Everyone has dreams, but some hit a little close to home. People often wonder whether dreams carry meaning, or if they coincidentally relate to our lives. According to scientists, dreams can be interpreted and have significance. To decipher them, people need to understand how their minds get the information that makes up dreams.
Dreams contain the most vivid picture during the rapid eye movement (REM) part of sleep. The brain stays awake during REM sleep, but the body remains dormant. The time at night affects how well someone can remember their dreams. At the beginning of the night, shorter dreams occur, and later in the night, during a longer REM period, the dreams last much longer. People dream four to six times a night, but the brain forgets most of it. HuffPost notes, “It’s unlikely that you will remember more than 10 percent of your dreams in any given night.” The memorable dreams contain distant and recent memories. For example, if someone has been in a car crash, they might have a dream about getting anxious when their child rides the bumper cars at an amusement park. Most of the time, dreams have some kind of emotion tied to them, which comes from the emotions the person experiences.
Even though some dreams involve a personal aspect, most have a common theme. Harper’s Bazaar found that running from someone or something, teeth falling out, and falling, appears in people’s dreams the most. Dreaming about being chased often signifies a person trying to escape from their fears and desires. Falling has many interpretations, but it commonly suggests that the person needs to rethink a decision. Tore Neilson, the director of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at Montreal’s Sacré-Coeur Hospital, says, “A teeth-falling-out dream might be very positive for one person... Another person may have gotten their teeth knocked out in a fistfight which would lead to a more negative association.”
Understanding what a dream means depends on the actions taken after waking up. One can write in a journal, join a dream group, or talk to a therapist to decipher their dreams. Ask questions like, “What event has happened that relates to this dream?” or “What emotions do I feel, and was that expressed when I was dreaming?” These questions can help break down the dream and focus on the main message.
That said, don’t think of dreams as a message they want to tell us, instead, think them of as a message they want to show us. Dreams show parts of someone's subconscious that seem hidden and unknown, but with some time, revealing the meaning of a dream becomes easier. Dreams give the ability to understand the feelings we can’t express and unlock new possibilities.
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