What Dreams Mean
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, but they have been a topic of scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and religious interest throughout recorded history. The scientific study of dreams is called Oneirology. Scientists believe that, in addition to humans, birds and other mammals also dream.
Dreams mainly occur in the phase of rapid eye movement sleep when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. REM sleep is characterized by continuous movements of the eyes during sleep. Sometimes, dreams may occur during other stages of sleep. However, these dreams tend to be much less vivid or memorable.
Dreams can last for a few seconds, or as long as twenty minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during REM sleep. The average person has three to five dreams per night, but some can be up to seven dreams in one night. Dreams tend to last longer than the night progress. During a full night's sleep eight hours, two hours of dream that it is spent.
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In modern times, dreams were seen as a connection to the unconscious. They range from normal and ordinary too surreal and strange. Dreams can have different natures, as frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual. Events in dreams are generally outside the control of the dreamer, with the exception of lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is self-aware. Dreams can sometimes make a creative thought occur to the person or give a sense of inspiration.
Opinion on the meaning of dreams have varied and shifted through time and culture. Interpretation of dreams dating back to 5000-4000 BC. The earliest recorded dreams were acquired from materials dating back approximately 5000 years, in Mesopotamia, where they were documented on clay tablets. In the Greek and Roman periods, the people believed that dreams are messages from the gods or from the dead, and they predicted the future. Some cultures practiced dream incubation with the intention of cultivating dreams that are prophetic.
Sigmund Freud, who developed the discipline of psychoanalysis, wrote extensively on the theories and interpretations of dreams. He explained dreams as manifestations of our deepest desires and anxieties, often relating to repressed childhood memories or obsessions. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud developed a psychological technique to interpret dreams and devised a series of guidelines to understand the symbols and motifs that appear in our dreams
