Dreams

Dreams are the images, thoughts and feelings experienced while asleep, particularly strongly associated with rapid eye movement. Considered the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) revolutionized the study of dreams with his work "The Interpretation Of Dreams". Freud began to analyze dreams in order to understand aspects of personality as they relate to pathology. He believed that nothing we did occurred by chance; every action and thought is motivated by our unconscious at some level. In order to live in a civilized society, we tend to hold back or repress our urges and impulses. However, these urges and impulses must be released in some way and have a way of coming to the surface in disguised forms. One way these urges and impulses are released is through our dreams.
Why dream? Dreams are the only time certain brain activities take place. We need to dream - that is why sleep deprivation is so dangerous. Dreams and the resulting theta waves they create sort out our memories, help us form new opinions, learn new tasks and update our emotional outlook. These activities only take place during sleep allowing all neuronal gates to open up. Research has shown that people who are deprived from entering the dream phase of sleep (i.e. REM stage) exhibit symptoms of irritability and anxiety. Dreams contribute to our well-being and health. Some researchers believe that dreams help us tackle stress. It is clear that dreaming help recharge the mind and revitalize the body. Dreaming is a necessity.

Importance of dreams:
Go to sleep on a problem: Dreams help us sort out our emotions. If you don't believe me then think.... how many times have you gone to sleep with an emotional problem on your mind... and when you wake up that problem has gone entirely.
Analyze your thoughts not your dream: Instead of analyzing your dream try looking at what you thought, what you saw, the arguments you had and the things you learnt the day before the dream. Your dream is very likely to be about one of those. So look for clues. If there was only one emotional issue on your mind and the dream seems about emotion then you are virtually home and dry. Then look for some, more clues to connect the two together. Its a simple and very effective method.
Dreams are just thoughts on issues in our lives: actually dreams are just thoughts like other thoughts... its just that they are written in this strange language of association that the dream mind uses.... anything you think about gets an airing here... especially conceptual thinking and emotional thinking.
The same dream twice: Often you will get the same dream twice in the same night but with a different outcome. This is because dreams are about difficult subjects in your life. They are about subjects which one minute you may decide one course of action and the next minute a completely different way. Such dreams are weighing up the big issues in your lives. They are about issues of trust. Do you trust someone? Or don't you trust them? Think of issues like that... dreams are where such debates are played out.

Little know facts about dreams:
1. Since we sleep about a third of our lives, it's no wonder we experience so many dreams. In fact, many people dream one to two hours every night. And, dreams aren't limited to just one a night. You can have anywhere between four and twenty dreams in a single night! So, in an average lifetime, there is a lot of imagery going on in our heads while we're asleep!!!!
2. Another little known fact about dreams is that babies can have as much as 8 hours of REM sleep every day. Young kids dream about half the time they're asleep. Kids start having bad dreams, or nightmares, when they're around three. These can last until they reach the age of seven or eight. Adults dream about 20% of the night, while senior citizens only dream about 15%.
Did you know????
1. The word dream is derived from dreme. Dreme stands for joy and music.
2. Approximately half content of dream is forgotten, if you are recalling after five minutes of its completion and nearly 90% of it is forgotten if you are recalling it after ten minutes.
3. It is interesting to know that men dream more about their own gender as compared to women. On the other hand, women dream equally about both men and women.
4. Kids up to the age of 3 and 4 never dream about themselves.
5. If you don't have adequate dream activity then it signifies lack of protein.
6. Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts - did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces - they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? The evil killer in your latest dream may be the guy who pumped petrol in to your Dad's car when you were just a little kid. We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.
7. Believe it or not, your body is virtually paralyzed during your sleep - most likely to prevent your body from acting out aspects of your dreams. Glands begin to secrete a hormone that helps induce sleep and neurons send signals to the spinal cord, which cause the body to relax and later become essentially paralyzed.

Some symbols and their meaning:
Attic - Secret or hidden thoughts or memories and discovery of the same. Knowledge that is special is being unveiled, your connection to the Higher Self.
Bear - Friendly: Support and consoling. Unfriendly: Threatening situation or circumstances from powerful sources, groups or institutions.
Blood - A sign of life. Killing scene with blood: Enforces the notion that something has come to an end.
Cage - Restricted, encumbered, restrained, held away from the desired thing.
Cars - Cruising along, going somewhere, a journey. Out of control: Not in control of circumstances or of one self
Cry - Release of emotion not related to the action in the dream that caused the crying. Regaining emotional balance.
Driving - Making progress in getting/achieving the purpose.
Exam - Being put on the spot to prove oneself in ability, fidelity, loyalty, and truthfulness.
Illness - Being unable to perform the action desired. An excuse not to do something.
Island - Seeking a refuge away from life situation. Feeling displaced and isolated from everything.Monkey - One who is not under your control.
Quicksand - A trap from which one may not easily escape.
Sliding - Instills a sense of instability and tenuousness related to the subject involved.
Toilet - Trying to remove memory or stress from embarrassing situation.