Sleep is a well-known metabolism and brain activity regulator, that’s a fact. Looking forward to falling into the arms of Morpheus is natural, for sleep brings our bodies well-deserved, health-boosting rest. While the reasons why we sleep are understandable, determining why we dream — and how to decipher our dreams — can be challenging.
Dreams are what we deal with on a daily basis. Actually, we have up to 6 dreams a night, the most intense and colorful taking place during REM sleep. We don’t remember all our dreams; that’s a given. But whenever we wake up from an especially disturbing or scary dream, we may start wondering why we dream in the first place.
With regard to the components of dreams, scientists have narrowed them down to the following generalized categories:
- your personal experience;
- illogical randomness;
- emotion-triggering symbols;
- the imagery of erotic nature.
Generally speaking, dreams reflect your daily thoughts, emotions, aspirations, and struggles via imagery, feelings, and audible effects that occur when you’re in the arms of Morpheus. In this piece, as well as at insidemydream.com, we delve deeper into the topic of why we dream and let you in on some dream interpretations. Keep reading for details.
The Perks of Dreaming
Even though there’s a multitude of studies on the topic in question, the science behind dreaming is still quite limited. Nevertheless, what’s obvious is that sleep stimulates powerful neurological activity. That is particularly true when it comes to REM sleep i.e., the phase of sleep that takes place after you’ve been sleeping for about an hour and a half.
Scientists suggest that dreams could be vital to our psychological health – through them, we delve into our thoughts, cope with our emotions, and thus solve tons of our real-life issues. To that end, dreams help people function emotionally. Furthermore, dreams aid us in memory formation, information processing, and even mood control.
Neuroscientists and psychologists all over the world are working to discover what exactly occurs within the human brain during sleep. However, as of today, neither of the dreaming-related ‘whys’ comes with solid scientific evidence.
What everyone is sure of, however, is that dreaming comes with a treasure trove of perks. That leads us to the following fundamental idea: understanding our dreams and figuring out the meaning behind them is crucial for our mental health.
The Importance of Reading Into the Symbolism
Dreams are exceptionally emotional and personal. Their psychological significance should not be overlooked. In the majority of cases, they mirror our inner fears, worries, desires, aspirations, and fantasies. Thus, our dreams can zoom us in on aspects of our lives that need special care and attention, such as our love lives or work issues. That leads us to such an important aspect as dream interpretation.
Reading into your dreams allows you to pinpoint the exact message behind them. Want to learn to interpret all this symbolism? Here’s a quick guide to make use of:
- wake up peacefully and focus on your dreams at once: this will help you remember them;
- start a dream journal or install a dream-tracking application;
- assess the imagery and symbols;
- compare what happens in your dreams to your daily waking life.
Remembering and decoding your dreams aids you in opening up the strange and bewildering side of your personality that’s hidden underneath the wraps of your subconsciousness. So, if you manage to read into your dream, you get as close to self-awareness — and self-acceptance — as you can. And that’s exceptionally healing.
The Most Common Dreams & Their Rendering
Have you ever attempted flying in the air or been stalked by a crazy psycho when dealing with your nighttime ‘brain movies’? You sure have! Below, we’ve rounded up some of the most typical dreams and interpretations attached to them:
- flying in the air: you’re confidently in control of your life and feeling on top of the world;
- falling: your subconscious mind is emphasizing your insecurities and anxieties caused by a no-way-out situation you’re currently facing;
- being chased by someone: it’s about your inner fears, as well as your must-address real-life worries;
- dealing with death: you’re approaching the end-of-an-era situation in your waking life.
Other standard dreams involve getting lost, being undressed in public, rummaging through classrooms or taking various tests, etc. Wondering why these dreams are so frequent? Well, because they’re related to typical real-life occurrences. For instance, if you’re occasionally dreaming about being naked in public, it may mean that you’re worried about how others see you. Also, if your recurrent dream is about your partner cheating on you, it’s about your fear of this happening (which is pretty standard, too).
Bottom Line: Learn About Yourself Through Dreams
During sleep, you interact with yourself using symbols, images, and emotions. If you pay attention to them, your dreams will assist you in exploring the depths of your personality and, thus, heal your soul through self-awareness and self-acceptance. Because, in general, dreams are all about the self-interacting with the self about the self, but on a much more subliminal level.
The symbols and metaphors within your dreams are just fun ways your brain is processing the information from your waking life. If you learn to read into the emotion of your dreams and understand the symbolism in relation to your real-life events, some profound and surprising insights may start surfacing.
Long story short, dream analysis is a powerful tool for looking into your mental and emotional wellbeing. You can learn to see through the meaning of your dreams by researching common symbols, keeping a dream diary, and analyzing your dreams with your waking life events.
If you’re seriously interested in dream analysis, then perhaps you should consider working with a therapist on this. A good therapist will aid you in understanding your dreams and pinpointing meanings, messages, and ideas. As a result, you’ll finally read that crucial message from your subconscious mind and effectively act upon it.
Whether you remember your dreams or ignore them, value them or consider them nothing but a random mix of thoughts, they are actually important and worth reading into. With some knowledge and persistence, you are bound to succeed in decoding your dreams and thus exploring the deepest parts of your inner self.
