Understanding Dreams

This is a topic I will revisit later in this blog series. Dreams are fascinating. They're like a visual story going on in your mind and they can be really good, really bad, memorable, etc. Some dreams can be so realistic that you wake up wondering if it impacted you in real life. Sometimes you dream about your crush or something you are scared of, you may even dream about events that are going to happen the next day. The beauty of dreams is that anything goes. We'll discuss lucid dreams in a future blog. 

In order to understand dreams, we have to take into account all the factors. Did you get enough sleep? Are you tired? Did you eat before you went to bed? Are you going to bed hungry? Is there something big happening the next day that you're excited about or worried about? Are you stressed out? And many more. All of this can impact a dream and maybe even prevent a dream from occurring. From experience, sometimes when I get home and I am wiped out after a long day of work, I experience a dream-less dormant sleep. This type of sleep tends to be "that good sleep" in which you wake up the next day with red marks around your body from the various positions you slept in. Another form of dormant sleep could cause you to drool so you wake up to a wet pillow or your mouth is sticky. So what are dreams? Obviously, there is a science to it, but we won't go into that, because sometimes it is more interesting to brainstorm concepts and discuss based on experience. In my opinion, from my time sleeping, dreams are a mix of events that have occurred in the past, have occurred more recently, and may occur in the future. A dream will blend all of the things you saw, heard, and sometimes even smelled and tasted. A distortion should occur in a dream, this is why most things in a dream don't make sense. A happy dream should associate itself with positive characters and good things happening (finally talking to that girl or getting that job). The beauty of dreams is that it can be a fantasy. A person can dream up a whole story that may never happen in real life. They can dream of a bunch of random things happening at once or it could be a storyline. Sometimes dreams are so good that you wake up to use the restroom, but you keep your eyes closed so that you can hop back into the dream once you get back into bed. We've all experienced the "being woken up by family or friends" in the middle of a good dream, this can truly suck (I know). Dreams can also predict the future, you may be able to foresee yourself doing something. Maybe you have a new job that starts tomorrow or you finally get to see your loved one after a long period of time. I know that back in the day, the night before school began was always exciting. This is also attached to stressful sleep. There could be an event happening the next day that is not good, such as a doctor's appointment or surgery, or maybe summer is over and you don't want to go back to school. Unfortunately, stressful sleep can turn into nightmares. Eating before you go to bed keeps the inner functions of your body working and this causes nightmares as well. Another form of troubling sleep can occur when you go to bed with an empty stomach. Those who have had this awful experience understand the struggle. Dreams should be something we look forward to, sometimes its a reminder of what we are thinking about or our inner thoughts coming to life. 

Something to think about: Have you ever had a dream with a person you haven't talked to or seen in a while? Have you ever dreamed about something that actually occurred the next day? Have you ever had a dream that warned you about something? Finally, have you ever had a dream where you envisioned a scenario or you floated above a room, house, or place of business? 

Imagine if: An interesting concept that should appear in the future is group dreaming. Imagine a world where you can share your dream, friends can be in the same dream, or you could replay a dream during the day. It would be like a video game, but it would be all over the place since, for the most part, you can't really control much in your dreams. 

Keep these ideas in mind next time you fall asleep

Dream away...

Expressed by: Oscar Mendieta