What Are Your Dreams Telling You?

My daughter once asked me, “Mommy, where do dreams come from?” She was six years old. I asked her what she thought. After reflection, she gravely announced, “All day long things happen and we don’t have time to think about them. I think dreams are the thoughts that didn’t have time to get thunk during the day.” She was spot on, even though the neuropsychology that would prove her point — that dreams serve purposes of consolidating information we have been exposed to and integrating emotional responses to that information — would not offer measurable proof for years.

Types of dreams

Day residue dreams. Much of our dreaming does serve the purpose my daughter intuited: it helps us integrate information that awaits consolidation in our memory or helps resolve emotional states that felt unfinished when we went to sleep — perhaps arousal following an exciting film, anger after an argument, under-stimulation that begs for us to entertain ourselves or examine a troublesome feeling, perhaps one consciously denied.

Identity dreams. Typically, we have one or more category of content that signals when we are dreaming about a current challenge to or shift in our identity. Their symbols are flags that alert us to “pay attention”.

Problem-focused dreams. The literature is filled with stories of scientists who fell asleep pondering a question and awoke with the solution.

Nightmares. Dreams that evoke great fear or even terror can alert us to something in our life that is being ignored and should be dealt with. If we can engage in lucid dreaming (see below) and confront the threat in the dream, we stand to learn much about the perceived threat, why it is in our life, and even how we might consider addressing it. Feelings of terror, perhaps resulting in feeling paralyzed and unable to awaken, often signal that the dream is repeating a theme from a traumatic experience.

Prophetic dreams. Occasionally, like Joseph in the Old Testament, some among us may have prophetic dreams. In one of mine, a dog (who years later would become my beloved bichon puppy) hopped up onto my lap and nuzzled into my chest, looking up at me with his big black eyes. When he showed up in my life incarnate, I immediately recognized him and knew to adopt him without hesitation.

Conversations with dead people. Many of us have dream conversations with people who have died. These encounters can provide counsel, support, new viewpoints or questions for us to ask, or opportunities to clear up “unfinished business” that remained an issue for us after the death occurred. The less we fear what can be found in our unconscious, the more likely we are to dream in a range of ways, utilizing the content of dreams to better understand and guide our choices.

I side with the folks who believe that our dreams provide us with rich sources of information about ourselves, our lives, our possibilities. They can help us identify problems we are reluctant to face or have been stymied in addressing head on, and even provide insights into ways to deal with those problems or understanding why solutions have been eluding us. Our dreams can help us communicate with others in alternate ways, resolve unresolved conflicts, forgive and let go of resentments, find compassion and understanding about why a person did what they did.

Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-refracted/202012/what-are-your-dreams-telling-you

What was the last dream you had and how do you feel about it?

#Dreams #Psychology #Neuroscience