Processing Human Emotions With Dream Interpretation

A June 15th, 2009 article in Time Magazine explores the role that dream interpretation plays in processing human emotions.

The idea is nothing new, of course, since Sigmund Freud began talking about his theories of dreams back in 1899 and ancient aboriginals have been deriving meaning from the dream world for centuries.

However, new research confirms the opinion that analyzing dreams can lead individuals to inner awakenings, revelations and powerful healing.

"Sleep essentially is resetting the magnetic north of your emotional compass," reports Matthew Walker, director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California Berkeley.

According to recent research into the world of dreams, Walker and his colleagues determined that REM (rapid eye movement) sleep influences our ability to read emotions in other people's faces. Some study participants were asked to take a sixty or ninety minute nap, while others took no nap.

They were then asked to interpret people's facial expressions in photographs. The participants who reached REM sleep were much better able to correctly identify happiness, anger and fear than those with no nap at all. Even if no dream interpretation occurs at all, it is important that people dream and reach that level of sleep to feel truly refreshed and emotionally aware.

Dream research scientist Rebecca Bernert of Florida State University examines the relationship between sleep and suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Her study of 82 male and female psychiatric hospital patients from 18-66 years of age revealed that the presence of severe nightmares or insomnia was a strong predictor of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Over half of the study participants had attempted suicide at least once, with 17% attempting within the last month who also had dramatically higher scores in nightmare frequency and intensity.

Researchers are also assessing whether dream interpretation and analysis would be a useful therapy for depressed, suicidal and anxious patients. "It may be that nightmares present a unique risk for suicidal symptoms, which may have to do with the way we process emotion within dreams," Bernert says.

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Participating In A Lucid Dream

By definition, a lucid dream is "a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming." When the dreamer becomes lucid, he or she may then participate in the dream with the same responses and decision making capabilities that occur in waking life.

It's no surprise that a lot of dreamers would love to reach this state and that a number of marketers have devised products to help facilitate lucid dreaming. The "Brilliant Dreams" pill promises to improve dream recall, vividness, REM sleep and lucid dreaming for $45/bottle.

Progressive-wake alarm clocks that use sounds and lights to gradually awaken you retail for $70. Yet, sleep experts say you don't have to purchase anything to become a lucid dreamer, but rather, you must take a series of steps to build up to lucid dreaming.

After you improve your dream recall, you can take one step further toward a lucid dream by learning how to tell if you're dreaming, thus becoming conscious mid-cycle. The movie "Waking Life" demonstrates several ways of "awakening" within your dream.

Maybe you'll try to flip a light switch and observe that the lighting in the room doesn't change. Perhaps you'll look down at your hand and see that you have six or four fingers. Reading may suddenly become a challenge because the letters on the paper keep rearranging themselves.

Or you might notice someone begin to float, which signifies you're in a dream. Plausibly, you can practice these actions while you're awake so you are more likely to do so while you're asleep. The idea is that only when you stop to think "I'm dreaming" will you be able to then control your dreams.

The idea of controlling dreams appeals to many. Some people treat the lucid dream as a sought-after phenomenon, while others find them pleasant when they arrive but don't explicitly seek out lucid dreaming.

The final step is to try to restructure your sleep to wake you up several hours before your usual time, so you can fall back asleep and have richer, more imaginative dreams that are better linked with your conscious mind.

The power of dreams is indisputable -- you can go anywhere, be anyone and experience anything -- yet is it worth making lifestyle changes to achieve? The final answer is up to you.

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Interpreting The Meanings of Dreams

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud once said that interpreting the meanings of dreams was "the royal road to the unconscious." He believed dreams always reveal something about hidden wishes and deep desires.

More modern research implies that our dream consciousness very much reflects our attitudes, biases, stereotypes and feelings about the people, places and things in our lives. While there are many theories of dreams, it's hard to deny that some dream scenarios come up more often than others.

Being chased is another one of the most common dreams encountered. The meanings of dreams about pursuit are good indications that "you are avoiding something in waking life," says Loewenberg.

She adds, "When you get this dream, ask yourself, 'Self, am I trying to avoid a confrontation with someone? Am I trying to get out of a responsibility or obligation? Or is there something from my past that I'm afraid might catch up with me?'" Whatever you're running from, she advises that you face the situation to keep your dream time more pleasant.

