Dreams are an important part of life

“ A dream is an experience a person lives through during sleep.

Although dream experiences are imaginary, they seem very real. Some experiences are pleasant. Others are annoying, or even frightening. Many persons say that they seldom dream because they do not remember their dreams. The memory span of a dream experience is very short.

Unless the dreamer is awakened, either by some external event or by emotional excitement of the dream itself, he will not recall having dreamed when he gets up in the morning,” says the World Book Encyclopedia, 1970 (1-7). In the 1970s, when this World Book Encyclopedia edition was published, dreams were observed in a much different ways than they are now. The encyclopedia states, “ Scientists observe dreams in two ways. They connect wires from an amplifying and recording device, called the electroencephalograph, to the head of the sleeper. This instrument registers “ brain waves” of the resting brain.

A certain pattern of these “ brain waves” is a sign of dreaming. Scientists also observe the sleeper’s eyes. When a person dreams, he “ watches” the action with his eyes. These eye movements can be seen through closed eyelids and recorded automatically on moving paper tape” (2-7). Nowadays, we are able to observe dreams easier because of our advances in technology.

More evidence is being shown that dreams are connected to human emotions. “ Sleep essentially is retting the magnetic north of your emotional compass,” says director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at University of California, Matthew Walker (1-4). As aHarvardMedical School study shows, in the prefrontal lobe, which is the part of the brain involved with emotions, activity was lower for sleep deprived people. Rapid-eye-movement, REM, sleep shows up to improve mood, positive emotions more particularly.

REM sleep is an important part of dreaming, because it is harder to be awakened during these moments. If someone is awoken from sleep, they will not remember their dream. Most people are awakened by an alarm clock or some external event, leaving a majority without a memory of the dream they had last night. Everyone dreams every night, but it just depends if you remember it or not. Our main reason for dreaming is dreams tell us our present state of awareness. Dreams are from your subconscious mind, an inner place.

Dreams are always relevant to you and your current life. Dreams could easily change your life. As the school of Metaphysics states, “ There are two principles of dreaming: every dream is about the dreamer and every person, place, and thing is the dreamer” (1-5). People in your dreams represent a part of yourself. If there is a person of the same gender of the dreamer in your dream, that symbolizes your conscious mind, the way you express yourself while awake. The inner self of the dreamer is represented by the opposite gender of the dreamer.

All humans are multi-faced, but a small margin realizes this, leaving a large majority of people only knowing a small part of them. Learning to interpret your dreams helps you to learn more about yourself. People used to believe that dreams were to relieve stress. If this was true, all stressed out people would remember their dreams, even if an external event awoke them. There are many theories as to why we dream.

No one understands the concept completely. Sigmund Freud, an early dream researcher suggests dreams are unconscious wishes of fulfillment. He called his study his “ dream work.” There were four parts to this. Freud’s dream work involved Condensation, many thoughts and ideas are envisioned through the course of the dream, Displacement, disguise emotional meaning, Symbolization, objects the symbolize other than what is meant, and Secondary Revision, the dream reorganizes itself. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud had very similar theories, but Jung thought dreams were more than wishes.

Jung suggested dreams revealed collective and personal unconscious. He also believed dreams helped with undeveloped parts of life while awake. Jung also suggested symbolization like Freud did. Although Freud believed specific symbols represented specific unconscious thoughts, Jung thought dreams were especially personal and to interpret a person’s dream, you must know a great deal of information about the person beforehand. Calvin S. Hall, who ultimately contradicted Carl Jung’s theory, proposed dreams are a part of cognitive processes.

He searched for themes and pattern in dreams, analyzing hundreds of thousands of dreams. Eventually, he came up with a theory. Hall said interpreting dreams requires knowing actions of dreamers in the dream, objects in the dream, interaction between people in a dream, the dream’s setting, the transitions, and the outcome. It seems like a lot of analyzing for just one dream, but in the end, it works! G. William Domhoff is a dream researcher at the University of Miami in Florida. He found dreams to reflect thoughts of a dreamer’s life while awake.

To Domhoff, content of dreams come from neuro-cognitive processes. He likes to learn more about dreams each and every day, but he also suggests, “…unless you find your dreams fun, intellectually interesting, or artistically inspiring, then feel free to forget your dreams” (1-2)Both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung believed dreams had a system of symbolization. With thorough examination, there are thirty common dream symbols. If animals, demons, exams, hands, or water are present in dreams, there is most likely something that is upsetting the dreamer emotionally. Some symbols are literal meanings, such as babies (wanting a family), hair (fear of being bald), and marriage (desire to wed).

Crosses in your dreams are hard to associate with a certain feeling or emotion. Before examining why the cross is there, dream interpreters must know more about the dream. Dreams have a great amount of control, whether you know it or not. Almost anyone can master this skill. “ A good rule of dream control,” dreamview. com suggests, “ have confidence in yourself to master it” (1-1). Sometimes, dream control changes are easy. It will most likely take a while for anyone to become skillful at this, but another good tip is to not get frustrated about controlling the dream exactly like you want. If you become angry, you will wake yourself up. To control your dreams, you must believe you can.

If you don’t believe you can, you probably cannot make changes to your dreams. In dreams, picture what you want to happen; it might work. If you cannot get your dream tamed, just try controlling just your actions in the dream. Dreamviews. com states, “ You might have to become a little creative when trying to exert your will in your dream. For instance, are you trying to find someone in your dream, but not having any luck? Try picking up the phone and calling him/her… he/she may just appear right in front of you” (2-1).

Like stated before, we all dream. Some people, though, experience a recurring dream. That is a dream that happens over and over, most likely every night. Realmeaningofdreams. com says, “ Recurring dreams can be blessings in disguise.

Although you want to stop having the dream again and again, try to understand that these dreams are of importance to your mental well being” (1-5). Recurring dreams are basically alerting you that you have unhealthy patterns you repeat in waking life. Before your recurring dream will stop, you have to get rid of the problem your dream is trying to signal to you. Dreams like these will keep repeating just to gain closure. Dreams that recur are similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD. Both recurring dreams and PTSD are caused by unresolved feelings and concerns.

Dreams, especially recurring ones, are really helpful. In most dreams, we are searching for a solution to a problem in reality. Look for connections, symbols, etc. to link your dreams with waking life. Realmeaningofdreams. com states, “ Dreams that repeat over and over can bring about realizations that we can miss when we are awake” (2-5). If recurring dreams or any dreams are bothering or disturbing you, it might be a good idea to get a therapist, especially if the recurring dreams will not leave. A therapist that does hypnosis would be the best chance to rid yourself of the dream. If you prefer attempting to relieve the dreams yourself, there are three options. You could try ending the dream with the process of dream control. Another option is to tell yourself what you want to happen in your dream before you go to sleep.

Medications are also a way. Dreams are an important part of our life. Some dreams have no importance in our life, but they keep us entertained while asleep; they have just as much significance as dreams that are trying to inform of us of something. Whether or not, our dreams are past memories, mean something or not, they are important to us.