What do dreams really mean?
I keep having this weird, recurring dream. In it, I haven't graduated from high school, but I deeply want to be out of school. The dream details change but the basic foundation remains in tact.
In my most recent dream I was in a class and the teacher was Alex Lifeson from the band Rush. He was lecturing about the technical orgins for his solo for the song Limelight. He even played an early sound clip but it was only a half dozen notes or so played repeatedly. As he was handing out a paper for the class to grade his teaching "performance", I woke up.
My normal routine would be to shuffle around in bed and then fall back to sleep and forget most the details of the dream, but this morning I decided to do something different. I got up and intended to track down what this dream might signify and perhaps what the dream analysts felt my subconscious was trying to tell me.
"Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious." - Sigmund Freud
Probably the most famous to analyze dreams through history has been Sigmund Freud: One of Freud's more important discoveries is that emotions buried in the unconscious surface in disguised form during dreaming, and that the remembered fragments of dreams can help uncover the buried feelings. Whether the mechanism is exactly as Freud describes it, many people have derived insights into themselves from studying their dreams, and most modern people consider dreams emotionally significant, unlike our ancestors who often saw them either as divine portents or as the bizarre side-effects of indigestion.
Indigestion? Yesterday, I wasn't feeling the best, so maybe there was a physiological reason for this weird dream.
Florence Cardinal wrote an article for Suite101 analyzing Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams breaking down Freud's four key dreamwork processes: displacement, condensation, symbolization and projection. Also, the secondary process known as secondary revision:
Displacement: This is where the dreamer represses an urge, and then redirects that urge to another person or object.So what the hell was Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, of recent notariety for a drunken incident, teaching a class about the origins of his Limelight guitar solo with me as one of his students?
Condensation: This is the process whereby the dreamer disguises a particular urge, emotion or thought by condensing, or contracting, it into a brief dream imageI was in a garage band in the 80's and at one time I did want to be a rock and roll guitarist (my "urge"?), but I learned that the process of finding bandmates that cared about music more than getting high was a challenge. Also, I just didn't have enough time to practice while working two jobs. Being a good guitarist requires lots of practice and I just couldn't do it on a few hours sleep.
Symbolization: This is where the repressed urge is played out in a symbolic act.I haven't had many music-oriented dreams, so I'm reaching on this one. Although, I do know that I do have some childhood regrets about leaving home at 15 to live on my own. What I don't understand is why I keep dreaming about an incident that did happen (graduation).
Projection: This is the projection of the dreamer's repressed desire onto other people, but should not be confused with displacement as it does not involve objects.No objects per se in this dream, save for a chalkboard and desks to offer the surroundings of a classroom, but the inclusion of Alex Lifeson is a new one, because I don't recall ever dreaming about him before.
Secondary revision: After the individual undergoes one or more of the other four dreamwork processes, they then undergo the secondary processes of the ego in which the more bizarre components of the dream are reorganized so the dream has a comprehensible surface meaning.I guess that is what I'm trying to do here and now, but I'm not having much luck, hence the reason I am sharing this here. Perhaps you, gentle readers and budding psychoanalysts, will be able to break this one down. Suite101 has a whole list of dream-related articles that might be of interest to learning the hidden meaning to your dreams.
I still don't have any idea what this recurring dream really means since I, in fact, graduated from high school in 1987, but I am fascinated by dreams and do wonder about what they are trying to say, if anything, about the past, present or future.
Are you fascinated by your dreams? Can you find any special meaning that makes sense? Or do you think dreams are just random REM nonsense composed of past experiences?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - JR
Okay, here's a theory:
We have two types of memory, short-term and long-term. As we go through the day, our brains store what we experience in short-term memory; then, over the next few days, that information is transferred to long-term memory in a process which (as far as I'm aware) is not yet fully understood.
Now, as the brain transfers memories, how does it decide where to store them in long-term memory? We know that memories are highly associative - apparently the brain likes to store information with other information it considers to be related, although it often makes what seem to be very odd choices in that regard. So when the brain is looking for a place to store information, wouldn't it have to "look" at the previously stored stuff to see if it's appropriate?
It seems to me that this process could explain dreams. You hear about Alex Lifeson; then later when your brain is looking for a place to store that new memory, it "opens" up other memories in long-term storage in search of a good place to put it. Does the process of opening up old memories involve actually replaying them somehow? Seems likely. And that might seem to your sleeping mind to be actually experiencing them again, with the newer information haphazardly mixed in (since that might have to be replayed also).
