Psychology dreams meaning
What Your Dreams Actually Mean, According to Science
If dreams were movies, they wouldn’t make a dime. They’re often banal, frequently fleeting and they’re screened for an audience of just one. As for the storyline? You’re in a supermarket, only it’s also Yankee Stadium, shopping with your second-grade teacher until she turns into Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Then you both shoot a bear in the cereal aisle. Somebody call rewrite.
But dreams are vastly more complex than that, and if you’ve got a theory that explains them, have at it. The ancient Egyptians thought of dreams as simply a different form of seeing, with trained dreamers serving as seers to help plan battles and make state decisions. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that dreams were equal parts predictions of future events and visitations by the dead.
Sigmund Freud considered dreaming an expression of repressed conflicts or desires, which were — no surprise, this being Freud — often sexual in nature. Carl Jung took a more rigorous approach, explaining dreams as a sort of “shaped energy,” inchoate emotions or thoughts released by the deep subconscious and entrained into narratives by higher regions of the brain. Modern psychologists and neurologists, armed with imaging equipment including PET scans and MRIs, have taken things to a deeper and more technical level, speculating that dreaming is the brain’s way of dumping excess data, consolidating important information, keeping us alert to danger and more.
But why do dreams take the particular shape they do? Why do you keep dreaming about having to cram for finals years after you graduated from college? Why do you dream about flying, or being chased by a wild animal, or showing up at that always-embarrassing party with your always-absent pants? And why are there dreams so stark or bizarre or seemingly perverse that you will carry them to your grave rather than revealing so much as a single detail about them to anyone in the world?
The least glamorous explanation for any dream is that it serves as a sort of data dump — a clearing of the day’s useless memories and a caching of the valuable ones. Researchers had long suspected that that process, if it exists, plays out between the hippocampus — which controls memory — and the neocortex, which governs higher order thought.
A 2007 study at the Max Planck Medical Institute in Heidelberg, Germany helped confirm that theory: working with anesthetized mice, the researchers found that as the neocortex fires during sleep, it signals various regions in the hippocampus to upload whatever information they’ve been holding in short-term storage. The hippocampus is then cleared to gather more the next day, while the neocortex decides what to transfer to long-term memory and what to discard. As that data streams by on the computer screen of the sleeping mind, some of it gets snatched up and randomly stitched into the crazy quilt of dreams, which often only vaguely resemble the literal content of the information.
MORE: How Dream Therapy Can Change Your Life
Justice Ginsburg and the bear, say, may come to mind as your brain examines and discards a scrap of news it picked up about the Supreme Court and the Department of the Interior. Most of this evanescent imagery — an estimated 90% — we don’t recall, which is consistent with the idea of dreaming as purging.
“We dream to forget,” wrote Nobel laureate Francis Crick in 1984.
Crick, who is best known and most celebrated as the co-discoverer of DNA, improbably became something of a leading thinker — or at least leading provocateur — in dream theory, and what was colloquially known as his “garbage disposal theory” of dreaming attracted a lot of believers into the 1990s. But most contemporary dream theorists believe things are not quite so simple. For starters, a century of experience with talk therapy has shown that far from benefitting from forgetting all of our dreams, we often get a great deal out of reflecting on and analyzing them.
“It’s not a huge, dramatic effect but it certainly seems like paying attention to your dreams can have positive effects,” says Harvard University psychologist Deirdre Barrett, author of The Committee of Sleep. That’s not to say that dreams don’t involve a certain amount of data sorting and clearing. “This idea that information is being processed, I think does have validity.
We’re sorting things into categories, comparing them to other events, considering information that we would suppress during the day.”
Another view of dreaming comes from cognitive neuroscientist Antti Revonsuo of Sweden’s University of Skövde, who has proposed what he calls the Threat Simulation Theory, arguing that the brain responds to potential future danger by running what amount to fire drills while we sleep just to keep us sharp. That may be the source of the persistent dream about failing to study for finals — with finals as a stand-in for a presentation you have to write for work in your adult life. Dreaming about losing some or all of your teeth — reported by a surprising number of respondents in studies — appears to be about anxiety over saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment. It may also be about bodily deterioration — something we all fear even in childhood.