According to www.dreammoods.com, the assailant in chase dreams may also represent a part of you -- whether it's jealousy, anger, fear or love -- which you may be manifesting as something that needs to be confronted. It's also possible that stories in the media cause some women to feel fearful of being chased or attacked, thus leading to this impressionable dream.

Though you can find the generalized meanings of dreams in a dream dictionary, you will need to conduct your own introspective dream research to see how the motifs of your dreams carry through into your everyday life.

There is no denying the power of dreams once you begin to keep track of them and analyze them. The majority of Americans feel there are lessons to be learned during those brief windows of REM sleep.

In fact, some of the greatest thinkers of our time -- including Einstein, Bohr, Churchill and Dali -- credit their discoveries with memorable and vivid dreams they had. You just may find that dreams are truly the window to the soul.

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Ability To Interpret Dream Meanings

Sigmund Freud once said, "The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind." While there are many theories of dreams, Freud's observation that dreams seem to reflect the subconscious mind prevails.

Dreamers from South Korea and India to the U.S. and Canada believe that their dreams have some valuable lessons to impart upon them, and that they should listen should a bad omen come to them in a dream. Many people are interested in acquiring the ability to interpret dream meanings so they can be more introspective and find greater fulfillment in life.

In your dream journal, you can start to interpret dream meanings by writing down your dreams as soon as you remember them. Try to recall all the details you can, even if it doesn't make sense. Write down people, places, colors and emotions.

Ask yourself, "How did this dream make me feel?" Respond to the question, "What real-life situation does this dream remind me of?" There are multiple layers to every dream, so it may take a few times of dreaming, recording and analyzing to start to see the pieces come together.

You may want to use a dreams dictionary to help you learn the basics about symbolism, although each meaning is somewhat unique to the individual.

Time for nocturnal dreams is important because it shows the emotional state of your mind, removed from the logical brain center. Being able to remember your dreams and interpret dream meanings can be an excellent therapy and a way of deriving additional meaning from life.

Throughout history, many of the world's greatest thinkers admit that they had been changed in some way by a dream they'd had. A number of therapists are using journal therapy to help discover new insights about their patients.

Even if you don't have an interpreter of your own, you'll find out a lot about yourself by chronicling your own nighttime journeys.

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Exploring Ideas About Lucid Dreaming States

There are many films exploring the idea of lucid dreaming, a state in which a sleeping person realizes he or she is asleep and is then able to control the direction the dream takes.

In "The Matrix," dreamers were able to fly through the air and manipulate objects. In "Waking Life," they talk about dreaming within the dream world and practice exercises like consciously flipping light switches. In "The Good Night," Martin Freeman tries to master lucid dreams to escape to a more sensual world.

People who really want to grasp the concept of lucid dreams can do so by reading books such as: "Lucid Dreaming for Beginners: Simple Techniques for Creating Interactive Dreams," "Between the Gates: Lucid Dreaming, Astral Projection and the Body of Light in Western Esotericism," "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming," Adventures Beyond the Body: How to Experience Out-of-Body Travel" and "Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life."

There are also online chats or cyber conferences with the International Association for the Study of Dreams. People who are really motivated may attend a nine-and-a-half-day lucid dreams instructional retreat from www.lucidity.com in Hawaii.

"REM-sleep dreams are much more visual," said Matthew P. Walker, the director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. "They have a strong narrative that runs through them.

They're hallucinogenic." During REM, the logical lateral prefrontal cortex part of the brain becomes inactive, while the visual and emotional centers of the brain amplify. According to Dr. Walker, individuals enter into lucid dreaming states when the lateral prefrontal cortex begins to awaken again, triggering lucidity. "

In the next five years, I think somebody will demonstrate that," the dream research expert explains.

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Knowing How To Interpret Dreams

Should we bother taking the time to interpret dreams? Are there any hidden truths for us? Can dreams come true? Or are they just picture shows that occur as the mind sorts through the plethora of sensory information we feed it constantly?

Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, seems to think that the most powerful dream symbol is the one that matches our preexisting beliefs, but regardless, people around the world believe their dreams have some kind of meaning.

