Dreams

The reason we dream is not understood but for all of recorded history it has been a topic that is of interest and speculation. You just have to look at the internet and the number of sites dedicated to understanding dreams to know that there a more interest in this subject then there has ever been.

It is believed that dreams are a connection with the subconscious and range from the ordinary to those that are completely surreal. They can vary from the frightening, exciting, magical, loving, to adventurous. In all, but lucid dreams, the imagery is outside the control of the dreamer and they are normally not self aware making the dream very real while they are asleep.

Over the years there have been many theories into the reasons and meaning behind dreams. So fascinated have people been with them that there are recordings of dreams from over 7000 years ago in existence. In recent years the number of theories behind them has increased dramatically as we understand more about the brain, it function and how it works replacing some of the older more established theories.

Most nights I never seem to dream in deep sleep these days or and if I do those that I remember have always been nightmares, although I often wake. However, when I was younger I did have inspirational dreams which seemed to find solutions to problems I was thinking about before I went to sleep. This use to happen so often that I would keep a pad a paper near the bed to write things down. Sadly those dreams have stopped as I could sure do with one right now.

The dreams I seem to have a lot of are what is called lucid dreams, those in which you actually take part and interact with. May be it because for the last few years I don't sleep very well that I find these dreams are now common and I guess that because the happen in a different type of sleep they are easier to remember. It is these dreams which I feel fit in with Freud's theory which was that wish-fulfilment was the root behind dreams. Something that fits in to my way of thinking for these types of dreams given my own experience. They are always to do with what I want in life.

The lucid dreams I have are concentrated around two things, namely my family and money at the moment and in the past they have included work and friends. They are all things in my everyday life either that trouble me or I have hopes for. As they occur at times when I'm not in deep sleep I seem to be able to wake to a state where I can interact with dream before rejoining it. In fact at times when the alarm goes off I will press the snooze button to see where the dream is going.

Thankfully the lucid dreams I have tend to be positive in there outcome as dreams even if they aren't in real life. For, example just the other night I had this lovely dream where a envelope dropped through the door and opened it to find enough money to solve my personal economic problems. It wasn't a lottery win but enough to put things on an even keel. In real life what popped through the door was the telephone bill, a little disappointing after the lovely dream, but at least was expected. It is dreams like this you wish would come could true as I do those about my family.

I know others aren't so lucky and they have nightmares and trouble thoughts often wake them and stop me getting back to sleep, I at least don't suffer these. For those that have both deep dreams and lucid dreams that are negative experiences it must be hell. I know these can be caused by issues from the past and by burying of past traumatic experiences lost form our day to day world that we that have forgotten by choice. This sort of burying behaviour is a defence mechanism that seems easier than dealing with issues from the past, but as they say the only way to overcome fear is by facing it. You never know their might have been nothing to fear in the first place.

I have few nightmares, as I have said, but I have learnt over the years that those I do have that wake me are so terrifying are irrational. And just like someone that is scared of spiders, they have no basis in the real world. They are at best little things that have been blown out all proportion by the mind while I'm in some state of deep sleep.  That is the way I think and deal with them that allows me to quickly get back to sleep. That doesn't mean they don't feel real at the time but it does mean I don't lay awake from them.

Again. I know of some people whose nightmares are so real that fall out of bed, pull mussels, break bones and awake in a state of terror. The thing is nightmares are just often that. They are our own fears magnified without true founding caused by a little thought that start them off. Given we are all different it safe to assume that some people are more prone to them in others just because of the way their brain is wired and in the worse cases those nightmare hunt their waking moments too.

The worse dreams that I have are normally about things that I'm worried about in deep sleep. I never remember them but I do wake often thinking about something that is going on in my life or has gone on in the past. They are generally centred around things and people that matter to me in my life. The thoughts I have when I wake then tend to go round and round and they are difficult to stop. These have been going on for a couple of years now and don''t seem to want to go away.

Personally I find all the stuff behind dreams fascinating, partly from a creative view that comes from my acting experiences and further from wanting to understand how the mind works. You hear of people that see things in dreams that later happen the following day, may be consistence but may be more. It a strange world with live in and the mind is an amazing thing and dreams just go to prove it. Just writing this has made me think about my own even more. I hope it makes you think about your own.