The fact that the same dream themes occur across different populations and radically different cultures is not all that unexpected, since what human beings have in common is often far deeper and more primal than what we don’t.
“We share a lot of genetic programming, so even modern humans continue to be concerned about large animals with big teeth,” says Barrett. “The idea of nudity as social exposure seems universal too, even in tribes that wear very little. In most cultures inappropriate clothing means shame.”
A far more productive function of dreaming is problem-solving, as the sleeping brain continues to work on jobs the waking mind handled during the day. In one 2010 study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, 99 people were administered a task that required them to navigate through a three-dimensional maze. During the course of their practice sessions, they were given a 90-minute break. Some were asked to engage in quiet activities like reading; others were were instructed to try to take a nap. Those who did nap and who happened to dream about the maze showed a ten-fold improvement on the task in the next session compared to the other subjects. Something similar happens when students are studying for a test and find they have a better mastery over the material after a night’s sleep, especially if they dreamed even indirectly about what they’d been learning.
“I often think of dreaming as simply thinking in a different biochemical state,” Barrett says.
Finally — give Freud his due — there are dreams that appear to be strictly wish-fulfillment. Dreams about flying may represent a desire for freedom. Dreams about finding new rooms in your home may express a desire for opportunity or novelty. And as for sex dreams? Often as not they’re about, um, sex. (The brain doesn’t always make things difficult.)
Our nights would likely be quieter and our sleep more serene if we didn’t dream at all, or at least didn’t dream so much. But our minds would not be as rich nor our brains as nimble nor our wishes so often fulfilled — if only in vivid fantasy. The screening room of the sleeping brain may sometimes wear you out, but like all good theaters, it will rarely leave you bored.
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Dreaming | Psychology Today
Nightmares, REM
Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff
Why humans dream remains one of behavioral science's great unanswered questions. Dreams have a purpose but it may not be to send us messages about self-improvement or the future, as many believe. Instead, many researchers now believe that dreaming mediates memory consolidation and mood regulation, a process a little like overnight therapy. But it's not a benefit all share equally: People who are sleep deprived also tend to be dream deprived, spending less time dreaming and perhaps not remembering dreams as well.
Contents
- What Dreams Mean
- Nightmares
- Lucid Dreams
What Dreams Mean
Dreams are the stories the brain tells during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep.
People typically have multiple dreams each night that grow longer as sleep draws to a close. Over a lifetime, a person may dream for five or six full years. How best to examine all that content remains a source of debate.
Are all dreams based on real life?
Dreams typically involve elements from waking life, such as known people or familiar locations, but they also often have a fantastical feel. In dreams, people may live out scenarios that would never be possible in real life, although they aren’t always positive.
Can we interpret our dreams?
People have always tried to figure out the meaning of their dreams, but dream interpretation as a field of psychological study emerged in 1899, when Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams. Today, most experts disagree with Freud’s conclusions, and some don’t believe dreams signify anything at all.
But people continue to mine them for clues to their inner lives, creative insight, and even hints of the future.
Why We Have Nightmares
Nightmares can create feelings of terror, anxiety, or despair, and lead to psychological distress or sleep problems like insomnia. Research has identified a range of causes for nightmares, including post-traumatic stress, anxiety—especially the presence of generalized anxiety disorder, dissociation, and physiological changes.
Are nightmares based on real-life experiences?
“Re-experiencing” is a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as flashbacks. These involuntary recollections often manifest in the form of nightmares that can cause significant emotional distress. Even when the dreams are not exact replays of a trauma, they may have a strong symbolic or indirect connection to the event.
Do children have more nightmares than adults?
Terrifying dreams that rouse people from sleep plague children more often than adults, and nightmares can be especially vivid for young children because they may have a harder time separating fantasy from reality.
