What Do Your Dreams Mean?

By Kelly Graham, MSW, RSW

​Have you ever wondered what your dreams mean? We all spend about one-third of our lives dreaming, whether you remember them or not. Dream interpretation dates back thousands of years. However, there are still a variety of theories on how to interpret dreams. By trying to understand your dreams, you may be able to find out more about yourself that you may not know.
 
Dreaming occurs during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. There are a variety of factors that can affect your dreams. You age, gender, personality, and the events that occurred throughout the day, all have an impact on what dreams you have. Because we experience so many things in a day, we do not have time to process them all. This is where dreams come into play. They can help us process what we saw, felt, and thought during the day. Even what is happening around you while you sleep can also make it into your dream. This can include temperature changes, noises, sensations, even needing to pee. If you have strong feelings before you go to bed such as being anxious or worried, you will sleep lighter and have a better chance of remembering your dreams. However, this can also cause you to wake up before your dream is over. Dreams can also help us process many other events in our lives.
 
If you are worried, excited, traumatized, or have any strong emotions relating to a certain memory, then your brain uses dreams to help process the event and the feelings that occurred during, and because of, the event. If these memories and feelings are repressed, then they can still come out in your dreams. When you are awake, it is easier for your brain to repress unwanted thoughts, feelings, or memories. However, when you are sleeping these aspects can be less censored and make their way into your dreams. You may not always recognize them though.

There are a few many theories on dream interpretation. However, there are two main, or popular, theories used to interpret dreams. I won’t go into a full lecture, but I will give you a summary of each theory.

• Theory 1 believes that dreams allow repressed wishes or fears to be expressed. These wishes and fears may have strong emotional power and therefore have to be disguised in the dream so that they do not disturb the dreamer and wake them up. This is also the case when your brain is trying to process a repressed or traumatic event. Maybe that’s why some of our dreams seem so outrageous and weird?

 

• Theory 2 believes that dreams make up for what is missing in our lives. By understanding what is missing, then we can try and fill this void when we are awake. This theory also believes that dreams express unresolved issues that we have. Even if you aren’t aware of any strong emotions you have about certain people or events, they may be revealed in your dreams until you address them. This theory states that dreams are a way that we can communicate with our unconscious mind. By interpreting our dreams, we can find guidance for challenges we are facing in our conscious lives.

 
Some Other Interesting Dream Theories:

• Dreams have universal symbols across cultures because of shared experiences
• When you dream about another person, that person is representing a part of yourself
• Dreams are completely random and do not mean anything
• Dreams cleanse and get rid of any information that is not useful to us
• Dreams are a result of the body paralyzing itself as a defense mechanism during sleep
• Dreams stimulate the brain during times of rest which helps aid in brain development and prevent cell death
• Dreams help to encode short-term memories into long-term storage
• Dreams keep the brain active and warm during sleep, which regulates body temperature and prevents hypothermia
• Dreams are just electrical impulses in the brain. These impulses are in the region responsible for emotions, perceptions and memories.
• Dreams run “fire drills” or scenarios of threats that can occur in life to help prepare us for if they happen when we are awake

 
Through all of the different theories of dream interpretation, many agree that dreams can be a window into what you are thinking and feeling. Dreams can also help your brain problem-solve. By interpreting dreams, they can help you better handle difficulties that you are facing in your life. However, there is no simple book that you can read to interpret your dreams for you. While people may have similar themes to their dreams like their teeth falling out, being chased, or flying, they are all different to every dreamer. To interpret dreams, you have to pay attention to not only what is occurring in the dream, but what your feelings are during the dream. Because of this, the dreamer or somebody who is close with the dreamer, are the only ones who can decipher their meaning because it is subjective to that person.
 
If you want to interpret your dreams, there are some things you can do. 

1. Record Your Dreams. Write down your dreams in as much detail as possible when you wake up so you won’t forget them. Keep a dream journal close to your bed so you know where it is and you don’t have to try and search for it. By having to wake up and walk around, your body and brain will begin to switch from sleeping mode to awake and parts of your dreams may be forgotten.
2. Get the Facts. What was happening in your dream? Does that relate to your life in any way? Where were you? What were you doing? Were there certain people in your dream? Remember all of the facts about the dream that you can.
3. Listen to the Feelings. How were you feeling in the dream? How did this feeling relate to the events that were happening? What has caused this feeling in your life before or most recently?
4. Common Themes. Try and look at common themes that are occurring. Are you constantly anxious, or happy, or scared? Are you always at the office or at school? If the same emotions or images keep occurring, then there may be something in your life that is happening, or that you have to process, that is causing that emotion or image to keep popping up.
5. Past, Present, and Future. Take into account the events of your life, past, present, and future. Is there something that happened in your past that had an impact on your life? Are you currently fighting with your partner? Do you have a presentation coming up that you’re nervous about? These can all affect your dreams.
6. You are the Expert. You are the only person who knows what you have been experiencing and feeling; not only lately, but throughout your life. Not dream dictionaries.

 
While it can be hard, interpreting your dreams can be helpful and fun. Put some thought into deciphering your dreams. Think of it as a movie where you are trying to find the plot, or a puzzle that needs to be solved. If you want you can even ask people who know you well what they think your dreams mean. You may learn more about yourself by examining your dreams, and they may even help give you advice and guidance about your life.