Are dreams related to real life ?

Zargawee

Hello,
I Always wondered are dreams related to life , becuase some says that what you dream of in your sleep , is some kind of a reflection of your inner mind thoughts.
Inner mind thoughts comes from the real life , so when something has to do with it , then it's related to real life.

So ... Are Dreams related to real life ?

sir-pinski

I've always found that when I'm stressed I dream a lot more than usual. The dreams also contain elements of what I'm stressed about. I've had it a lot over the last few years and I'm fairly sure this is the case (at least with me)

megashawn

I can't remember the last time I had a dream. I think I sleep to deeply to remember or care.

If my mind is holding out on me, and will only tell me when I'm asleep, I'd have to say thats kinda stupid.

DR OF DEATH

after studying a number of books on the subconcious, dream meanings and so on it seems that the current theory is that dreams are indirectly linked to real life, however this does not mean that if you dream of being attacked it will happen, it means that you feel your opinions or beliefs are being attacked or put down in some way. so yes dreams and real life are connected but just in a non-obvious way with indirect meanings[zz)]

GlamGein

dreams are related to real life. For instance, if you are feeling anxious, you will likely have a dream in which you are anxious about something, like the dream where you show up naked to school.
Also, different drugs can affect your dreams. The nicotene patch ( I dont know the actual name of the drug)can cause bad dreams.
I wonder if your emotional state affects your brain chemistry, ie, seratonin levels, which affects the kinds of dreams you have.

Ivan Seeking

As I remember, it is found that random electrical signals are produced in the spinal cord when we sleep. These stimuli are thought by some to cause signals to the brain which are then incorporated with memory as a dream. The mind tries to make sense and a story out of these random elements. This creates the non-linear and random aspects of dreaming. e.g. "I was here and then suddenly somewhere else but it all seemed normal..." Of course, if true this may still only represent one aspect of dreams. I have solved a number of elusive problems in dreams – for school, work, and other real applications. It can’t all be random.

Sting

I've noticed dreaming more when I'm under a lot of stress as well. But as to your connections between dreams and real life, there just could be one.

Usually it's been a case (and I'm sure there are others out there as well) that will have dreams that are sort of amalgams of things and ideas witness throughout that day. For instance, I was watching this Hindi romance movie (don't ask me why, I just did) and I was reading a book on set theory and listening to a lot of Pink Floyd that day. In my dream in the early morning, guess what I dreamt about? There was this really pretty Indian woman waiting for her lover at a cafe. While she was waiting she and I were talking about Russell's Paradox and Pink Floyd's "Money" was playing in the background.

Strange, but it backs my point. [:)]

Ivan Seeking

Now that's enough to create some real nightmares! [8)]

LogicalAtheist

I thought that, while this is in a forum that I won't be posting in, I'd answer since in fact the pursuit of understanding dreams is VERY scientific.

I have in the past done a great deal of manual work studying sleep and dreams. I think this is perhaps the topic that has the most pseudo-science obstructing how much is truly known about it sceintifically.

I could provide literally hundreds of pages of my original information, but I'll sum it up here:

When one is awake, ones brain is being used. When ones senses are bringing in no (or extremely little) stimulus, ones brain is still using many areas that are NOT related to senses. This leads to the fact that ones brain does things other than process sensory stimuli.

We could call those, thoughts.

When one is asleep, the areas of the brain which "sleep" and ones that stay "awake" vary from normal waking states. However, the brain still, with no stimulus, continues to "think".

The simplistic deduction is that these process are similiar, but being warped by using different brain parts. However ones memory (short or long term) are in use at both of these times.

This would provide evidence that memories are involved in waking thoughts and sleeping thoughts.

There is a breach between this and my conclusion, which contains mountains of neurological work.

COnslusion - I have come to accept that dreams are thoughts like those when we are awake. The changing in brain activity provides a different ability in how our memories occur.

For instance you can "almost" here your mothers voice when she's not around, if you try to recall it.

Changes which occur allow you to hear, and to see her, in your dreams. However, it's still "almost".

Furthermore, we don't just replay memories like a video. We can still evaluate them in our sleep like in our waking thoughts.

In other words, to sum this all up dreams are to sleep what thoughts are to wake.

Occam's razor results in the same answer as all the neurological workup.

Ivan Seeking

A little information about dreaming:

Filing memories

maximus

dreams are subconcious repurcussions of what happened in your life. haven't you ever noticed that when something very odd or memorablle happened in the day, that your dreams follow along a similar line?

Raven

Like others who posted here, I usually dream when I'm stressed or anxious. My dreams tend to be about the things I'm stressed about or have been stressed about and for some reason the dreams may calm me down and help me feel better in the morning.

For example if I was stressed about giving a presentation in the next day, I may be dreaming about it the previous night -- going over my speech and imagining people's reactions. In a way it's like practicing in my sleep.

I've also learned that when I have difficult problems to solve and seem stuck with no answers or simply going in circles with trying to look for an answer, I may take a nap and discover an answer in my own dreams.

I guess the saying "sleep on it" applies here.

Bacus367

I've realized, long time ago, dreams are really related to real life. And I made an experiment about that too. It is very easy so that you can try yourselves. I've concentrated to a specific subject just before I went to sleep (while still laying on the bed and right before fall asleep) and I had a dream about that specific subject. I repeated that several times and all were successful. Try and write me the results at bacus_a@hotmail.com

Dx

Anyone ever been so tired it felt as if you blinked and it was morning? I use to do that alot when I was younger but not anymore.
dx

Dave

Never done the blinking thing.
I find my dreams motivate me to study etc. I'll have a dream where I don't know any answers in a test and that'll make me think: shi*, I need to study...!

Ivan Seeking

When I was a younger stud, I once worked 36 hours, slept 5, and worked 32. When driving home on the 10 mile stretch of freeway between my home to the hospital, I fell asleep 5 or 6 times. I would be driving along thinking everything was OK, and then for some reason I would hear this loud buzzing noise. Everytime this happend, I realized my eyes were closed and I was sleeping. [g)]

CubeX

Yeah, you dream ALL the time (or so I've been learned - :P ). It's just rare that you remember what you dream. But dreams are usually caused by the emotions that life causes you to experience. You seem to remember them more when they are set around stressful occasions. Like promotions, divorces, graduation, loneliness, depression.

Some people who can interpret dreams (at least the best they can) can relate them to people's lives and explain to them what they mean. And that's usually going to be the way you truely feel about the situation it's based upon.

-CubeX