Add to favorites
Fate speaks to us in its own special language - the language of images and symbols. And therefore, her clues are not enough to be heard or seen - they need to be interpreted correctly. Even at the dawn of its existence, humanity paid a lot of attention to dreams. It was believed that during dreams the soul leaves the body and communicates with gods and spirits. After some time, a huge number of dream books were compiled in which certain unusual symbols were deciphered.
What is sleep
In order to answer this question, we first need to understand what this phenomenon actually is.
Psychologists say that we dream for several reasons.
1. With the help of dreams, our brain processes the impressions received during the day and unloads. In this case, dreams are filled with fragments of events, feelings, thoughts of the past day. For example, we were busy working or studying, and at night we dream about it. This is how the brain structures the information received. Usually these dreams do not evoke particularly strong emotions. Therefore, there is little point in interpreting them.
2. Dreams are our subconscious’s way of symbolically conveying some information to us. Being conscious, we are usually focused on one thing, and rarely notice the huge number of sensations that pass through our psyche. But it registers everything, and through dreams it tries to draw our attention to some important thing or feeling that we have not noticed. For example, you have nightmares about your boss over and over again, although your relationship with them seems to be quite smooth in appearance. But after thinking carefully about them after the nightmares, you suddenly realize that you sense his hostility towards you. It can be expressed in facial expressions, hints, glances. Your conscious mind does not notice this, but the subconscious mind is very sensitive to such things.
3. In dreams we get the opportunity to fulfill our secret dreams. As Freud said, dreams are a kind of hallucination that allows our psyche to get what it lacks. Each of us has such pleasant dreams. Some see a romance with a stranger or a celebrity, others travel to beautiful places. Thus, our subconscious is trying to tell you what it is missing.
4. When we dream, we confront our psychological traumas and fears and try to free ourselves from them. Who among us has not had disturbing dreams about exams, where we go there completely unprepared or get a bad ticket? This is how our psyche plays out the fear of failure and the fear of negative evaluation, characteristic of many people, in order to free ourselves from them.
Women who have experienced violence then suffer from nightmares associated with it. The same thing happens to victims of disasters. In a dream, the psyche returns to a traumatic situation in order to finally cope with it, overcome fear, and encounter danger again. In case of minor injuries, this helps, and over time the negative experiences fade away. Our subconscious communicates with us through dreams. And by listening to it, we can understand ourselves and the Universe.
Fall
Vchal/Getty Images
Falling in a dream could mean that in real life you have lost control over something. The surroundings in a dream can help determine what exactly the sign refers to.
If you have fallen completely and reached the bottom, it means that something in your life has come to an end, be it a relationship, a job, or a big change. Collecting context clues like these can help you determine the reasons why you are having these dreams.
How can you learn to truthfully interpret your dreams?
Remember and write down
So, you decided to ask the Higher Powers a question and see the answer in a dream. Let's say on weekdays you get up at 7:00 am. Set your alarm clock 20-30 minutes earlier to calmly recall your night visions.
Of course, it is best not to interrupt your sleep at all: ask for a hint from the Higher Powers on a weekend night, when you have the opportunity to sleep as much as you want.
In the evening, prepare a notebook and pen, place them next to your bed so that in the morning you can write down your dream (after all, dreams have a tendency to be forgotten). Moreover, important dreams can and should be written down right at night - if you wake up! When you wake up, lie down for a while without changing your body position and remembering the dream you had. Perhaps at first you will remember one phrase or episode from a dream. Try to write down what you remember immediately, without getting out of bed: this is usually of paramount importance for understanding the entire dream. And then, starting from what you remember, try to restore what happened before or after this episode in the dream.
If you can’t remember anything at all, you can try just starting to write, starting with the phrase “Last night I dreamed...”. Often, while writing, a dream comes to mind.
If, despite all your efforts, you cannot remember your dream, do not be discouraged. Often it pops up in memory after a while by itself. It happens that the dream is not remembered, but an accurate and clear answer regarding your request comes to mind.
The nature of dreams according to Freud
Freud's sleep psychology is based on the methods of psychotherapy that he used in medical practice. As a result of experiments and observations, he noticed that a dream is coded thoughts, images that are combined into certain plots that are difficult to immediately understand and seem meaningless.