Maybe you listened to a lot of Rush in high school, so that seemed like a relevent place to put the new information. Or maybe it's where you first heard or read the word "limelight". In fact, maybe a lot of things happened to you in high school for the first time or they had a big impact on your life, so that your brain often goes looking in those memories. Presumably there is a large element of trial-and-error involved, so several old memories may be opened up. And, as the storage process is happening subconsciously, your brain doesn't necessarily make the same associations you would make consciously. It goes looking for patterns, and like a computer it might miss big picture relationships in favor of silly connections. Which is exactly what dreams are noted for.
Having said that, the studies I've read about seem to show no relation between REM sleep and memory transfer. So apparently I just made that theory up whole-cloth. But then, that's what Freud did too.
2 - TDavid
Seems sensible to me JR, nice theory.
3 - Francesca
my boyfriend keeps having dreams that i am cheating on him! i never have before, and i really love him. Could his dreams be telling him something about our future or does he have a guilty concence
4 - Evie
I keep having this reoccuring dream about my dead x husband in this dream i still love him but when he died we had stoped loving each other because he just wouldn't stop abusing drugs and alcolhol i also dream about his sister and mother and i could care less for them too. what does this dream mean
5 - sabrina
yeah i used to keep having this dream about 3 times a year for about 5 years and it was that i was in my bedroom and i was a blanket and this sewing machine keeps getting closer and closer but never reaches me, then i get on a gernie( the things in hospitals ) and they take me in the other room.
6 - Dwaine AKA Scooter AKA D.J.
I don't really have dreams like that, but I keep on getting these deja vu's. JR, what's up with that?
7 - emma ward
i keep having recuring dreams of a man catching me and tieing me up and i always try to run away but i never seem to be moving anywhere. i am always alone in these dreams. i always escape sumhow or another in the dream.
maybe it has something to do with what is going on in my life at the moment,me and my boyfriend are having lots of arguments and i feel that sometimes he doesnt love me and i want to sort these problems out but he just wants to leave them also my friend has said a lot about me to my boyfriend behind my back.
please help me
emma
8 - Eric Olsen
Emma, sounds like you've got a handle on what's causing them - gott have a talk with that boyfriend.
My reoccurring dream is of Sam Cooke dying, going to heaven, opening his mouth to sing, and blood gushing out of his mouth instead of that golden voice. Figure that one out.
9 - Jessica
you guys should have a place where we can type in our own dreams and find out what they mean...
10 - TDavid
No form necessary, Jessica, just insert the keyword (replace the bolded KEYWORD) for your dreams into the link below:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=what+dreams+KEYWORD+mean
and you should find your answer. For example if your dream is about flying then you would use this:
what does it mean when I dream about flying?
Of course I could whip up a form and add this to the article above fairly easily.
Google is the all-knowing dream therapist!
11 - alexander sabine
"We have two types of memory, short-term and long-term. As we go through the day, our brains store what we experience in short-term memory; then, over the next few days, that information is transferred to long-term memory in a process which (as far as I'm aware) is not yet fully understood."
Short term memory has been proven to last for only 30 seconds. If something can be remembered for longer than this then it has already been transfered to long term memory.
12 - Katy
I keep having these weird dreams that my boyfriend (who would never do these things, hes so sweet and says he would never dumb me and i know he is loyal)..cheats on me, is mean to me, breaks up with me, and opening flirts with other really pretty girls when im right there..
I dont know why i keep having these dreams, i dont have a guilty conscience, ive never cheated on him, or done any of these things once. Please get back to me, and tell me what you think.
13 - TDavid
Katy, you might check this out:
14 - CW Fisher
Every night I have the same dream. I'm looking for somewhere to pee. Then I wake up, drenched in sweat, but I no longer have to pee. What's this mean?
15 - TDavid
CW Fisher - Depends.
16 - sheri
For many years my recurring dream was trying to escape a flood , only to be stopped by washed out roads, with no other choice but to go thru the water...but they stopped and now my recurring theme is always a mysterious house that has neverending rooms, and also what I've come to call my "strange little town" dreams.The thing about them is the weird feeling of familiarity I have for the house or the town.
