Each month we will be giving one lucky reader the chance to win some great prizes by answering one single question.

Entry into the competition is free, but you are limited to just one entry per person. The lucky winner will be picked at random and sent their prizes accordingly.

So, what am I giving away this month?

The winner will be getting a copy of the fabulous ebook – ‘The Beginners Guide To Lucid Dreaming’ and a voucher for a free dream interpretation by yours truly.

For your chance to win, just answer this simple question;

According to my post entitled Dream Facts, what percentage of people only dream in black and white?

Send your answer via email to dreamology@ymail.com . Closing date for entries is the 30th April 2009.

Good luck!

The answer to this is very simple; Dreaming started with the birth of mankind.

Back in 1875, Richard Caton discovered evidence that the brain’s neutral dream state is actually full of activity. Hans Berger, a German neuropsychiatrist, recorded the first alpha rhythm which indicated a state of meditation or relaxation. He observed the first electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of sleep in the early 20th century.

More research was conducted using Berger’s findings at Harvard University in the 30′s and by the 1940′s, sleep was viewed as “one end of a continuum of arousal”.

However, the physiological study of dreams didn’t really begin until the 1950′s. A graduate student at the University of Chicago discovered REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep after attaching electrodes to his son. REM was one large puzzle now solved in the sleep laboratory.

After REM was put under the microscope from both a clinical and medical viewpoint, dreaming soon became a respectable subject of serious clinical study by the scientific community.

I have stated before that dreams and the recording of dreams goes way back in time. If you take a look at the Bible, you will see examples of prophecys relating to dreams, and much of the symbolism that us modern day interpreters use still dates back to these times.

Today, many people still believe that  some individuals can see into the future, and employ the services of psychics and tarot readers to help them find answers to specific questions.

Both history and science have proved that the ability to sense or glimpse the future does exist, but they have yet to find out how or why.

Prophetic dreams, however rare, do occur. There have been a number of tales telling of people who dreamed prophetically or found the answer to a vexing problem in their dreams; Abraham Lincoln supposedly dreamed about his assassination and told both his wife and his friend about the dream before he met with his assassin.

The Bible is filled with accounts of prophetic dreams, from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of seven years of famine to Mary’s angelic visitation in the Annunciation.

Arguments still rage about whether or not our dreams can predict the future. Many sceptics say that because our dreams are based on underlying troubles and problems, that we are already aware of what the future holds for us, and what we need to do to help ourselves. So when we do have these ‘psychic dreams’ they are not really predictive, just confirming what we already knew in our awakened state.

What do I think? I am in no doubt at all that precognitive dreams do occur. You always hear stories of people who dream of major disasters before they happen. If you take a look back at your own dream diary as I often do, you can find many smaller less significant events of a dream have a predictive element.

In answer to all of you who have taken time out of your busy day to ask me about my ebook, it is coming on great thank you, and I am hoping to have the first draft finished by the end of April eeek!

I again find that I have to apologise for not being around often this month, but I have been so busy lately with work projects that there are simply not enough hours in the day!

Next month I am hoping to get out some special offers and competitions to you readers, where you can win all sorts of goodies, from free dream analysis consultations to ebooks.

How does that sound?

While I have great plans for this blog, I also have to work along side being a mum to two girls, who are getting more and more demanding as each day passes. Thus this is a second reason for me not updating with dream interpretations as I would like.

Anyway, that’s all for now.

As always feel free to leave your comments, suggestions and questions.

Have a great day!

Feel free to leave your comments about them or ask any questions.

1. Dreams have been around as long as mankind.

2. In the Roman era, striking and significant dreams had to be reported to the authorities for analysis and interpretation.

3. Our brain waves are more active during sleep than they are when we are awake.

4. The most common emotion experienced during sleep is anxiety.

5. 12% of people only dream in black and white.

6. REM sleep was discovered in 1953 by Eugene Aserinsky.

7. One third of our lives is spent sleeping.

8. Studies suggest that women need up to one hours more sleep than men.

9. Elephants sleep lying down during REM sleep, but stand up during normal sleep.

10. If you are snoring, you are not dreaming.

11. Dolphins and ducks keep one half of the brain awake, while the other sleeps, so they are always prepared for predators.

Interesting don’t you think?

Unfortunately some have more to fear than others as we face the threat of unemployment, rising debts, and repossession. Then it is no wonder that worrying on such a large scale affects our sleep and dream patterns.