Freud proposed the following scheme for working on dreams: you need to analyze part, fragments of a dream, abstractly, listing thoughts related to the situation, things, people. This kind of thinking will help you find clues to understanding a dream; it may contain several scenes from life, fears, experiences, and important fragments. There may be character replacements.
Freud noted: a dream contains brief information about the world of feelings, emotions, and perception of life . He established the existence of a relationship at the psychological level, and not just the physical nature of sleep. In addition, I paid attention to the compressed form of the dream in comparison with the thoughts that created it. Sleep is a complex mental process, a reflection of thoughts and desires in certain pictures and images.
Freud's sleep psychology presupposes the presence of such terms - “manifest dream content” (retelling of a dream), “hidden content” (mental sequence, associations).
Three types of dreams according to Freud
- Meaningful dreams (easily interpretable, include our memories, clear images, we recognize the plots of events, there is no “dream work”, encoding of information). Such dreams are often found in children; they realize the desired delicacies, ride horses, play with friends, continue an unfinished walk - unsatisfied desires are fulfilled. Adults also have real dreams, forecasts of the future - they have already gotten up, washed their face, and gone to work. There is a partial processing of information and thoughts - the replacement of wishes with a real picture, the approximation of what is desired.
- Connected and clear in meaning, but a little strange (such dreams are more difficult to interpret, contain several storylines connected together according to some common features, and unnecessary information is absent in the dream; only detailed analysis and associative thinking can help decipher the dream). These dreams are also characterized by mixed images, faces that unite different people, life events, the human psyche can combine plots, phrases are replaced, the meaning of words and expressions partially changes on a subconscious level. There is a condensation of images, dramatization. Desires in such dreams are masked. In this case, each part of the dream is a manifestation of a hidden thought process that cannot be immediately identified. Hidden thoughts can be strongly intertwined and expressed in several elements of a dream. The interpretation of such dreams requires attention, skills, and attentiveness;
- Meaningless, illogical dreams (the most difficult to interpret, difficult to explain at first glance, often the main idea is contained in an incomprehensible part of the dream, and clear images are only auxiliary elements). In these dreams, a process of repression takes place, associated with a revaluation of mental values; obvious thoughts are replaced, which complicates the understanding of the dream. Often, minor events, details, and images that escape attention in real life come to the fore. At the same time, there are important deep thoughts behind them. Desires in these dreams have a hidden meaning and methods of repression and forbidden things are used; such dreams can cause fear and negative emotions. Since a person mentally punishes himself for such desires.
A dream is a continuation of the past day
Freud noticed that in dreams the events of the last days or the current day are often traced, as a continuation of real life. Experiences, thoughts, feelings give rise to dream images that should not be taken literally; in rare cases we see explicit dreams. The sleepy psyche creates its own pictures, draws images, unites different people together. She compresses, crushes, moves situations, thoughts, creating unique films. As a result, to understand the initial data, it is necessary to neutralize the influence of “sleep work” and find primary sources.
Freud's sleep psychology determined that the mechanism of interaction between individual parts of a dream lies in the presence of commonality, the continuation of ideas, thoughts; opposition is rarely present in dreams, everything is a manifestation of different hypostases, aspects of the personality. In addition, the sleepy psyche builds order, the plot of paintings, which does not always correspond to reality.
It is worth considering individual parts of the dream
Moreover, if the dream is intermittent and consists of fragments, then the construction process has not been completed and it becomes easier to analyze it. The numbers appearing in dreams are also taken from real life, but they can be modified, decreased, by rearranging the comma, replacing the meaning.
Freud came to the conclusion that dreams have a rather complex form and manifestation in order to hide from us deep thoughts, fears that we are not aware of, that live in the depths of our consciousness, in unconscious processes. Often a person himself is surprised by the conclusions and thoughts that a dream evokes; they become a revelation.
Interestingly, the sleeping brain can transform external noise in its own way if it wants to continue the dream. Even the noise of a vacuum cleaner can be perceived as applause in a theater audience. This is a protective function of the body that helps protect sleep from external influences. Undoubtedly, sleep is the key to discovering the unconscious in a person: thoughts, feelings, emotions.
How to understand?
