Dreams meaning

When we have had a strange dream, who more and who less, has opened a dream interpretation book to help him unravel its meaning. Although some people believe that dreams do not have any transcendence, Sigmund Freud argues that during our dream unconscious is freed, with which they can help us in moments of existential crisis or emotional problems to take decisions.

So that you can know what what you have dreamed of means, in this Psychology-Online article, we present the meaning of dreams with guidelines for their interpretation.

Index

1. The meaning of dreams
2. The interpretation of dreams
3. Guidelines for dream interpretation
4. The meaning of recurring dreams
5. Meaning of recurring dreams
6. Do we dream in color or black and white?

Dreams are the activity of the mind while we sleep. But do dreams have meaning in real life? Do they have to do with reality? Many of the dreams we have have a reflection and connection with reality

The mind is very complex. This is one of the reasons why we should not only try to live our life but also our dreams, without trying to make a millimeter analysis of every detail. Among other things, because just as with the passage of time, our memory distorts what we have experienced, we don't remember dreams exactly either as they were. In fact, at many times we completely ignore them.

Just as when we are awake and a certain evocation arises that reminds us of a part of the past, for example, when we visit a place where we find bits of our own history, in the same way, when you dream about your ex you can experience some nostalgia for the past in a totally natural way because mental images produce emotions. Even more so when they surprise us in an act as everyday as sleep, where the will does not intervene in the development of that dream. Here you will find more information about the meaning of dreams according to Sigmund Freud.

We do not always remember what we have dreamed of during the night, however, the reality is that those experiences of the unconscious also have a more important psychic effect than it seems at first glance in certain moments. Do you have to pay attention to dreams? Dreams can have a meaning for you depending on the interpretation that you grant them.

• For example, it can be special to dream of a relative who has died. It is like a way of being able to enjoy his living presence in a different way. On the other hand, it also happens in the opposite case that when having a nightmare, there is always a trace of bitter feeling on the mind. And the thing is, dreams are so unique that they do not leave you indifferent.

Dreams can even be an escape from a bitter reality just like a good book. A space to experience certain things in a different dimension. Undoubtedly, there are many differences between a dream and a good book, and that is that what you dream does not depend on your will. Perhaps for this reason, a beautiful dream is even more magical insofar as it surprises you without you realizing it.

The meaning of dreams is not an exact science so knowledge is required to learn how to interpret them. The difficulty we have when working with dreams is that its content is symbolic and rarely explicit, which means that they must be interpreted to fully understand their meaning.

According to dream interpretation manuals, a series of guidelines are followed to interpret dreams in psychology:

• Most detailed description possible of the dream that has been had.
• Generation of associations: through it, the person who analyzes the dream associates it with all the ideas that come to mind, without censorship, until one has the feeling that the content of the dream has been revealed.

In psychological practice the interpretation of dreams is used when the patient gives them great importance or when a recurring nightmare occurs that has a great impact on the life of the patient. In order to interpret them, the first thing to do is remember them, since one of the great problems of dreams is that their details are forgotten when waking up.

To do this, we must, before going to sleep, mentally repeat that we are going to remember the dreams. When we wake up, we will stay in bed concentrating on the details of the dream, for later write them immediately, whatever memory remains of them.

There are also therapies that allow you to change the course of dreams. For example, RISC therapy It allows the patient to recognize that he is in the middle of a nightmare, to identify why he feels bad and to be able to change the argument of it within the dream.

Dreams are an interpretation that our brain makes both of our conscious world, that is, the reality that we live and to that we face every day, as from our unconscious world, which includes our desires, manifested or not, fears, hopes, etc. There are a series of dreams that are common to all of us. Next we will see one by one the meaning of the most frequent dreams and how they can be interpreted based on their variables.

Dream of death

Although we usually interpret this dream as something negative, what our brain is expressing is a desire for change, especially when we dream of our own death. In this case, we want to change some area of ​​our life because we are not satisfied with it. A dream that is common to 48% of us.

Dream that you fall

Freefalling into the abyss is such an agonizing dream that it often startles us to the point of waking up, and we can even notice how our body jumps to avoid the fall. It is a dream that usually occurs when we are sleeping and, according to experts, is related to the relaxation that occurs in our muscles before entering the deep phase of the dream (REM phase). It seems to be a resource that our brain developed when we lived in the wild to return to consciousness if danger threatened.

Dream about snakes

According to the theories of dream interpretation, dreaming of snakes or other elongated elements may be related to a sex drive repressed or satisfied. There are different types of snakes and the actions and emotions that appear in the dream must also be taken into account in order to make a more accurate interpretation. In the following article you will find more information about the meaning of dreaming about snakes.

Dream that you are pregnant

Another of the most dreamed of events is pregnancy. The interpretation of dreaming about a pregnancy will depend on many factors addressed in an article dedicated to it: here you will find everything about it meaning of dreaming that you are pregnant. But, broadly speaking, dreaming of your own pregnancy can be related to the desire to be a mother or the desire to make big changes in your life, reach new goals or start new projects.

Dreaming that your teeth are falling out

One of the most frequent dreams. Dreaming that your teeth are falling out is related to insecurity, fragility, fears and concerns. However, its interpretation may vary depending on the circumstances of the dream. Depending on whether it is a top tooth, a fang, or even all teeth. To know the interpretation of each case, you can read here the meaning of dreaming that a tooth falls out.

