There is an unknown art of dreaming.
Almost all of the human population dream, yet according to oneirologists (scientist who study dreams) humans forget upwards of 95 percent of their dreams.
People are more apt to remember their dreams if they wake up either during or just after REM sleep. If one were to wake up in any other stage of the sleep cycle the chances of recalling your dream is significantly reduced.
Alcohol, sleeping pills, and drugs including caffeine also inhibit the ability to dream.
I, on the other hand, am one of the five percent that remember their dreams. Close to every morning I wake up and tell my boyfriend, my roommates, or my friends what I dreamt the previous night.
But what do dreams mean?
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary definition of dream is, “a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep.”
Although this may be the textbook definition, each dream sequence, image, or emotion may be interpreted in a number of different ways.
Ever dreamt that you and your significant other broke up? Well you’re not alone. You may feel sad and as though this dream was a premonition of what is to come, but that is not the case. Dream Mood has a full dictionary of what certain images and objects mean. A break up means, “Your relationship is moving to the next level. In a way, it is an end to something; you are leaving some past behind. At the same time, it is the start of something new or better.”
Another recurring theme in my dreams is driving. This is, “telling of how you are moving and navigating through life.”
But what do dreams mean to others besides me?
It is a common speculation that dreams consist of a compilation of images and events that happened during the day.
Yesterday my boyfriend, his roommate and I were talking about how high school relationships rarely work, as well as the fact that as people grow older they grow into different people and reluctantly grow apart. This often leads to a breakup.
Over the course of the day this thought resonated with me.
The end of the night comes and it is time for bed. I slowly but surely fell asleep and I dreamt that my boyfriend and I broke up. It turned into a nightmare as that would be significantly difficult for me to handle. I woke up with a sense of sadness and relief that it was merely a dream.
Other dreams of mine have been so intricate that I have a hard time believing that my subconscious could possibly even come up with such a thing. Sometimes I think that I could be a script writer for CSI, based on the intricacy of the plots of my dreams.
So, point of the story, dreams are inevitable. They come to you as you sleep and portray images and sequences that you are subconsciously thinking of.
They cannot always be remembered.
They can have meanings either significant or not.
They can make for some very interesting stories.