Flyer

Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Health

Media Credit: Meghan Callahan

Sometimes, a dream might make sense. However, 90 percent of the time, individuals wake up in a groggy-eyed stupor-trying to decipher the series of random events that occupied the last few hours of their sleep.

Confusing and unpredictable as dreams are, most people are likely to believe that they don't mean anything-that dreams are just a purposeless jumble of thoughts and images stored away in the subconscious. However, new science suggests that dreams may be much more useful.

According to a MSNBC Health article, experts believe that dreams are valuable to one's mental health. Dreams can supply individuals with insight that can help heal emotional stress and trauma. This enables people to sleep better, making them feel happier throughout the day and able to answer "nagging" questions about their lives that they can't simply figure out during the daytime hours.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, humans spend more than two hours dreaming each night, with the most vivid dreams occurring during REM sleep. Sleep studies show that brain activity is heightened during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

How are dreams full of such insightful information? Thoughts that occur while sleeping might mingle recent events, buried memories, hopes and fears. This combination of random thoughts forms neural connections in one's sleep that might never be made through conscious thought alone.

New brain scan studies show that the regions of your brain that process memories and emotions while awake are the same regions that are active during dreaming. Therefore, dreams help individuals work through unresolved emotions from waking life. Revisiting these emotions and events through sleep can help reshape one's understanding of real-life events.

But being able to profit from the insights of dreams requires a few strategies.

One tip is to wake up slowly. Many people forget their dream shortly after awakening. All it takes is a few minutes for the conscious mind to wipe it out entirely. Waking up slowly prevents images from slipping away. Keeping a journal next to bed where an individual can record words, pictures or anything involved in a dream can help form patterns over time-from dream to dream.

It is also important not to take dreams too literally. For example, a dream about becoming pregnant is not a prediction of an upcoming pregnancy. However, it could be a prediction that a change is coming your way. A straightforward interpretation of a dream is rarely correct, so take the time to examine many possibilities.

Some Lewis students are skeptical of the mental health benefits of dreams. "It's debatable," said sophomore Luke Pavlakovich. "When you dream, it's pure chance when it works out that way, but it definitely helps when it happens."

Senior Ryan Mulcahey said, "I can't say I've experienced it a lot. I've maybe only had one or two insightful dreams, but I think they can help you work out stuff in your real life."

It seems students believe dreaming-life may help you figure out your waking-life. If it is difficult to decode a dream, individuals should place his or herself in that dream after waking.

Some experts, like Sigmund Freud, believe that individuals embody every character in their dreams. Chances are, one of the characters or objects in a dream is likely to represent that individual. Since everyone is unique, question what role each character plays in a dream--it may uncover specific emotions.

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