumonea, no phenomena perceived). I disagree - I say that thinking continues but our consciousness is no longer aware of itself thinking. To find out for yourself you'd have to start to examine your mind's content while falling asleep and just as you start to wake up. You might discover some interesting things... But you'll need to allow your body to wake up naturally (don't expect to be able to detect when you fall asleep and when you wake up if you're only getting 6 hours of sleep a night. If you can sleep 10 to 10.5 hours a night then your mind will be more relaxed.)
I've read that you see actual dreams only in REM -state, it's one of the 4 dream states which we go through again and again during the night. First REM -state only lasts about 30 minutes, but next one is longer and so on (that's why you see more dreams at morning hours than nighthours). So I guess that dreams end when REM -state ends. On the other hand I've heard that you can see some kind of half or semi dreams in other states of dream, but those are not so strong as REM dreams so I don't know should they be considered as real dreams?
The problem with REM instruments is that they are just that - instruments with limits of detection. For example, I've read that death is measured by lack of brain activity, but some people have been measured to come back to life after 160 hours of being clinically dead. I tend to see thoughts as unending even while asleep. Our consciousness may not be aware that it is thinking, just as many times it is not aware that it is dreaming. But next time you wake up in the middle of the night, say by a loud sound outside your window, check your mind and see if it hadn't been thinking all along. If thinking does stop it is probably during that period when our body temperature goes up some 20 degrees. Then I can see the brain shutting down. But I still think that there is a 'trickle charge' going, resonances and second and third harmonics, thoughts in the background of the mind which are not recognised. But that is just my opinion.
I find that thinking is another story. I wouldn't define it as dreaming. But you do have some intresting points, White Feather. There's lots going on in our heads that we have no idea of. It's beyond measurement (at least when using todays technology). I'd like to hear more about that person who was "dead" for 160 hours. Could you pass me a link or something?
http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/92/5/760 9 - http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/44/9/948?ijkey=69ec029846b913608fc7b4f31752b16652e0d907&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha : If you google or yahoo 'eeg brain activity length of time to death' you should be able to get a hit on transplants from people who were declared brain dead but when surgeons went to cut their bodies the bodies twitched away from the scapels. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/01/000113080008.htm The Lazarus Effect
And yes, it would appear that I was mistaken as no one dead for 160 hours came back to life, just that there was eeg brain activity for 160 hours (they all died). http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/psyc456/Near-death renewal.htm http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research10.html http://www.near-death.com/ http://www.mindspring.com/~scottr/end.html
