Dream FAQ Dictionary: How long do dreams last?
How long do dreams last? A. REM sleep periods, and therefore dreams, last typically in therange of 5 to 45 minutes (cf. section 6). Often, the subjective timespent in a dream is much longer. One possible explanation for thistime-stretch effect is that dreams are combined from pieces (seepreceding paragraph) that have their own different setting intime. You first dream of something that occurred a year ago, then -following – of something that occurred just recently, mix them up abit and are left with the remembrance of a dream that lasted a year. But experiments suggest that dreamed actions run in “real time” – whatyou do in your dream takes exactly this time to dream. With externalinfluences like the radio running in the morning, you have both thereal time in which you hear something and – sometimes – the feelingthat it lasted considerably longer. Anyway, time is one of theperceptions that are heavily distorted in dreams. Source: http://www.faqs.
How long do dreams last? A. REM sleep periods, and therefore dreams, last typically in therange of 5 to 45 minutes (cf. section 6). Often, the subjective timespent in a dream is much longer. One possible explanation for thistime-stretch effect is that dreams are combined from pieces (seepreceding paragraph) that have their own different setting intime. You first dream of something that occurred a year ago, then -following – of something that occurred just recently, mix them up abit and are left with the remembrance of a dream that lasted a year. But experiments suggest that dreamed actions run in “real time” – whatyou do in your dream takes exactly this time to dream. With externalinfluences like the radio running in the morning, you have both thereal time in which you hear something and – sometimes – the feelingthat it lasted considerably longer. Anyway, time is one of theperceptions that are heavily distorted in dreams.
