A ‘fact’ about sleep I have a hard time believing

I ran across something the other day on Facebook that I want to share. It has to do with sleep. First of all, why does it matter? Last summer nj1015.com reported that about half the general population of New Jersey is sleep deprived. Half. That's scary considering how many cars surround you on your way home from work every day. You're telling us half those drivers haven't slept enough? Yikes!

Well this article on ranker.com has a bunch of facts about sleeping that are pretty interesting. Such as sleep deprivation can shorten your lifespan and make you fatter. (Apparently I haven't slept in a year.) How certain creatures like dolphins that have to come up to breathe air sleep by the two hemispheres of their brains taking turns sleeping, putting them in a half sleep. How the back of your knee could be the key to jet lag.

But there's one 'fact' that I can't understand. #9 says you will never dream about someone you have not already seen. They claim it's impossible, and that anyone you ever dream will be someone you've seen at one point, whether a brief glimpse of a face in a crowd, a photo, a one second image on a tv screen 20 years ago, etc.. That your human mind never just fully conjures a person in your dream. As someone who constantly dreams about people and faces I don't actually know I find this ridiculous.

First of all, how can that actually ever be determined? How can that scientifically ever be backed up? Makes no sense to me. We can certainly dream of the interiors of castles we've never been inside of or places we've never been, rooms we've never entered. So why would a human face be so different? We know what the basics of a human face look like. Sleep experts say we can't imagine one in our subconscious state? Forgive me if I remain doubtful on that one until someone fully explains how.

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