Neuroscientists and sleep experts are continually trying to discover exactly what goes on in our brain while we sleep, but even with all the research, it’s still quite impossible to prove conclusively, a theory for why we dream.
Do they have meaning? Do they offer a glimpse into the future? Why do we have nightmares, good dreams and ridiculous ones?
For example, I’ll tell you about a dream I had last night. I was in the royal box next to Meghan Markle when Tom Brady from ITV News incited a fight between Harry and William. It was down to me to put Tom in his place and thus avert a public outrage. The paparazzi arrived and everyone began asking who this woman was who single-handedly saved the princes from a right royal punch-up. Mission accomplished, I left the building, met with Paul McCartney and joined his band “Wings”. So far I have been awake for 3 hours and I can’t stop singing “Band on the run”.
Experts say that we dream between six-eight times each night. Even though we don’t always remember our dreams, everyone dreams. Even animals. and although we can’t ask animals if they dream much less what they dream about, by observing their physical behaviour during the various phases of the sleep cycle, the science suggests they do.
We can dream anytime during the night, but our most vivid dreams are most notable during REM sleep. Studies have shown that dreams can have an effect on our health and wellbeing. Dr William Dement, of the Sleep Research Centre at Stanford University, discovered by waking participants just as they began to dream that they reported increased tension, anxiety and irritability, as well as difficulty concentrating, increased appetite, lack of coordination, feelings of emptiness and even hallucinations.
The results of the study suggest that dreaming plays an important role in health and wellbeing, and that dream deprivation can have detrimental consequences.
According to psychoanalyst Carl Jung, dreams function on different levels, from telling us which parts of our psyche are out of balance to anticipating our future needs. Jung believed that our dreams are like stories, myths and archetypes, and that they are a valuable source of ideas and inspiration. Sigmund Freud (Jung’s mentor) believed that our dreams represent repressed desires (primarily of the aggressive and sexual kind), and that they serve to help us sieve through unresolved issues or traumas.
For millennia, humans have pondered the cause and meaning of dreams, interpreting them, studying them, inducing them and even attempting to control them, as in ‘lucid dreaming.’ Ancient Egyptians believed that their Gods were revealed to them in their dreams, Ancient Roman literature is filled with accounts of dreams being prophecies and warnings, and Native Americans believe that dreams are a portal to otherworldly realms, and a means of communicating with ancestors and spirit guides. Dreams play an important role in many religions. Prominent biblical figures are said to have been visited by God and received important messages in their dreams.
People can train themselves to wake immediately following a dream, so that they can jot the dream down ready for analysis the following morning, and hundreds of books have been published over the years on the meaning and significance of dreams. Interpretations such as dreaming that your teeth are falling out infer that your life is falling apart, or if a man dreams about a baby, it means that his virility is lacking.
Whatever your personal opinion is regarding dreams and their significance or insignificance – whether you believe they are flashes of inspiration, predictions of the future or just your brain unloading and processing things that are going on in your life – the whys and wherefores of dreaming and dreams remains a mystery.
Freud’s take on dreams and dreaming: https://www.freud.org.uk/learn/discover-psychoanalysis/the-interpretation-of-dreams/
https://gailmarrahypnotherapy.com/the-book/
The above is taken from my new book Health Wealth & Hypnosis https://www.amazon.co.uk/Health-Wealth-Hypnosis-Gail-Marra/dp/191347934X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=gail+marra&qid=1600432935&sr=8-1
