How is your brain doing right this minute?  Does it need some mind-blowing facts?  Take a look at these interesting facts.

Let’s start with some interesting facts about dreams. While sleeping, part of your brain activity generates the vivid images during the rapid-eye movement sleep called REM sleep. It is here that you can be conscious in a dream. Lucid dreams are where one is conscious that one is dreaming but still asleep and 50% of people have had at least one in their life.

There have been numerous reported cases of sleepwalkers killing people while sleeping.  As of the year 2000, the literature cites 68 murders. In order to be found guilty of murder, a person has to have both a ‘mens rea’ (guilty mind) as well as committing an ‘actus reas’ (guilty act). Therefore, a successful defense has been sleepwalking.

Women experience more nightmares than men, as found in a study by psychologist Jennie Parker of the University of the West of England.  She reports that their nightmares are also more emotionally intense than a man’s.  Good thing our muscles are paralyzed when we sleep or we could be running into walls during a daring escape in our dreams!  Only our eyes move.

Want to think dangerously? The longest sniper shot ever recorded was 2,707 yards.

San Pedro Sula, Honduras is the most dangerous city in the world. “They didn’t even say a word. They just pulled out their weapons and started shooting at our soldiers,” army commander Carlos Rolando Discua said of the scene, which has become all too familiar in Honduras’ second-largest city.

A report compiled by the Mexican think tank Citizen Council for Public Security compared homicide statistics around the world in 2012.  This excludes cities in the Middle East.  Who else made the danger list? Acapulco ranks second on the group’s list.  New Orleans is the ‘murder capital of the United States’

Maybe a fact about sexual relationships would blow your mind? I’m talking about monogamy. One of the various animals that actually mate for life is the gibbon. As with other animals, including humans, there is some cheating going on with Gibbons and they are also known to ‘divorce’ their lifelong mate.

Swans also mate for life. It is thought that with their migration habits and other aspects of swan life, this is very conducive for a long-term partnership. So next time you see a pair of swans on a beautiful lake, you can smile knowing they likely have been a couple for many many years.

My favorite monogamous animal is our national bird the Bald Eagle.  It too mates for life and both parents help raise the majestic young.  Sadly, these birds are considered scavengers.  It just doesn’t seem right that our national bird will then stoop low and eat the spoils from other animal kills.

There, is your mind blown? You have to admit, these were pretty interesting!