Dreams

[BoyNeedsTherapy]

I was just wondering if anyone knows why we dream the things we do? I had a really disturbing dream last night, but normally with dreams like that I can see a cause behind it...I see a spider, I have a nightmare about them, stuff like that, this one though there was no cause behind. It wasn't like a middle of the night dream either it was right before I woke up (well, it woke me up, but it was just before I would have gotten up anyway). Sooo...yeah, just wondered if anyone can shed any light or point me in the way of interesting articles about dreams, when I googled it I got a lot of info about why we dream, but not why we dream the things we do...

 

Thanks for any insight!

[Boy In Doubt]

Sorry I don't have any interesting dream articles to show you. I'm no psychiatrist but I think that there might be lots of different reasons.

It depends, I guess. I mean, what does the dream mean to you? Maybe it's cause of how you feel. Like, maybe something's troubling you or you long for something you don't have yet.

But if it doesn't seem to connect to anything in real life, it's probably just an escape from real life.

 

Hehe, sorry that's all I have. But hey, I try.

Goodluck with the whole dream thing. Hopefully, you'd be able to figure it out soon.

[old bob]

Hi dreamers !

Each dream has its meaning but this is a long story.

A dream is a message from your unconscious, your real self. the language its use is symbolic and you have to decipher the symbols. The best way is to follow the pathes open by an old "psy" : Carl Gustav Jung ( 1875

[AFriendlyFace]

There's many theories about dreams and whether or not they're believed to be significant varies according to the time and cultural period in which they're set. Frued and Jung (himself originally a disciple of Frued) placed quite a bit of significance in dreams. Today the trend in psychology is to downplay the importance of dreams.

 

Personally I think it's a little of both and neither. Dreams might mean something on some level, but I mostly think it's impossible to figure out exactly what. If you can gain some insight or simply enjoy pondering it go for it. If on the other hand it's upsetting, non-recurring, and just doesn't make sense I'd say forget about it. For example if you dream about killing your parents or raping your friends it's highly unlikely that that's REALLY what you want to do. Why have a dream like that? For any number of reasons, maybe on some semi-conscious level you were thinking the previous day that you really love them and wouldn't ever want to hurt them....then when you go to sleep your mind startings thinking "so it would be REALLY awful then if this happened___" or, "So no way this could ever really happen___". More simply it might just be a fear that the bad thing could happen. Or perhaps it was just a random story your mind pieced together.

 

Just because some dreams are significant and seem to make sense doesn't mean they all are! Sure you might dream about eating your favourite food or visiting with a dear friend and THAT really does imply that you want to do those things, but sometimes it's just random nonsense, or so opaque you couldn't really hope to figure it out!

 

I remember having several long dreams last night. In the one right before I got up I was trapped in this huge bathroom with several other members of GA. Some of them I was fairly close with others I'd barely spoken too, and of course I just "knew" it was them since most of them I had no idea what they really looked like. Anyway we were all playing cards and reading magazines. What does this mean? Probably absolutely nothing. I'm quite sure I don't want to get trapped in a giant bathroom with a random assortment of internet people. On the other hand it wouldn't be horrible, it might even be kinda fun. So it doesn't make sense, it doesn't represent a fear or a desire, and I don't think it really means anything. I think my brain just pulled several random thoughts and images together and concocted an entertaining little story.

 

Bottom line: if you hated the dream and it bothered you just try to forget about it.

 

Take care and have an awesome day!!

 

Kevin

[Formosa]

I heard somewhere that dreams are supposed to be a way for your unconscious to deal with issues you're facing in daily life. I remember a period in my life when I was facing issues (abuse) from the past I 'd suppressed for a long time. I dreamt about these issues time and time again, each with different scenarios and imageries which probably only means something to me. After those dreams I was more able to face the past and more or less deal with them in real life.

 

THen again, there are happy dreams too, or dreams of desire. We've all probably had wet dreams too

I don't think scientists have quite figured out how the unconscious and conscious minds work or interact, but there's definitely some link there. A lot of our fears, joys, anxieties or wants are reflected in our dreams. When you focus too much on something, chances are you're likely to dream about it.

 

I agree: not all dreams have a meaning, or can predict what the future holds. It's like horoscope, I guess. Good to know, but not something to cling onto as fact.

 

Keep on dreaming!