Did you know that humans aren’t the only ones who dream?  Studies have shown that mammals and birds also dream!   Through out the ages dreams have been a source of inspiration and mystery to many.  Although there is no universally agreed upon or accepted definition of dreaming we spend one third of our lives dreaming!  That’s an average of six years of a person’s life! Dreams are typically associated with the REM sleep.  The REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep) is the time when you are sleeping and your eyes begin to rapidly move horizontally and there is a temporary paralysis of the body. 

The interpretation of dreams dates back to at least 3000-4000 BC.  In ancient times dreams were thought to be messages from the Gods.  People would even sleep in temples hoping to receive a dream as an omen that the priest could then interpret for them the next day.  During the Middle Ages things changed a bit when dreams were seen as temptations from the devil. Fortunately things came back around with Freud.

Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung agreed that dreams are a means through which your unconscious and conscious communicate.  They did not agree on whether or not it was censored content.  Freud believed it was, Jung believed it wasn’t.  Freud believed that dreams were directly linked to past desires.  Jung believed that although complex, dreams spoke their own unique language that could be interpreted.  To Jung dreams were a way to bring about wholeness by uniting our conscious with our unconscious.  He believed that dreams offered an answer to the puzzle of our everyday lives.  Therefore, if something came up in a dream it was a kind of message to the dreamer.

Types of Dreams

Day Dreaming

• Studies have estimated that you spend 70 – 120 minutes a day dreaming
• Day dreaming is what you are doing when you let your imagination wander in the state in-between conscious and unconscious thought.

Lucid Dreams

• Lucid dreams are when you are aware that you are dreaming but still dreaming nonetheless
• Most people wake themselves up when they realize they are dreaming
• Those who stay in the dream find that they can interact within the dream and say that they can describe what happened to them as almost a “spiritual experience”
• Meditation can increase lucid dreaming

Nightmares

• Nightmares cause the dreamer to feel anxious and fearful
• Some believe that a nightmare is trying to get a person to confront something they may be avoiding confronting
• Recurrent nightmares can interfere with sleep

Recurring Dreams

• Many people feel that recurrent dreams are attempting to “tell them something” and often times find that once the “something” has been resolved that the dreams stop
• While some recurring dreams are positive many have a nightmarish quality
• Recurring dreams seem to repeat themselves with little variation

Epic Dreams

• These are the dreams where an entire story or “movie” seems to take place
• Epic dreams are long, vivid and intense
• At times they are so beautiful that you may remember them for the rest of your life

Prophetic Dreams

• These are the dreams that predict something that you wake to find really happens
• One theory on prophetic dreams is that our unconscious notices and takes in more then our conscious mind can and that is how we are able to predict what has not yet happened.