Dream about cats

In general, the meaning of dreams about cats is related to intuition and confidence. However, it is not the same to dream of black cats, as it is to dream of white cats, baby cats or cats that attack you. Here you can see specified the meaning of dreaming about cats according to their attitude and their characteristics.

Dreaming about your ex boyfriend / girlfriend

The importance of the meaning of dreams is conditioned by one's own subjectivity. That is to say, while when a person dreams of her ex, they are thoughtful about what she can mean this data, on the contrary, many others do not give a greater importance than the anecdotal of the situation. That is to say, it is a mistake to believe by way of cause and effect that because a person has dreamed of her ex, she is still in love. In many cases, this may be due to specific circumstances that have caused the memory of that person to have sprung up for some reason. For example, the coincidence of a chance meeting on the street.

Dreaming about your ex can mean, in a way, that you keep a good memory of that stage. Or even, that you are healing the wound of heartbreak, especially if upon waking up you experience tranquility. Dreaming about your ex can even be a symptom of a personal change, that is, you should not necessarily interpret that you are still linked to yesterday. In fact, it sometimes happens that when a person is about to take an important step in his life, for For example, about to live a new love, a certain memory of the past arises because it is the reference for that Present.

On the other hand, we should not analyze the meaning of a dream in absolute terms either. For example, that you dream of your ex and that you wake up with a feeling of nostalgia does not have to mean that you are still in love, but perhaps, there is a part of you that miss that feeling of feeling wanted as in that moment or that youthful experience of that stage.

What is truly decisive meaning of dreaming about your ex It is not so much this reverie in itself as the frequency with which this fact occurs and even more important, the type of emotions you experience when you wake up. That is, do not only interpret the meaning of the dream in its isolated entity, but you can put it in connection with your own life. For example, a person who is still in love with her ex can suffer a lot if she experiences these types of dreams in a way habitually and upon awakening, he becomes aware of the mirage of those reveries and suffers because that is when the yearning.

Surely you have had a dream that repeats over and over again. Sometimes it is a dream in which all the details are familiar to you, the events and the places where they happen are identical and the sequence of the same as well. On other occasions, although the scenarios are not the same, there is an event or an experience that is repeated in the dream, in a thousand ways, but that is familiar to us over and over again.

Why do dreams repeat themselves?

The frequency with which it is repeated can vary. Sometimes we dream them daily, at other times a few times a week, a month, etc. Whatever their periodicity, the theme is repeated over and over again. Sometimes these dreams are positive and make us feel good, but most of the time the recurring dreams are nightmares. When they are very recurrent or unpleasant, they can even cause insomnia, because you are afraid of fall asleep and have the dream again, especially when the experiences we have in it are very vivid.

Usually these dreams they respond to a conflict that we have not solved, a fear or a situation that we do not know how to handle. The recurrence of the dream is due to the fact that our unconscious wants us to pay attention to that conflict in order to solve it, surely because it is limiting us in our daily life, or is causing us suffering extra.

What does it mean?

To know what the dream is telling us, the first thing we must remember is that our unconscious communicates with symbols, and the conflict may not be with those who appear in the dream or in the place where the dream is develops. We must concentrate on the symbols and not on the emotions and we must try to interpret them without thinking too much, that is, rescuing the intuitive interpretation of Dreams. Once we discover the meaning, the dream will disappear.

If most of us have a hard time remembering what we dreamed of when we were woken up, surely It would be even more difficult for us to answer if we were asked if what we have dreamed was in black and white or in Colour. Even when images are very vivid in memory, we cannot confidently answer, so we can wonder if we regularly dream in black and white or in color.

When in the mid-twenties Freud asked his patients if they dreamed in colors or black and white, they opted for the second option, which was, to say the least, curious, as the most common is to dream in color, but not always.

If we dream in colors, the dream can occur either in a single color or with the same colors that objects have in reality. According to the researchers, the choice of colors our brain makes while we dream it is not fortuitous, since these also have a great symbolic component when they appear in the dream, often related to the emotional state that we experience during the dream. Therefore, they can be an additional help when we interpret them.

• Blue. If we dream of blue objects, this symbolizes that we feel calm, serene and happy.
• Yellow. Dreaming of yellow objects transmits to us that we trust ourselves and our possibilities, although we are aware of the obstacles that may lie along the way.
• White. If we dream in white it indicates that we are trustworthy, while we feel full of energy.
• Gray. If, on the other hand, our dreams turn gray, it indicates that we are in a period of change and transition. If the gray is dark, it indicates that we feel scared by the consequences of this change.
• Black. Dreaming in black can change the meaning of dreams and indicate that we are immersed in a period of conflict with family and friends.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Interpretation dreams meaning, we recommend that you enter our category of Dreams meaning.

• Borges, J. L. (2013). Dream book. Debols! Llo.
• Freud, S. (1981). The use of dream interpretation in psychoanalysis (Vol. 2096). NoBooks Editorial.
• Freud, S. (2019). The interpretation of dreams. Editorial Verbum.
• Freud, S., and de Torres, L. L. B., & Ardid, R. R. (1972). New contributions to the interpretation of dreams. Alliance.