But at least half of grownups also have occasional nightmares, although fewer than 10 percent report frequent or recurring episodes.
Is there a treatment for nightmares?
Experts recommend that individuals experiencing nightmares tied to stress try to focus on positive elements of their day immediately before bed; catch themselves when they feel themselves ruminating or catastrophizing; and train themselves not to dwell on disturbing images from nightmares. For nightmares tied to PTSD, visualization treatments in which patients replay traumatic memories in “safe” ways have shown potential to bring relief.
Are night terrors caused by nightmares?
Not necessarily. Night terrors, which are primarily experienced by children, cause sleeping people to scream, bolt out of bed, or demonstrate symptoms similar to a panic attack. But night terrors tend to occur earlier in the sleep cycle, while nightmares take place primarily during REM sleep.
And unlike nightmares, night terrors are usually not remembered by sufferers, even though they may appear to be awake during the experience.
Lucid Dreams
During lucid dreaming, which most commonly occurs during late-stage REM sleep, a dreamer is aware that they’re asleep, but is able to control events within their dreams, to some extent. Lucid dreamers report willing themselves to fly, fight, or act out sexual fantasies. There are communities dedicated to learning how to lucid dream at will, although evidence that this is possible remains inconclusive.
How do lucid dreams work?
Research suggests that the brain undergoes a physiological change during lucid dreaming. In fMRI studies, the prefrontal cortex and a cortical network including the frontal, parietal, and temporal zones have been shown to activate when the brain begins lucid dreaming. This appears related to the "waking consciousness” that characterizes lucidity.
Can anyone have lucid dreams?
Most people do not typically experience lucid dreaming, or do not realize they do, and those who do tend to experience it in a limited way, without full agency. But some experts, and advocates of the potential benefits of lucid dreaming for boosting creativity and confidence, and reducing stress, believe most people can train themselves to experience lucid dreams.
How do you train yourself to have lucid dreams?
Advocates of lucid-dream training suggest starting with dedicated recording of one’s dreams to gain a greater awareness of the conscious roles they may already play in common scenarios. Another approach is waking up two hours earlier than normal, staying awake for a short time, and then going back to bed, with the goal of increasing awareness of fresh late-stage REM sleep dreams and eventually directing them.
Essential Reads
What dreams mean from the point of view of psychology
26 585
Know yourself Listen to your body
1. Attack, persecution
Both men and women see such dreams. Often, childhood nightmares are associated with attacks and chases, which are remembered for a lifetime. What might be behind them?
The attacker may be a reflection of a fear hidden within us or a desire that is suppressed by our ego while we are awake.
Or a threat in a dream may be a reflection of some real danger
Finally, such dreams may be echoes of instincts inherited from primitive ancestors, who had to be on their guard all the time and be wary of attacks by large predators.
2. Educational institutions, teachers
Our survey mainly involved students for whom the problem of education was particularly relevant (moreover, for women, to a greater extent).
Such dreams are typical not only for our era: there is evidence that in ancient China, similar nightmares were dreamed of by those who were preparing for state exams, on which the entire subsequent fate of a person depended.
3. Sex
It turned out that men have dreams of sexual content more often than women. It is difficult to say whether these differences are innate or whether they arise as a result of upbringing and the influence of society and the environment.
It is possible that culture suppresses women's sexuality, and because of this, they are less likely to have such dreams
Modern research is not yet ready to give an unambiguous answer to these questions. Perhaps in such dreams, our biological instinct for reproduction and the problems that we face in trying to realize it under the conditions of the moral restrictions that society imposes are manifested.
4. Falling
We dream about falling much more often than flying.
It is highly likely that such dreams are associated with a sharp drop in the level of neurotransmitters (chemicals through which impulses are transmitted from one neuron to another) in the brain when the sleep phase changes.
But in addition to physiological reasons, dreams about falling can also have a symbolic meaning, reflecting sudden changes, destruction of the usual way of life, losses and psychological trauma. Occasionally, in such a dream, a fall can develop into a global catastrophe, an apocalypse, the collapse of the whole world.
