You're plummeting naked from an airplane after failing an important test. Your teeth are falling out and a dinosaur is chasing you. You awake suddenly, relieved it was just a dream.
We all dream, and while the scientific community may not agree if dreams really say something about you, many people believe they do.
The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) says dreams reflect your own underlying thoughts and feelings, and the people, actions, settings, and emotions in your dreams are personal to you. In other words, a flying dream may mean different things to different people. If you want to understand what your dreams say about you, think about the main elements of the dream and try to understand what they represent, or remind you of, and look for parallels to what is happening in your life.
According to Edgar Cayce, founder of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, our subconscious is aware of ourselves and our surroundings more than our waking self is. Cayce believed the purpose of dreams is to make us more consciously aware of what is going on in our lives, and that all dreams have the potential to help us.
The online site DreamMoods describes six common dream scenarios; you may recognize them from the hypothetical dream above: being naked or being chased, falling or flying, tests, and having your teeth crumble, rot, or fall out. If you're having these dreams, they most likely reflect personal anxieties, vulnerabilities, and insecurities.
Then there's the work nightmare. In an article on CareerBuilder.com, Lauri Loenwenburg, author of Dream On It, Unlock Your Dreams Change Your Life, says such nightmares happen when something in our walking life has gone on long enough and our inner self has had it. She describes it as a "slap in the face from our subconscious."
According to Loewenburg, work nightmares send specific messages. For example, the in-over-your-head dream means it's time to get rid of, or stop doing, what isn't working and perhaps start over, and the public humiliation dream means you can't change what's done, so take it as a lesson and move on. It seems dreams change with the times. Loewenburg says, "Facebook post dreams are beginning to replace the old naked dream."
You can make your dreams work for you. Be clear about what you want to accomplish before you sleep, and don't jump out of bed first thing in the morning; this is how you lose much of your dream content.
Sources:
Grazioplene, Rachael. "What Do Your Dreams Say About Who You Are?" Psychology Today. Web. 25 October 2011.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quilted-science/201110/what-do-your-dreams-say-about-who-you-are
Madden, Kaitlin. "What your nightmares are telling you about work." CareerBuilder.com. Web. 14 November 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/14/living/work-nightmares-cb/index.html
Lite, Jordan. "How Can You Control Your Dreams?" Scientific American. Web. 29 July 2010.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-control-dreams
DreamMoods.com. Web. http://www.dreammoods.com/
Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment. "The Edgar Cayce Readings Approach to Dreams." Web. http://www.edgarcayce.org/are/edgarcayce.aspx?id=2255
International Association for the Study of Dreams. "Common Questions About Dreams." Web.