In another dream research study, 270 men and women from across the U.S. were asked how they interpret dreams about people they know. Study participants ascribed the most importance to pleasant dreams about people they liked. If they have pleasant dreams about people they did not like, they chalked it up to randomness.

Similarly, unpleasant dreams about people they disliked were given more weight than unpleasant dreams about people they liked. "In other words," said Morewedge, "people attribute meaning to dreams when it corresponds with their pre-existing beliefs and desires."

Behavioral psychologist Deirdre Barrett, PhD from Harvard Medical School has been studying dream phenomena and how people interpret dreams for more than a decade.

"Many of our waking thoughts are really trivial and repetitive and some are profound and meaningful. I think dreams are the same way. Some may reveal hidden truths, but some are just noise," she concludes. Her research suggests that people use dream time as an opportunity for problem solving.

In one study, she asked students to think about a homework or personal problem they needed to solve as they drifted off to sleep. First thing in the morning, she asked them to remember dreams and write them down as soon as they woke up in the morning.

After a week, half the students reported they dreamed about the problem and half of those students arrived at a solution for the problem.

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Emotions And Emotional Fulfillment Inspire The Meaning Of Dreams

Scientifically speaking, dreaming occurs during the REM (rapid eye movement) phase of sleep, which occurs approximately every 90 minutes during sleep. This state of sleep is also found in fetuses and hypnotized patients. It's believed that the average person spends as much as two hours each night in the deep world of dreams.

However, people who are extremely depressed or stressed may spend six hours or more dreaming each night. So how does one find the meaning of dreams? Is there any scientific dream analysis or research being done to help us interpret the meaning of these vivid, surreal experiences?

Psychologist Dr. Joseph Griffin PhD discovered that the meaning of dreams is particularly inspired by emotions and emotional fulfillment. For example, if you became angry with your spouse, shouted at him and then made up, then the "emotional expectation" was played out.

Therefore, you are unlikely to continue to dream about this conflict. However, if you were upset with your boss at work, but you had to repress your feelings for fear of losing your job, then you will suffer an emotional build-up with no outlet -- besides your dream world.

Later that night, you will likely dream out a metaphorical scenario that releases the dam of emotions, completes the emotional circuit, and leaves your brain fresh for the following day. "Dreaming is like an emotional flush system," Dr. Griffin summarizes.

It's tempting to try to dissect every dream symbol we encounter and ponder the pieces. However, it's possible that time to dream is simply necessary to refresh the body and mind for the next day.

"One thing to consider is that dreams are physiological events that involve not just the brain but, to a varying degree, the whole body, though generally not our voluntary muscles," says Craig Webb, executive director of the DREAMS Foundation, a non-profit organization in Montreal.

He explains that the meaning of dreams is sometimes just to help us on a physiological level to "rebalance body and brain chemistry, but without necessarily offering a lot of insights at an interpretive level."

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Looking For Meaning With Dream Interpretations

In the ancient worlds, indigenous people believed in the power of dreams as a symbolic way of interpreting their world. Religious texts tell of individuals who received prophecies in their dreams that changed the course of their lives.

Many people in the modern world would like to derive meaning from their dream interpretations, but have trouble remembering their dreams.

Next, you should look at the dream types while assessing different dream interpretations. Guiding dreams might outline issues you're dealing with and offer guidance. Repetitive dreams suggest that there's something you're avoiding or not quite understanding. Archetypal dreams might serve as a symbol of your emotional state.

Nightmares may frighten you into addressing a certain situation. Lucid dreams, where you are consciously aware of your dreams, may reveal that your meditation practice is finally paying off.

Paranormal dreams contain information your senses don't typically pick up and are associated with emotionally-charged events. Big dreams offer you a vision of life beyond your daily, personal concerns and are more common to intellectuals.

Dream interpretations are often used in therapy to facilitate self-realization and help people begin to think more introspectively. The surface level of your dreams -- the people, the places, the things -- is closest to your consciousness.

Emotions, attitudes and symbols reflect a deeper level of dream consciousness. You may dream of fulfillment, which reveals secret desires you have not acted upon. For instance, some people dream of kissing a movie star or getting back together with an estranged spouse.

Urges may be revealed, forgotten memories stirred up, opportunities brought to light. Dreams are an excellent vehicle for progress in your life if you commit to pondering and understanding them.

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