This week I'm going to talk a bit about dreams, and what their meaning might be. So what are dreams? Dreams occur in our minds during certain stages of sleep, typically the REM phase. This phase makes up about two hours of a full eight-hour night of sleep. The dreams themselves can last for only a few seconds, up to as much as half an hour.

Dreams contain an order of images, emotions, sensations and ideas. As dreams are not yet fully understood, they have been a topic of speculation within science, philosophy and religion throughout recorded history. Scientific studies of dreams are called oneirology. 

Humans have between 3 to 7 dreams every night, but most of them are quickly forgotten. The likelihood of remembering a dream increases significantly if you wake up during the REM phase. If you want to make sure that you remember your dreams, you can start keeping a dream journal. Keep a notebook and pen close to your bed, and as soon as you wake up from a dream - write it down with as many details as possible.

That leads us to our next question: what do dreams mean? There have been a wide array of opinions and theories on this subject through time and culture. The majority of people seem to agree with the theories of the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, who wrote the book "The Interpretation of Dreams" in 1899. Freud believed dreams to be an insight into hidden emotions and desires. 

Nowadays, dreams are recognized as a connection to the unconscious mind - where processes occur automatically and are unavailable to introspection. Dreams can have exact connections to your waking life, but they can also be abstract and hard to puzzle together. Dreams rarely have a "plot" of any kind, and trying to connect elements in your dream together might obscure the real meaning of the dream. 

Your dream might reflect a real life situation. For example, if you have an important test coming up - you might dream about failing a test. In other words, this dream has a very unmistakable explanation. The same goes for emotions in dreams. If you've recently had a heated argument with someone, you might experience feeling angry in your dreams, too.

Abstract dreams can be a lot harder to understand. A lot of people believe that dreams can contain symbols: key images that are a metaphorical reflection of what a person is experiencing in waking life. Here are a few examples of these symbols:

Being chased: If you're being chased in a dream, this is because you're feeling threatened by someone or something in life.

Falling: If you find yourself falling in your dreams, this might be related to a fear of letting go or losing control.

Teeth: Losing your teeth in a dream might represent a fear of getting older.

Bugs: If you see bugs in a dream this could be a sign that you are annoyed by something.

Missing a flight: Missing a flight (or any other sort of transport) in a dream might occur because you're frustrated over missing big opportunities in life.

These are just a couple of common symbols that occur in dreams. If you want to get serious about interpreting your own dreams, be careful to write down every possible symbol in your dream journal. In time, you might start seeing patterns.


What is the last dream you can remember?


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