To understand dreams we first need to discuss sleep. There are different stages of sleep and we move back and forth between them several times during the night. Stage One is that light period between being awake and being asleep. Stage Two is a light sleep but most people can still hear and feel things around them. Stage Three is a little deeper the transition from light sleep to deep sleep. Stage Four is a deep sleep. If you wake up from this stage you feel groggy and disoriented. Stage Five is known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep because you can usually see a person’s eyes moving quickly underneath his eyelids in this stage of sleep. During REM sleep brain activity increases and this is when we dream. Interestingly while the brain and other body systems are more active than usual some of your muscles actually become paralyzed. Why? So you won’t jump out of bed and start acting out your dream!