You might forget most of your dreams by breakfast, but the ones you do remember could be mirrors reflecting your fears, hopes, and hidden thoughts. Whether you\u2019re falling, flying, solving a crime case, or being chased, your dreams could be trying to tell you something \u2014 if you know how to read them correctly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dreams are officially defined as being a series of thoughts, visions or sensations that arise during one’s sleep cycle. However, they are also extremely subjective. Despite being experiences that almost everyone has undergone, the science and meanings behind them are largely unknown, and many scientists, psychologists, and even spiritual followers have tried to explain what they are and why we have them. Some believe in the continuity theory, where dreams are images that reflect what has happened in someone\u2019s day, while others think that dreams are more of a spiritual experience, serving as messages from gods or being predictors of the future \u2014 allowing individuals to foresee subsequent events. In fact, there are four main psychological theories that help explain why we have dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1899, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud famously suggested that dreams serve the scientific purpose of acting out the desires that an individual can\u2019t fulfill in real life. In other words, according to Freud\u2019s model, dreams are essentially an escape from reality where anything could be possible. An example of a dream that reflects this model could be an impoverished child having a dream where they eat a full meal. The dream would not only be fulfilling their wishes but would also be testifying to their subconscious thoughts (since the child probably thought about food a lot, thus becoming an integral part of their subconscious).However, one limitation of this model was that it didn\u2019t explain why we sometimes have traumatic dreams where we experience punishment or feel fearful. Therefore, Freud eventually edited his model and came to the overall conclusion that dreams are the manifestations of the unconscious brain working. Freud also believed that dreams required interpretation to understand their significance, and that the underlying meanings of dreams are not directly observable because they are often hidden or symbolized in the dream\u2019s abstract content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carl Jung developed the theory that dreams act as direct mental expressions of the unconscious. Similar to Freud, he believed that dreams speak a particular \u201clanguage,\u201d revealing unconscious thoughts through metaphors and symbols. Jung also proposed that this language contains intrinsic, universal images shared by all human consciousness. Additionally, he argued that dreams either compensate for imbalances in the dreamer\u2019s psyche (somewhat similar to Freud\u2019s theory of wish fulfillment) or provide prospective images of the future, allowing the dreamer to anticipate upcoming events. Jung did not believe that dreams needed to be consciously interpreted to fulfill their purpose; instead, he thought that dreams themselves work to integrate the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind through a process called individuation<\/em>. In essence, Jung claimed that dreams offer crucial guidance toward becoming a \u201cwhole\u201d individual by uniting conscious experience with the subconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Contrastingly, in the 1970s, Harvard professors Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley thought of dreams in a more objective light. They found that during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep, electrical impulses called electroencephalogram recordings passed through the brain. They theorized that the brain tries to make sense of those random stimuli, and reacts by constructing vivid feelings, thoughts, or visions in the mind. Therefore, they claimed that dreams have no intrinsic meaning and just exist as by-products of the brain\u2019s normal activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think we\u2019ve all heard of the psychological fight-or-flight reaction that people have to threatening situations, but what if the brain could actually prepare us for such situations and serve as simulations of scary events? Antti Revonsuo, a Finnish psychologist, discovered that the amygdala \u2014 the fight-or-flight section of the brain \u2014 is activated during REM in similar ways as it does during a survival threat. He therefore concluded that the purpose of scary dreams is to rehearse for similar real life events so that threat recognition happens faster and the avoidance of threats becomes automatic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In spite of these competing dream theories, what we do know about dreams is that they are extremely emotional experiences, often evoking psychological reactions. According to clinical psychologist Dr. Lori Tyler, there is a necessity for dreams to reach a certain emotional threshold \u2014 provoking a profound emotional reaction \u2014 in order for them to be remembered. That probably sounds pretty familiar, right? I think we\u2019ve all had at least one dream where we\u2019ve either woken up feeling extremely pleasant, almost to the point of euphoria, or one where we\u2019ve woken up in a cold sweat, trembling with fear. And unfortunately, the dreams that typically are stored in our memory are the ones that frighten us the most, since fear, embarrassment, and anger are normally more intense emotions than happiness or tranquility. This is significant because understanding how you feel after a dream could expose what that dream is communicating about your subconscious, potentially revealing what you are afraid of, what you are excited about, or even helping you prepare for an event that may happen in real life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I personally think that all of these theories of dreams can work simultaneously. It could be true that dreams are just the body\u2019s reaction to the electric signals that the mind creates during REM, but, at the same time, it could also be true that the vivid images generated during this sleep stage could act as threat simulations or could be subconsciously fulfilling our wishes. But enough about my opinions. What do you think? Have you had a dream that seemed to perfectly fit into one of these models? Do you perhaps notice any patterns in terms of which of the theories your dreams typically fall into? Or have you not the slightest idea what any of your dreams mean? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, don\u2019t worry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next time you wake up from a dream, I encourage you to try to remember it: talk to someone about it, write it down in a dream journal, or simply reflect and try to categorize your dream into one of the four theories. After all, your dreams are yours, and they may be silently revealing more about yourself than you realize.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bibliography:<\/p>\n\n\n\n (MLA citations) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Healthline. \u201cScience of Dreams: Why do we have Recurring Dreams?\u201d YouTube<\/em>, 19 April 2022, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AvvlKtMXpzI. Accessed 13 December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hurd, Ryan. \u201cThe Dream Theories of Carl Jung.\u201d Dream Studies Portal<\/em>, https:\/\/dreamstudies.org\/carl-jung-dream-interpretation\/. Accessed 14 December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McLeod, Saul. \u201cSigmund Freud Dream Theory.\u201d Simply Psychology<\/em>, 24 January 2024, https:\/\/www.simplypsychology.org\/sigmund-freud-dream-theory.html. Accessed 14 December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Psychology of Dreams: Inside the Dream Mind \u2013 Brescia University \u2013 Owensboro, Kentucky.\u201d Brescia University<\/em>, 23 September 2016, https:\/\/www.brescia.edu\/2016\/09\/psychology-of-dreams\/. Accessed 13 December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Redgrave, Samantha. \u201cWhat are Dreams? – Moshi.\u201d Moshi app<\/em>, 14 July 2022, https:\/\/www.moshikids.com\/articles\/what-are-dreams\/. Accessed 8 January 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You might forget most of your dreams by breakfast, but the ones you do remember could be mirrors reflecting your fears, hopes, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":1868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1887,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1867\/revisions\/1887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blueandread.asbarcelona.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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