In the pitch-black darkness of night, you take off in a sprint. You do not know where you are or who is chasing you, and you feel helpless and terrified. Suddenly, you fall. In an instant, you are transported back to reality. Disheveled and out of breath, you sit up in bed and remind yourself that the dream, though seemingly very real, is just your imagination.
While many may neglect or underestimate their dreams or view them as random firings of their subconscious, dreams do indeed possess significant meaning. Your nightly reveries accurately portray your deepest thoughts and feelings. Emotions are amplified in dreams, and people are driven into a more uninhibited state of mind. As cited in Robert Sapolsky’s “Wild Dreams,” during dreams people act in ways that would be unthinkable in real life. You are stripped away of all reservations and are able to tap into an unrestrained mindset that would be unattainable in reality. Dream analysis is entirely subjective, but according to The Huffington Post, common dreams revolve around being chased, being lost, losing teeth and falling. If you take the time to analyze your own dreams, you will be able to have a better sense of self.
“In one dream I had, I was driving down a road,” said junior Sahar Mahboob. “I wanted to turn, but I didn’t know which street to turn onto, so I kept going and going. I started getting worried. The dream ended right before I was about to drive into the ocean. From the dream, I discovered that in reality I was in a time of important decision-making.”
As said by Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, some dreams indicate repressed wishes and desires that go unfulfilled. By submerging into an unfulfilled wish, dreams create scenarios to show people what they truly want. Much of the time people are not fully in touch with their own deepest feelings and desires. Dreams can depict a possible outcome, which signals the conscious mind of the dreamer to take action on behalf of real yearnings. On the other hand, nightmares can be telling of inner demons; in turn, you can reflect inward to try to solve your problems.
Milton Kramer’s “Dreamspeak” points out that dreams play a major role in impacting your frame of mind as well. Because individuals dream throughout the night, they tend to wake up with certain feelings –negative, positive or both. This emotional residue can instill confidence, doubt, happiness or fear in the conscious mind. These thoughts and feelings linger with people throughout the course of the day and can ultimately affect their decisions.
In addition to affecting mood, dreams can indicate a future event. Essentially, a dreaming state is a type of virtual reality. Thus, time is irrelevant, meaning that there is no past, present or future; there simply is. As the body’s natural intuitiveness is reached during a dreaming state, people can develop premonitions with some aspect of truth.
Dreams are invaluable to individuals hoping to discover more about their innermost identities. Dreams are double-edged; they provide an egress from the real world, but they also provide a key to it. In dreams, there are no restrictions, and ultimately, that is what many people desire most –to be entirely unencumbered. People have the opportunity to become free in a dream, but more importantly, they can use dreams to become free in reality.
