Why do we dream?
Sleeping on a problem my be the route to the answer
The weird and wonderful world of our dreams takes us to places and allows us to experience things in vivid pictures that we cannot access in our fully conscious state. Finding ourselves at points in the day when we are so engrossed in our parallel world that the here and now simply disappears – even if but for a brief moment.
This ability to travel to another dimension in our mind is not the preserve of a limited few, we all do it – some of us can recall our dreams more vividly than others to the point of a total description, whilst others vaguely remember. Some dreams are exciting others terrifying, some give an indication of how we live our lives others how we could live our lives, and some dreams are so metaphorical that their understanding is beyond the realms of those whose minds created them.
A major question is can we set our dreams to give us answers to questions in our life? For many the answer is a resounding yes, as dreams rely on the unconscious and so are detached from the conscious logic. Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834) is cited as claiming he dreamed his poem ‘Kubla Khan’ word for word. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894) is said to have trained himself to dream plots for his literature.
So how can dreaming help you? Dreams have been a source of inspiration and education for many years, with many examples beyond the two cited. For you to maximise the benefits that dreaming may deliver you need to recall and analyse your dreams.
Consider the following;
Pay a lot of attention to dreams. Think about them. Read about them. Talk about them. Recall generally increases with interest and involvement. Keep paper and pencil (or a tape recorder) at your bedside. Write down any dream that you remember, even if it is just a fragment of a dream, or even if it seems silly or insignificant. Invest some energy into the care and maintenance of your dream journal.
When you wake up, stay quiet and still. Keeping your eyes closed, try to cast your mind BACK ("What was I just thinking about, a minute ago...?") rather than forward to the coming day's events.
Be actively involved in waking life. Try new activities. Learn new things. This gives you more "material" for dreams.
The power of suggestion can be very strong. Before you fall asleep, read about dreams, and then state, aloud, your intention to recall a dream the next morning.
Adapted from www.dreamtree.com
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