The first and most important thing to start interpreting your dream with is the mood in which you woke up. Most often, this will be the main clue as to whether the matter you are interested in will turn out for good or for bad.
Also remember that if you have two dreams in one night, they always speak in different words about the same thing. Therefore, if you cannot immediately decipher the first dream, you can start interpreting it from the second one, and then think about the first one again - perhaps it says the same thing, only with some details changed. But the third and further dreams may relate to other issues.
Next, re-read the dream you recorded carefully. Maybe it just describes the situation you are in now? For example, in a dream you are looking for something, or fleeing from something. Or maybe you are putting effort into solving some difficult problem. Does this remind you of your current situation? And how does it all end? Do you like this outcome? Can you influence it, and if so, how?
Maybe in a dream you made some mistake, because of which everything went wrong, or, on the contrary, you made the right decision. Think, perhaps in real life you will be able to take advantage of this advice or warning? After all, now you know how everything can end if you do just that.
If you wake up, vividly remembering some phrase or scene from a dream, then try to interpret it literally, as it sounded or happened. Or try to return to it after the dream has been completely “deciphered” - perhaps its meaning will change. Try to write down in a row all the verbs or adjectives that you used when writing down your dream, and read them. Perhaps in such a recording his message becomes clearer to you? Sometimes it makes sense to turn to dream books. However, do this thoughtfully and only after you have analyzed the dream in the ways indicated above.
If you have a good dream about a topic that interests you, don’t try to interpret it! Just take it as a good sign and rejoice. Such dreams are not told to anyone until noon.
If the dream upsets or frightens you, do not be upset. There are centuries-tested formulas that “neutralize” a bad vision, making sure that the dream does not come true. For example, turn the pillow over and say: “Where night goes, sleep goes.” Or: “What I saw in a dream, I will not see in reality.” However, if this is not a nightmare, but just a painful or unpleasant dream, do not rush to forget it. You asked for a hint from the Higher Powers - think, perhaps it makes sense to listen to their advice?
Fly
Innovatedcaptures/Getty Images
If you are flying in your dream, most likely you want to be free from the stress of everyday life. When you fly, you feel like your possibilities are unlimited.
This is likely a reference to something in your life that brings you pleasure. Remember where you were flying and in what direction. If you have flown a helicopter, it means you are determined to do something. If you flew in the opposite direction, this may indicate nostalgia.
Do prophetic dreams exist?
Psychology cannot give a definite answer to this question. But Carl Jung, the famous Austrian psychologist, argued that in dreams we can come into contact with the collective unconscious. And this is the treasury of symbols, feelings and thoughts accumulated throughout the history of mankind. The collective unconscious stores knowledge about the past, present and future.
But not all dreams can be classified as those that penetrate it. How to distinguish them from a series of ordinary dreams? Let's give some tips.
– Prophetic dreams evoke very strong emotions after waking up. You are literally shaking, but you are sure that you have received an important message. The wisdom and depth inherent in a dream is intuitively felt.
– Your deceased relatives and friends may be present there, and in a dream you clearly feel that you are communicating with them, and not just with symbols. They are trying to convey some message to you, they say mysterious words, give you letters, etc. Sometimes, instead of relatives, people see mysterious elders, young children, etc. The characters in such dreams inspire awe.
– You see a descent into the dungeon, a basement, an underground castle. Or vice versa - you rise high into the mountains, into the sky, find yourself in paradise, etc. These are important symbols of the deep levels of the collective unconscious, from where we can draw knowledge about the future. The atmosphere of sleep feels solemn.
– You cannot forget about the dream you had. Strange signs begin to appear around him, and unpredictable coincidences associated with him occur. The dream is repeated several times.
Get trapped
Dny59/Getty Images
If you are trapped, it means that you feel stuck in a situation in which you do not know how to behave. If you have a conflict with someone you know and cannot come to a resolution, you are more likely to have dreams like this. If in a dream you see another person being trapped, most likely you think that you are losing control over him and feel that he is making the wrong decisions.