17 - anitsirc
what the hell is a reoccuring shunk dream about? e-mail me back yo
18 - Charles Andrasko,Jr.
I dreamed of eating an Apple. The Apple had a worm as big as a snake and it almost bit me. What does my dream mean?
Yours truly,
Chas.Andrasko,Jr.
19 - sheri
I have figured it out! (My recurring dreams of a house with neverending rooms and the strange little towns.) It's... the internet! And blog sites such as this one, which I am enjoying, btw :0)What do you think?
20 - Alicia
I have these dreams that I when I give virth it is always a girl. I had sex about 8 months ago in July and am pregnant I am pretty sure at least. Anyway I end up gettting proposed to by my friend Boyd I say yes and my friend Matt,my ex Andrew and my friend Chris are there so is my best friend Kristy and my step sister Jenni. I end up faliing in love with Matt and Chris also. Then I end up having a girl kinda like the same dream only weirder I go to Ohio and show my grandparents and Have my freind Nate there and we end up getting married in Ohio and I am pregnant with a boy.
21 - Kathy
wow I have read all of your comments. Yes, dreams are reflective of all that we see and experience in our life. Something that we think might be insignificant could become very big in our dreams. Dreams of running away or being chased usually mean that we have some kind of problem that we are trying to deal with. Dreams of flying usually mean that we desire the freedom that we don't have as adults and flying gives us that feeling. Don't our problems, as adults, weigh us down and make us feel heavy? Dreams of floating or flying free of of this heaviness.... Dreams of falling have the meaning of losing control in our lives and a feeling of helplessness. Maybe we have a situation that we can't control and we wonder what to do next or how did we get into this situation? Dreams of being assaulted could have real meaning of fear that someone will assault you or it could mean that you are trying to deal with a situation in which you are afraid of being hurt either physically or mentally by someone that you care about. I have read alot about dreams and have interpretted peoples dreams (as a hobby) for about 5 years. I offer my personal opinion. Usually people tell me I am right when I interpret their dreams. For example, a man dreamed he got stuck in the mud while trying to rescue a deer who was stuck in the mud also. His exwife was on the bank screaming at him what an idiot he was for going out into the muddy water in the first place to try to save the deer. After asking a few basic questions about his relationship with his exwife, I learned that the exwife was very judgmental of the man and criticized him anytime he tried to help others out. It seemed he had a very big heart and helped others often. Then, when he was not paid back for his good deed or was paid back with unkindness, his exwife would tell him he was a fool for trying to help people.....Well this explained the dream ....the deer symbolized the people he tried to help and him getting stuck in the mud symbolized the problems that resulted when he tried to help people out...and of course, the exwife was where she always was, standing on the side just ready to rub salt into his wounds....well, this is all for fun...and just my personal opinion...hope it helps someone understand dreams a little more....Kathy
22 - jadester
sometimes, though, i find dreams can be caused/affected by eating. i.e. if you eat certain foods within a certain amount of time before you go to sleep (the time depends on the food and may even be entirely different for each person, ditto which foods exactly) it affects your dreams. example? often, if i have too much of some spices even a few hours before i go to sleep, i will not only find it difficult to actually get to sleep, but when i do, i usually have strange dreams. It doesn't happen often as i don't alot of very spicy food, so i haven't actually noted which spices etc. cause it. But it DOES happen. Also the indigestion thing - i've had dreams where i either had a chestburster (yeah i've seen alien) or my chest/stomach was getting crushed, and woken up with bad indigestion. Again, doesn't happen often (i don't often have indigestion) but it DOES happen.
The brain is truly a strange place, especially when we're asleep...
23 - sheri
Im not disagreeing that spicy food could cause weird dreams...but I dont eat that much spicy food, and yesterday I had chicken and potatoes about 4 hrs b4 going to bed. But I dreamed that I was talking to this woman who was about to get on a horse. She was familiar to me in my dream, yet I have never seen her in real life and I woke up with a chant in my head..."goodbye horse goodbye" over and over.The recurring theme was the mysterious house but this time I felt like I couldnt enter it.
24 - Eric Olsen
There is also the theory that dreams don't necessarily relfect upon real life but are a venue for working out problems and issues so that you don't have to deal with them directly in real life.
25 - Mark Saleski
so when i had the dream about Jerry Garcia playing hoop with the los angeles lakers, what issues were being worked out in my gray matter?
huh?