5. Repeated attempts to do something
Sometimes the sleeping mind seems to get stuck thinking about something. This usually refers to situations from real life that cause stress. Often at the same time, we experience unpleasant sensations: discontent, fear, a feeling of powerlessness.
There may be a physiological reason for this - paralysis of the muscles that occurs during sleep
But in addition, such a dream reflects a deep-seated fear of falling into a vicious circle, which we cannot get out of, despite our best efforts.
This fear is at the heart of the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus. For a modern person, such a feeling of existential horror can be caused, for example, by work, study, personal relationships.
Meanwhile, from the point of view of Buddhism, such dreams can be regarded as a spiritual revelation, showing the true essence of our attachments as a source of suffering.
About the author: Kelly Bulkeley is a psychologist who studies dreams.
Text: Nikolai Protsenko Photo Source: Getty Images
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Psychologists have explained the meaning of dreams that everyone has sometimes.
Some of them are better not to ignore / AdMe Mankind has been trying to unravel the secrets of dreams throughout its existence. Now there is even a special science that studies dreams - oneirology. Those who prefer esotericism to science love to interpret their dreams according to various dream books and believe that they can predict the future. But psychologists believe that dreams accurately reflect our current state and often this is a way for the subconscious to tell us something very important.
We learned in ADME that there are a number of dreams that are common to all. Each of us dreamed about them at least once. These dreams are caused by our ancient instincts, cultural code, our ancestors' experiences and personal experiences. Dream psychologist Patricia Garfield calls them "universal dreams": "Different people cook roast differently, but everyone cooks it with meat. The same goes for dreams: everyone sees different dreams, but they are based on common plots.
They are as ancient as humanity itself."
1. Fall
As adults, we dream more often that we are falling than flying. According to psychologist Ian Wallace, the dream of falling symbolizes the fear of losing control . You can no longer manage something in your life, perhaps there have been drastic changes for which you were not ready, and it was as if the ground had been knocked out from under your feet. Consider in which area of your life (work, relationships, finances, health, etc.) you are feeling overwhelmed or vulnerable right now and how you can fix it.
And some scientists explain falling dreams by simple physiology. As the body sinks into sleep, the nervous system begins to calm down, blood pressure and heart rate drop, and our sleeping brain (especially if it was overloaded during the day) can perceive this physiological shift as danger, approaching death, and then we wake up abruptly.
The opposite version of this dream — flight — means liberation from some heavy burden, a feeling of freedom.
2. Loss of teeth, mutilation and death
Subconsciously, teeth are primarily our weapon, a sign of strength, the ability to “bite off” a piece of the world. Perhaps you recently felt unarmed, defenseless in the real world. Psychologist Penny Pierce writes about this.
For many years, dream student Patricia Garfield has linked the dream of teeth falling out to hidden anger. When we suppress anger, we tend to clench our jaws, which can grind and grind our teeth. Such a dream may warn that it is time for you to free yourself from negative feelings.
Quite often we have dreams that someone close to us is injured, sick or dying. Such a dream causes horror, but from the point of view of psychology, everything is not so scary. This is just fear of the future, of the inevitable changes that happen to dear people. If you dream of your own death, it means that some part of you is dying, going into the past to make room for the new.
"Reverse" dreams - about birth and recovery - usually accompany the beginning of something new: work or project, symbolize some new experience.
3. Failing an exam or speech
You are pulling a ticket in an exam and suddenly realize that you don't remember anything, or you are standing in front of a large audience and cannot say a word. Such dreams can be dreamed not only by students and schoolchildren, but also by people who have already graduated a long time ago. Most likely, shortly before sleep you experienced stress, you were very worried about something . In this case, you should give yourself a break.
4. Inappropriate or missing clothing
You have found yourself in a public place in inappropriate clothing, or even without it at all. Here it is important to pay attention to the feelings that you experienced in a dream . Such dreams are often accompanied by feelings of shame and embarrassment. “So, in real life, you feel vulnerable, perhaps in a new job or relationship, afraid that others will find out about your weaknesses and shortcomings,” notes psychologist Ian Wallace.