A dream I've already seen
Recurring dreams are not a rare occurrence for many. Usually these are not very pleasant dreams, instilling anxiety and fear of the future. There is no need to panic in such cases. Recurring dreams are a signal that you need, first of all, to understand yourself; such dreams also indicate some unresolved problems. The most important thing is not to program yourself for such dreams. Very often, before going to bed, we set ourselves up to repeat certain events. We tell our loved ones this dream, it is constantly in our heads. We are trying to understand what this dream means, why we dream about it more than once, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that the dream is repeated again and again. As your problems are resolved, and as you get rid of the fear of the events that you dream about, such dreams will stop haunting you.
Hide
Hidako/Getty Images
When you hide in a dream, you either want protection or feel that you are trying to isolate some part of yourself from the rest of the world.
When interpreting such dreams, try to recall in your memory what happened that day. Is there any aspect that you would like to show to the public? Perhaps there is something that worries and worries you? These clues may lead you to the real reasons.
How to interpret dreams correctly - Nightmares
The most unpleasant dreams are nightmares; these dreams are directly related to our psychological state. When a person is sick or going through a difficult period in life associated with material losses, moral, and professional problems, he may be overcome by nightmares during this period. If you photograph various disasters, hospitals, disabled people, predators, bloody scenes, insects that sting and bite, this could be a signal of illness. We all know our weak points, so having seen such a dream, you need to take care of your health, be careful, and, if possible, undergo a comprehensive examination.
Sometimes we see our loved ones sick; very often we have such dreams when we are consumed by a feeling of guilt towards this person. To get rid of such dreams, you need to get rid of the feeling that haunts us. You need to either ask for forgiveness from this person if you are really to blame, or convince yourself that you are tormented in vain. Most of the unpleasant events that we see in our dreams are our subconscious fears. And as long as we are afraid of failing an exam or getting into an accident, such dreams will haunt us. Therefore, on the contrary, before going to bed, it is advisable to imagine a favorable outcome of events that inspire fears in you and fall asleep with these positive thoughts.
Jump
Lzf/Getty Images
Jumping in a dream demonstrates your desire for something for which you are full of determination and enthusiasm. Perhaps they represent the joy you recently experienced while overcoming a particular obstacle.
If you are jumping in a negative context, such as over lava or to cover distance, it could mean that you are nervous about specific events that are likely to happen that day.
Asking ourselves questions
Next, you need to ask yourself: what could this be about in my life? What situation in my life can I apply this to?
After some thought, N. identified this situation: despite the fact that he is already well over thirty, his parents and numerous relatives continue to put emotional pressure on him, often showing dissatisfaction and even aggression regarding his lifestyle (here the relatives are represented as angry dogs , and he himself is the dog that was attacked)
N. himself is a non-conflict person by nature, and strives in every possible way to avoid open confrontation. At the same time, he feels resentment and anger towards his relatives, but these feelings have to be suppressed (the image of monkeys in cages). However, at the moment the situation has already become so aggravated that it has become very difficult to smooth out the rough edges.
N concluded that perhaps it was time to express his anger in order to protect himself.
Modern research into the nature of sleep
Dreams have always interested people, why is it so necessary for a person, how does it arise? Historically, there has been a pattern of active and passive activity depending on the time of day. At night, there is a need to restore strength through sleep.
Scientists have noticed that sleep is divided into rapid and slow sleep. During REM sleep we dream, while slow sleep is necessary for recovery and rest: the heart rate, breathing rate, and even body temperature noticeably decrease. One of the first researchers of sleep as a physiological phenomenon was Nathaniel Kleitman. Through experiments, he determined the main phases of sleep and changes in the state of the body.
So he established that with increased movement of the pupils of the eyes, a person always saw a dream, mentally followed the pictures that the imagination painted. This was confirmed in almost all cases, when the processes slowed down - there were rarely dream memories. He found that during a night's sleep over a period of 7.5 hours, approximately 1.5-2 hours constitute the period of dreams; the rest of the time the body is in a slow recovery phase.
Observations also made it possible to notice that during the period of slow-wave sleep, the immersion in sleep is quite deep, it is difficult to wake up a person, and he does not react immediately. During the REM sleep stage, the body works more clearly and reacts more quickly to the need for awakening. After the transition to the active state, after the slow stage, there may be a feeling of “intoxication”, the person is shaking, vestibular balance is disturbed. This condition usually goes away within a few minutes.
