Do dreams mean something?

[Le bonheur*]

I've been having some weird dreams lately and everyone keeps telling me that it's "just a dream" and it doesn't mean anything but I think that it means something. What do you guys think? Do dreams really mean something?


You can move this if it's in the wrong place.

[Unicorn ♥✿]

Well, techniquely no. It's just our brains sorting infomation or something.

But people believe they mean something, there are plenty of dream interptation book and website

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/


Have a look

[Sincerely Yours ♥]

For me, it depends. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

[Fairy Poppins]

I was told that dreams are the manifestations of unconscious thoughts.

I often find that I dream about something which had briefly crossed my mind during that day, but that was soon put to "the back" of my mind. It obviously resurfaced whilst I was asleep.

Even when you have dreams that you can't pinpoint onto a waking thought, I still believe that they mean something. Sometimes we have things going on in our head that even we aren't aware of (e.g. a desire for something), so my advice is that just because your dreams don't make sense, don't assume that they don't have a meaning.

It can be frustrating trying to work out the meaning of dreams and you might feel that the process is sometimes impossible. If you can't work out the meaning straight away, perhaps write the dream down so that you don't forget it. You never know - one day you may be going about your daily life and something might happen which allows the previously weird dream to make sense. :]

[TheBabyEater]

It does in the sense that it tells us what we're thinking of. There are different stages of dreams, in stages, we're really just going through our day, repeating what happened, ext. We're unlikely to wake up and remember these dreams, but REM sleep is when the fun stuff happens. These are usually the dreams you remember.

There are multiple theories for why dreams happen. One is that it is nothing more than electrons firing off randomly, but this doesn't explain repetition in dreams to me. Another is the Freudian theory, that REM sleep is our subconscious trying to tell our conscious something, but this doesn't explain dreams that are just completely random or going over our dreams.

It's all up to interpretation. I think it's just nothing more than what we're thinking about creatively, similar to the Freudian theory. Humans are MUCH more creative than you think, so weird dreams aren't necessarily so weird. Just to our society.

[BECCALICIOUS!]

No.

Source: my college psychology professor.

[leavemealone]

Of course! Dreams are your minds interpretation of everyday life, that's why they usually don't make sense. Your imagination kind of flips it around to how you feel.

http://www.dreammoods.com/

Check out that website. I go on there when I have a weird dream, and it actually makes sense. Dreams aren't fantasy. Magical fairies don't appear at night and put dreams in your head. It's all YOU.

[BruceLeeDemarcus]

I think dreams do mean something. like if I have a bad day, I usually have a dream that could be considered bad. Good days I have happy dreams. Its like what ever happens to me, I will get a dream like that.

[PutYourHeartsUp]

I think they have meaning if you give them meaning.
I've been dreaming of things that scare me, or things I'd like to happen. Obviously the meaning there is that I want those things to happen, or I'm afraid

[Turtle760]

Dreams are just your subconscious mind sorting through all of the things that have recently happened or that you have recently been thinking about. Its just your brain's way of precessing everything in the world.

[Nicole!]

I hear that its just images in your head. Events that have happened can sometime trigger what you dream about, but it doesn't mean anything.

[Iris. ♥]

I've always looked at dreams as a reflection of your subconscious. It's not always literal, so don't be too worried about that. But, they do reflect your emotions and can symbolize the things that are on your mind. Your brain organizes a lot of things while you sleep, so certain things might be coming to the surface and being displayed in strange ways. Don't stress over it too much.

[witchita]

Heyy
Dreams tend to link with something you are thinking about. Like if you have an exam coming up and you havent revised, you may have dreams based on presure and stress. There are so many different meanings to dreams as many peoples dreams are similar messaged though differently put across.
Many websites such as http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/ tell you main symbols about your dream. Its pretty interesting if you would like to check it out more deeply.
The most symbolic dream to me has been a dream where I was at a funeral. And when I woke up the next day I was told I had a new niece. Death in a dream means new life.

W XXX

[Ghost On The Highway]

I think they can be meaningful, though more in a thematic sense than literally. My dreams often have violent/sexual undertones which are never overtly expressed (as in, no one dies or has sex). In my opinion, these themes reflect my history of repressing sexual desires, needing to feel in control, and not coping with anger in a healthy manner.

The dreams themselves? Not so much. The other night I got in a "dream fight" with a cashier over the price of a cream cheese muffin. I don't even eat muffins. Perhaps I'm repressing some basic, instinctual desire to consume high-calorie breakfast foods, but I find it unlikely.

[I'm-moving-on]

I don't know if they mean anything, but I'm just going to hope not.

[tetrahedron]

I would advise anyone interested in the meaning of dreams to read Carl Jung on that subject as he goes into it on a very deep level.

[Apple Orchard Ghost]

Sometimes they can, I've heard that if you have a recurring dream, it's your subconscious trying to tell you something about yourself that you're not realizing on your own. Weird dreams can just be weird dreams though, like my boyfriend's dream that there was a lady following him around walmart trying to sell him sweet tea.

[Le bonheur*]

What about if someone dreams about memories of their past? Does that mean they're fearing that certain things would happen again, or is it just thinking too much?

[Cosmo]

I believe it's one of a few things.

Either it's your brain rewinding and making sense of the day's memories
Your imagination just going crazy with nothing to do
Metaphors etc. for your future

I'm open to any of them, but I find the third harder to believe.

[_sunsets64.]

maybe it's because you're feeling a lot of the same emotions as you were during those memories, or that you want to feel the way you did in those memories. there's definitely a connection between those memories and whatever your everyday life includes, and i think your subconscious is trying to get you to understand what that connection is, and why it's important/relevant.

[craz33me]

Kinda like I had a dream about talking cars trying to kill me.
I'm pretty sure that was a worthless dream. :P