But if in a dream you do not feel shame, but, on the contrary, are proud of yourself, this has the opposite meaning. Perhaps you lack recognition, admiration, you want to be properly seen.
If you are about to have some important event soon and you dream that you or someone you know turned out to be inappropriate at this event, this means that you have doubts about this event. An example is that on the eve of the wedding, the bride dreams of the groom in a clown costume.
5. Pursuit (chase)
Such dreams have several interpretations. “People who tend to avoid conflict, who run away from problems rather than solve them, will have a frequently repeated dream that they are being pursued,” says dream specialist Lauri Levenberg.
Pay attention to the stalker . A haunter is an unpleasant feeling running after you or a situation that you try not to think about, such as addiction or debt. Are you being followed by someone you know? Think about what or who you associate it with.
In a dream, he may mean not himself, but someone else, or even some part of your own personality that you do not recognize, such as a hidden talent or aspiration.
There is also a theory that dreams of running away from someone are simply echoes of primal instincts that are in our genes thanks to distant ancestors. After all, they always had to be afraid of attacks by large predators.
6. Catastrophe or the end of the world
Dreams about natural or man-made disasters — tsunami, fire, explosion, etc. — have been dreamed of by each of us at least once in our lives. In such a dream, we experience fear not only for our own life, but also for the lives of loved ones, as well as for our property. These dreams can mean personal problems that are out of control, as well as a feeling of some kind of threat in real life. And of course, constant reports of disasters and terrorist attacks in the media add fuel to the fire. We feel very vulnerable in the modern world.
Sometimes in a bad dream we try our best to scream, but we feel that we have lost our voice, which causes even more horror. Psychologists attribute this phenomenon to sleep paralysis. During the REM phase of sleep, during which we dream, our brain deliberately paralyzes the body so that we can lie quietly, and not "live" our dream - run, jump, etc. People who experience sleepy paralysis, usually wake up before the completion of the fast phase and for a short period of time fall into a state between sleep and wakefulness. This may feel like an inability to move, speak, and in some cases breathe.
7. Faulty equipment or transport
You are trying to use some equipment, but it breaks down before your eyes, for example, the telephone breaks down and you cannot make a call. According to Patricia Garfield, such dreams are more common in women and symbolize the feelings of a relationship or the loss of an emotional connection with someone.
The same category includes dreams where you are trying to drive a vehicle, but it is not working.
Most likely, you do not have enough support, you cannot cope with some difficult life situation alone.
8. Pregnancy
Oddly enough, not only women, but also men can dream about pregnancy. “Pregnancy in a dream symbolizes something new growing inside you,” says psychologist David Bedrick. You subconsciously dream of "giving birth" to a new exciting creative project. It can be anything: writing a story or renovating a house. It's time to set yourself a goal and show yourself to the world in a new quality.
After such a dream, if you are not pregnant in real life, think about your sleeping talents and dreams - they need to be realized.
9. Being late
You are running after a departing train or you are late for an important meeting - such dreams happen quite often. According to dream specialist Michael R. Olsen, they can symbolize the fear of missing out on something very important , such as something in the development of your relationship or raising a child.
If in reality you are constantly busy and lack of time, with the help of such a dream, the subconscious mind signals that it is time for you to review your schedule and free up time for the really important things.
10. Unfamiliar room
Dreams about new rooms are dreams about self-knowledge. If in a dream you find yourself in an unfamiliar house, this means that you do not know yourself well, you are trying to deny some aspects of your character. A separate unfamiliar room symbolizes that you have a hidden talent, skill or opportunity that you are not using.
Psychotherapist Eddie Traversa believes that subconsciously we associate certain rooms with certain processes. The kitchen is the place where food is transformed into a finished dish. You may be experiencing some internal changes right now. The toilet room is a symbol of liberation from everything superfluous. It's time to get rid of what has become unnecessary for you. The bathroom is a symbol of purification.