During times of stress, we often here people talk of how they are having sleepless nights as the sub conscious conflicts with the conscious, resulting in us spending a majority of the night tossing and turning in our beds.

Worrying about the state of our finances raises lots of feelings about self doubt, insecurity and vulnerability.

Dreaming of water is a very common occurrence in times like this. Water represents our emotions, and how we are coping can often be seen in how the water is behaving in our dream.

While water can take on many forms (from vast oceans to gentle streams) it is important to read into the feelings of the water and to look deeper at what it is doing. Many who feel out of control may dream of vast, dark and stormy seas while those who are in a little more control may experience a more calmer sea.

With high levels of stress, you can expect to have a confusing array of dreams. We have talked before about falling dreams and how this relates to lack of control and how nudity can be represented as vulnerability.

Other dreams that can be related to our money worries can also take form as sharks, buildings and even the feeling of suffocation.

Right now I have a hand written basic plan, but tomorrow I am going to begin typing out my first words.

I have to admit that I am very excited about the prospect of having my name in print, I just hope I can manage to complete my project within good time.

The book is going to be an A-Z of common dreams, in fact, that is what I am thinking of calling the book.

I am sorry to leave this post so short but my eagerness to do more research is going to lead to some sort of human combustion if I don’t get on with it!!

Nightmares are much more distinctive than any ‘normal dream’, mainly because of the vivid images and frightening feelings we have during and after a nightmare episode. Because of it’s frightening nature, a nightmare often leaves us able to remember quite vividly the events and circumstances of the dream.

Nightmares can be caused by one of two things; Firstly there is the association with post traumatic stress disorder, in which an event has occurred in our lives that gives us reason to reenact the various scenarios in our dreaming state. These terrible incidents are replayed time and time again both in our waking lives, and n our sleep.

Secondly, a nightmare can act somewhat like a recurring dream , meaning that the interpretation leads us to believe that there is an issue in your life that really needs to be resolved, and soon. That issue can also be taken from the symbolism of the nightmare, as can any future actions you must take.

We have all suffered with nightmares at some stage in our lives, and many of us have managed to overcome them alone. There are those however that are left with intense emotional traumas that do need to seek help and advice with nightmares.

We would need to firstly look at the root cause of any individual nightmare, but the best way to overcome your nightmares is to discuss them. Analyse them with the help of a professional, and try to seek some resolution so the situations that are causing these awful dreams can be put away for good.

As with most dreams, nudity can have several different meanings depending on your life situations.

Metaphorically speaking, clothes are a way in which we conceal our private selves, and realising that we are in a public place with our bodies on full show can often indicate how vulnerable we are feeling.

The type of clothing we choose to wear can often say a lot about who we are, but we can also dress in a manner which can hide our true identities to become someone else. Suddenly appearing naked in a dream, for everyone to see, you suddenly become exposed and others can literally see the real you. This means that your naked dream is recognising that you are trying to be someone or something you are not; perhaps you are trying to impress someone in a new work environment or in a relationship.

Naked dreams can also be a result of being caught off guard, perhaps at work or at home. For instance there could be a project that you have not prepared for, and your dream is expressing the feeling that you are afraid of being caught out, and that you will be exposed as being ill prepared.

A third interpretation looks at how you are feeling while you are naked. If it seems that you are proud of being naked in public it shows that you are an open book. You are not afraid to assert your freedom, you are proud of who you are, and you have nothing to hide.

Alternatively your naked dream could be trying to tell you that you are craving attention and you want to be noticed, however you seem to be getting the  wrong kind of attention and are going about the business of getting noticed in the wrong way.

Can you believe that we are already looking at the end of February? I know!

I only started this blog at the beginning of this month and I already feel as though we have covered so much.

Traffic to this site has been great, and many people have been sticking around and coming back to explore the world of dreamology a little further. I am very proud to say that I have already made the first page of Google, and this indeed has exceeded my expectations. The grand total of visitors to date is very close to the 8,000 mark, and to those of you who have made your visits know by sending me emails and leaving comments…thank you.

Moving on into a new month will see us discovering more about our dreams, why we have them, what they mean, and what they are trying to tell us.

As I am still suffering a little I will keep this post short, but I do intend to be back with you on Monday when I will be better.

Enjoy your weekend!