Everyone dreams, especially vividly during REM (rapid eye movement). But not everyone remembers their dreams, or if they do remember them, bothers to analyse what they mean. Dreams have a lot to do with learning and memory should you try new activities and learn new things.
Why pay attention to your dreams?
All dreams, no matter how seemingly banal or obscure, are useful. Dreams have things to teach us which we may not be ready to learn in any other way in waking life. A remembered dream is a gift from your subconscious to your conscious mind.
Even a small fragment may contain a vital clue to what is going on in your life, or how to solve an ongoing or immediate problem. But dreams are symbolic and coded, and you have to learn how to read the clues to interpret the message. No-one but you knows what your dream means, in the final analysis. It can help to consult other people’s insights and books on the meanings of the elements of your dream– taken with a grain of salt.
Dreams are often inspired by events, conversations, and observations in your waking life. In addition to dreams which help us identify and solve problems, there are other types of dreams.
There are many different frameworks for identifying types of dreams also. Among these are precognitive dreams, which tell us about something which will take place in the future; astral dreams, in which our mental body actually travels to another place or time; breakthrough dreams, which help us to understand and move beyond some psychological obstacles in our lives; recurring dreams; anxiety dreams and lucid dreaming, in which we are conscious that we are dreaming and may in some ways be able to direct the dream.
How to remember your dreams
It is a good idea to tell yourself during the day that you are going to remember your dreams. Before you go to sleep, put a notepad and pen (or tape recorder) beside the bed in easy reach. Whenever you wake up during the night, try to keep the dream in your head before getting up or moving around too much, and write down whatever you recall as soon as possible.
Don’t think that you will remember the dream later anyway, you probably won’t. Don’t make judgements. Try not to rearrange the dream or censor it in any way, and try not to leave anything out, however insignificant a detail it may seem.
Note any details from your waking life that may be relevant to the dream. Note who was in the dream, what happened, dialogue if there was any, colours and shapes, numbers, puns, names of things and places. Also note the tone of the dream, and how you felt on waking from the dream– eg, happy, afraid, sad, hopeful, etc.
Keeping a dream journal with the dates of your dreams can help you detect patterns over time in your dreaming. I belong to a group of friends who meet once a month to analyse our dreams together, and this can be a very helpful process to the dreamer.
Ways of looking at Dreams
There are many different ways of looking at dreams, and each asks and answers different questions. Freud and Jung both contributed greatly to the psychological understanding of dreams, and we can benefit from looking at their frames of analysis today.
Jung contributed the language of shadow, anima and animus, and archetypal figures (eg, the wise old man or woman). A person in the dream whom you heartily dislike may represent disowned parts of your self. Dreaming about war can indicate trying to find a way to deal with distress or disorder, an inner or an outer conflict.
Gestalt is a way of looking at the dream as if every object and character is a part of yourself. If a person from real life appears in your dream, what qualities does that person possess? Dreams may be very clever and express ideas in terms of puns or symbols.
Dreaming of swimming or wading through water usually relates to the dreamer feeling overwhelmed by emotions in some way. Going to the toilet can have to do with self expression or purification. A man of whom you ask directions in a dream can be your spirit guide.
A dream in three parts may be showing you the same theme or making the same point in different ways. Understanding the symbols of your dream can be vital– a house in a dream may represent the dreamer; a car the ‘drive’ of the dreamer. Numbers too should not be overlooked. There is a reason why one number appears rather than another. The clock stopping at 20 past 12- could be 2012, or could be something that happened to the dreamer between the years of 20 and 12, for instance.
The possibilities are as rich and as endless as the human imagination itself.
It is a good idea to tell yourself during the day that you are going to remember your dreams. Before you go to sleep, put a notepad and pen (or tape recorder) beside the bed in easy reach. Whenever you wake up during the night, try to keep the dream in your head before getting up or moving around too much, and write down whatever you recall as soon as possible.
Don’t think that you will remember the dream later anyway, you probably won’t. Don’t make judgements. Try not to rearrange the dream or censor it in any way, and try not to leave anything out, however insignificant a detail it may seem.
Note any details from your waking life that may be relevant to the dream. Note who was in the dream, what happened, dialogue if there was any, colours and shapes, numbers, puns, names of things and places. Also note the tone of the dream, and how you felt on waking from the dream– eg, happy, afraid, sad, hopeful, etc.
Keeping a dream journal with the dates of your dreams can help you detect patterns over time in your dreaming. I belong to a group of friends who meet once a month to analyse our dreams together, and this can be a very helpful process to the dreamer.
Ways of looking at Dreams
There are many different ways of looking at dreams, and each asks and answers different questions. Freud and Jung both contributed greatly to the psychological understanding of dreams, and we can benefit from looking at their frames of analysis today.
Jung contributed the language of shadow, anima and animus, and archetypal figures (eg, the wise old man or woman). A person in the dream whom you heartily dislike may represent disowned parts of your self. Dreaming about war can indicate trying to find a way to deal with distress or disorder, an inner or an outer conflict.
Gestalt is a way of looking at the dream as if every object and character is a part of yourself. If a person from real life appears in your dream, what qualities does that person possess? Dreams may be very clever and express ideas in terms of puns or symbols.
Dreaming of swimming or wading through water usually relates to the dreamer feeling overwhelmed by emotions in some way. Going to the toilet can have to do with self expression or purification. A man of whom you ask directions in a dream can be your spirit guide.
A dream in three parts may be showing you the same theme or making the same point in different ways. Understanding the symbols of your dream can be vital– a house in a dream may represent the dreamer; a car the ‘drive’ of the dreamer. Numbers too should not be overlooked. There is a reason why one number appears rather than another. The clock stopping at 20 past 12- could be 2012, or could be something that happened to the dreamer between the years of 20 and 12, for instance.
The possibilities are as rich and as endless as the human imagination itself.